Britton Chance

Britton Chance ForMemRS (July 24, 1913 – November 16, 2010) was the Eldridge Reeves Johnson University Professor Emeritus of Biochemistry and Biophysics, as well as Professor Emeritus of Physical Chemistry and Radiological Physics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.

For his son of the same name, see Britton Chance, Jr.
Britton Chance

FRS
Britton Chance (Ron Kroon, 1965)
Born(1913-07-24)July 24, 1913
Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania
DiedNovember 16, 2010(2010-11-16) (aged 97)
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
NationalityAmerican
Alma materUniversity of Pennsylvania (B.A) (1935)
University of Pennsylvania (M.A.) (1936)
University of Pennsylvania (Ph.D) (1940)
Cambridge University (Ph.D) (1942)
Known forEnzyme kinetics
Optical imaging
MRI
Spouse(s)Jane Earle Lindenmayer
(m. after 1938, unknown)
Lilian Streeter Lucas Chance
(m. after 1956, unknown)
Shoko Nioka
(m. after 2010, died)
ChildrenEleanor Chance
Britton Chance Jr.
Jan Chance
Peter Chance
Margaret Chance
Lilian Chance
Benjamin Chance
Samuel Chance
Ann Lucas Chance
Gerald B. Lucas Chance
A. Brooke Lucas Chance
William C. Lucas Chance
AwardsMember NAS (1952)
National Medal of Science (1974)
FRS (1981)
Scientific career
FieldsBiophysics
Biochemistry
InstitutionsUniversity of Pennsylvania USA, NCKU Taiwan
Medal record
Men's sailing
Representing the  United States
Olympic Games
1952 Helsinki 5.5 metre class
World Championship
1962 Poole5.5 metre class

He won a gold medal for the United States at the 1952 Summer Olympics in the 5½ Meter Class, alongside Edgar White and Sumner White.[1]

Early life and education

Chance was born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. He received a B.A. (1935), M.A. (1936), and Ph.D. degree in physical chemistry (1940) at the University of Pennsylvania, where he was a member of St. Anthony Hall.

Chance earned a second Ph.D. at Cambridge University in 1942 in Biology/Physiology.

Career

Chance obtained his bachelor's degree in chemistry and in 1940 his Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania. As a graduate student he developed a microflow version of a stopped-flow apparatus. During World War II, Chance worked for the Radiation Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology which was working on the development of radar. Despite his relative youth, he became a group leader and, later. During that time, he also invented a “ground position indicator” to allow more accurate bombing. For this work he was awarded the President’s Certificate of Merit in 1950.

Part of his work on flow apparatus was done in England in collaboration with the scientists who had devised the continuous-flow method for studying the binding of oxygen to hemoglobin,[2] and in 1952 he received his D.Sc. from Cambridge.

His research interests were diverse. He was promoted as the professor of biophysics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and appointed the second director of the Eldridge Reeves Johnson Foundation for Research in Medical Physics, a position he held until 1983.[3] He was then appointed E. R. Johnson Professor of Biophysics and Physical Biochemistry (later renamed as Biochemistry and Biophysics) in 1964 and University Professor in 1977.

He was visiting distinguished chair professor at National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan, from 2009 - 2010.[4]

He died in the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia in November 2010.[5]

Research

In his early career, Chance worked mainly on enzyme structure and function, especially in developing methods for studying the pre-steady-state phase of reactions,[6][7][8] an approach that required not only rapid mixing but also suitable photometric equipment,[9] and allowed him to study the kinetics of peroxidase catalysis, and in particular to detect the formation of an enzyme-substrate complex,[10] an entity that had been assumed to participate in enzyme-catalysed reactions, but not previously observed.

He had invented the now standard stopped-flow device to measure the existence of the enzyme-substrate complex in enzyme reaction.[11] He was a pioneer in the numerical simulations of biochemical reactions [10] and metabolic pathways.[12][13]

In later years, while retaining his interest in those fields, he also focused on metabolic control phenomena in living tissues as studied by noninvasive technique such as phosphorus NMR and optical spectroscopy and fluorometry, including the use of infrared light to characterize the properties of various tissues and breast tumors.[3]

Personal

Chance married Jane Earle (1920–2014) on March 4, 1938. This couple divorced. They had 4 children: Eleanor, Britton, Jan and Peter. He married Lilian Streeter Lucas (1927–2013) on November 1956. They also divorced. They had 4 children: Margaret, Lilian, Benjamin and Samuel. Finally he married Shoko Nioka (born 1947) on February 2010. Britton Chance also had stepchildren: Ann Lucas, Gerald B. Lucas, A. Brooke Lucas and William C. Lucas.

