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Author: genhuntress19
Surnames: Stanley, Staples, Plessinger
Classification: biography
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Biography
Stanley was born in Ridgeville, Indiana, and earned a BS in Chemistry at Earlham College
in Richmond, Indiana. He then studied at the University of Illinois, gaining an MS in
science in 1927 followed by a Ph.D. in chemistry two years later. His later
accomplishments include writing the book "Chemistry: A Beautiful Thing" and
achieving his high stature as a Pulitzer Prize nominee.
Research
As a member of National Research Council he moved temporarily for academic work with
Heinrich Wieland in Munich before he returned to the States in 1931. On return he was
approved as an assistant at Rockefeller Institute, the post he held until 1948. He later
became Professor of Biochemistry at University of California, Berkeley, .
Stanley's work contributed to on lepracidal compounds, diphenyl stereochemistry and
the chemistry of the sterols. His researches on the virus causing the mosaic disease in
tobacco plants led to the isolation of a nucleoprotein which displayed tobacco mosaic
virus activity.
Stanley was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 1946. His other notable awards
included the Rosenburger Medal, Alder Prize, Scott Award, and the AMA Scientific
Achievement Award. He was also awarded honorary degrees by many universities both American
and foreign, including Harvard, Yale, Princeton and the University of Paris. Most of the
conclusions Stanley had presented in his Nobel-winning research were soon shown to be
incorrect (in particular, that the crystals of mosaic virus he had isolated were pure
protein, and assembled by autocatalysis).[2] [3]
Personal life
Stanley married Marian Staples in 1929 and had three daughters (Marjorie, Dorothy and
Janet), and a son, Wendell M. Junior. Stanley Hall at UC Berkeley (now Stanley Biosciences
and Bioengineering Facility) and Stanley Hall at Earlham College are named in his honor.
Background on Wendell and his Parents James and Claire Stanley
Wendell Meredith Stanley was born in Ridgeville, Indiana on August 16, 1904. His parents,
James G. and Claire (Plessinger) Stanley, published two local newspapers, the Ridgeville
News and the Union City Eagle. When his father died in 1920, the Stanleys moved to
Richmond, Indiana where Wendell graduated from Richmond High School in 1922. He attended
Earlham College, where an ancestor had donated ground for the college with the provison
that all bearing the Stanley name should be given special consideration.
References
^ Colvig, R (February 1972). "Wendell M, STANLEY, PhD, (1905-1971)". Cancer 29
(2): 541-2. doi:10.1002/1097-0142(197202)29:2<541::AID-CNCR2820290246>3.0.CO;2-T.
PMID 4552137.
^ Pennazio, S; Roggero P (2000). "The discovery of the chemical nature of tobacco
mosaic virus". Riv. Biol. 93 (2): 253-81. PMID 11048483.
^ Kay, L E (September 1986). "W. M. Stanley's crystallization of the tobacco
mosaic virus, 1930-1940". Isis; an international review devoted to the history of
science and its cultural influences 77 (288): 450-72. doi:10.1086/354205. PMID 3533840.
External links
Wendell's Nobel Foundation biography
Wendell's Nobel Lecture The Isolation and Properties of Crystalline Tobacco Mosaic
Virus
Wendell Meredith Stanley and the birth of biochemistry at UC Berkeley
Guide to the Wendell M. Stanley Papers at The Bancroft Library
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