Polanyi Garners Herzberg Canada Gold Medal

John C. Polanyi, Nobel Laureate and University Professor of Chemistry at the University of Toronto, is the winner of the Gerhard Herzberg Canada Gold Medal for Science & Engineering. Considered Canada's most prestigious science prize, the medal celebrates that country's top scientists and engineers and aims to raise public awareness of their contributions to international science and technology.

Polanyi will receive $1 million over five years from the Natural Sciences & Engineering Research Council of Canada, which sponsors the award, for his research on the molecular motions in chemical reactions in gases and at surfaces.

In 1986, Polanyi was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Dudley R. Herschbach of Harvard University and Yuan T. Lee of the University of California, Berkeley, for their contributions to the understanding of the dynamics of chemical elementary processes. His other honors include being named an officer, and then a companion, of the Order of Canada, a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and a fellow of the Royal Society of London. He is a founding member of both the Committee on Scholarly Freedom of the Royal Society of Canada and the Canadian Committee for Scientists & Scholars.