Awards

Academic awards

Chance joined the United States National Academy of Sciences in 1952. He received the National Medal of Science in 1974.[14] He became a resident member of the American Philosophical Society in 1958.[15] He was also previously elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Medical Sciences, in 1968, as well as a foreign member of the Royal Society (London) in 1981. In 1971 he was elected a member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina.[16]

Awards named after Britton Chance
  • The International Society on Oxygen Transport to Tissue (ISOTT) established The Britton Chance Award in honor of Professor Chance's long-standing commitment, interest and contributions to the science and engineering aspects of oxygen transport to tissue and to the society. This award was first presented in 2004 during the annual conference of ISOTT in Bari, Italy.[18]
  • SPIE has established Britton Chance Biomedical Optics Award, honoring his significant contribution to biomedical optics. The award will be presented annually to recognize outstanding contributions to the field of biomedical optics through the development of innovative, high-impact biophotonic technologies. In particular, the award will acknowledge pioneering contributions to biophotonic methods and devices that have significant promise to accelerate or have already facilitated new discoveries in biology or medicine, and will target achievements that span disciplines and may include elements of basic research, technology development, and clinical translation.[19]

References
  1. "USA Olympic Sailing Alumni". US Sailing. 2020.
  2. Hartridge, H.; Roughton, F. J. W. (1923). "A method for measuring the velocity of very rapid chemical reactions". Proceedings of the Royal Society A. 104 (726): 376–394. Bibcode:1923RSPSA.104..376H. doi:10.1098/rspa.1923.0116.
  3. "Britton Chance Biography". Penn University Archives and Records Center. 2020.
  4. "NCKU develops cancer detector for home use, Taipei Times, 2009". 11 April 2009.
  5. Weber, Bruce (2010-11-28). "Britton Chance, Olympian and Biophysics Researcher, Dies at 97". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2012-09-05. Retrieved 2010-11-30.
  6. Chance, Britton (1940). "The accelerated flow method for rapid reactions". Journal of the Franklin Institute. 229 (5): 613–640. doi:10.1016/S0016-0032(40)90297-6.
  7. Chance, Britton (1940). "The accelerated flow method for rapid reactions". Journal of the Franklin Institute. 229 (4): 455–476. doi:10.1016/S0016-0032(40)90620-2.
  8. Chance, Britton (1940). "The accelerated flow method for rapid reactions". Journal of the Franklin Institute. 229 (6): 737–766. doi:10.1016/S0016-0032(40)90963-2.
  9. Chance, Britton (1942). "Photoelectric Colorimeter for Rapid Reactions". Review of Scientific Instruments. 13 (4): 158–161. Bibcode:1942RScI...13..158C. doi:10.1063/1.1770004.
  10. Chance, B (1943). "The kinetics of the enzyme-substrate compound of peroxidase". J. Biol. Chem. 151 (2): 553–577. doi:10.1016/S0021-9258(18)44929-0.
  11. Kresge N, Simoni RD, Hill RL. Britton Chance: Olympian and Developer of Stop-Flow Methods. J. Biol. Chem., Vol. 279, Issue 50, 10, December 10, 2004.
  12. Chance, B., Greenstein, D. S., Higgins, J. & Yang, C. C. The mechanism of catalase action. II. Electric analog computer studies. Arch. Biochem. Biophys. 37, 322–339 (1952).
  13. Chance, Britton and Garfinkel, David and Higgins, Joseph and Hess, Benno. Metabolic control mechanisms. V. A solution for the equations representing interaction between glycolysis and respiration in ascites tumor cells. J. biol. Chem. 235, 2726-2439 (1960)
  14. National Science Foundation - The President's National Medal of Science
  15. "APS Member History". search.amphilsoc.org. Retrieved 2021-01-28.
  16. "List of Members". www.leopoldina.org. Retrieved 19 October 2017.
  17. "NCKU "Inducts" Two World Class Scientists, 2008".
  18. "ISOT Awards". Archived from the original on 2011-01-16. Retrieved 2010-07-05.
  19. SPIE honors Britton Chance with new biomedical optics award
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