DUYSENS is known, among other discoveries, for demonstrating excitation energy transfer from antenna pigments to reaction centers in many photosynthetic systems; for showing absorption changes in the reaction center bacteriochlorophyll molecules; for the "push-pull" effect on the redox state of cytochrome f by photosystems II and I, respectively , and, thus establishing the "Z"- scheme of photosynthesis (with J. Amesz); for the concept that the oxidized form of the "primary" electron acceptor of photosystem II, Qa, is a quencher of chlorophyll a fluorescence.
SEE: L.N.M. Duysens (1989) The discovery of the two photosynthetic systems: a personal account. Photosynth Res. 21: 61-79.
EMERSON
is known, among many discoveries,
for establishing the concept of "photosynthetic unit" in photosynthesis
(with Arnold); for establishing that the minimum quantum yield of oxygen
evolution is 8-10 quanta per oxygen evolved (with C.M. Lewis and others);
and for the existence of two-light reaction and two-photosystem concept
of photosynthesis through his discoveries of the "Red Drop" (with Lewis)
and the ( Emerson) Enhancement effect in photosynthesis.
SEE: E. Rabinowitch (1959) Robert Emerson 1903-1959. Plant Physiol.
34: 179-184; Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences of
the United States, 35: 112-131.
FRENCH
is known, among many discoveries,
for establishing and naming the "chloroplast reaction", the "Hill reaction";
for the existence of excitation energy transfer from phycoerythrin to chlorophyll
a ; for the existence of several spectral forms of chlorophyll a in vivo;
and for the innovation of the so-called "French press", among many other
instruments.
SEE: C.S. French (1979) Fifty years of photosynthesis. Ann. Rev. Plant
Physiol. 30 : 1 -26. ALSO, WATCH for a Tribute writtten by D.C. Fork, to
appear in Photosynth. Res. in 1996.
RABINOWITCH
is known as the "prophet" and the writer of the "Bible of Photosynthesis
"; for the first use of a "difference absorption spectrophotometer" in
any field; for the proposal of a scheme of photosynthesis that looks very
much like the current "Z" scheme of photosynthesis (1945); for predicting
the reaction center of photosystem II "P-680" (1965) before its discovery;
for proposing that one light reaction oxidizes cytochrome f and the other
reduces it predicting the experimental evidence for the "Z" scheme already
in 1956; for the first correct measurements on the quantum yield of fluorescence
in vivo (with P. Latimer); and for the first measurements on the lifetime
of fluorescence ( with S. Brody), and for establishing (with Govindjee)
that both light reactions of photosynthesis are sensitized by chlorophyll
a, but of different spectral form, and for the demonstration of the two-light
effect (with Govindjee) through antagonistic effect of different wavelengths
of light on chlorophyll a fluorescence.
SEE: E. Rabinowitch (1945) Photosynthesis, volume I, p. 162 (Scheme
7.V); and (1956) Photosynthesis, volume II, part II, p. 1862, Interscience
Publishers, N.Y.; E. Rabinowitch and Govindjee ( 1965) The role of chlorophyll
in photosynthesis. Scientific American 213: 74-83; T.T. Bannister (1972)
The careers and contributions of Eugene Rabinowitch. Biophys. J. 12: 707-718;
S.S. Brody (1995) We remember Eugene. Photosynth. Res. 43: 67-74.
OTTO WARBURG 1931 Nobel laureate
in Physiology and Medicine, from Berlin Germany. Died in 1970.
Send mail to Govindjee (gov@uiuc.edu)
Last page update: 18 September 1999
