Sam Ruben
| Sam Ruben | |
|---|---|
| Born |
November 5, 1913 San Francisco, California |
| Died | September 28, 1943 (aged 29) |
| Nationality | United States |
| Fields |
Physical chemistry Biochemistry |
| Alma mater | University of California, Berkeley |
| Academic advisors | Ernest O. Lawrence |
Samuel Ruben (born Charles Rubenstein; November 5, 1913 – September 28, 1943) was an American chemist.
Ruben was the son of Herschel and Frieda Penn Rubenstein – the name was officially shortened to Ruben in 1930. Young Sam developed a friendship with neighbor Jack Dempsey and became involved with a local boys' boxing club and later, when the family moved across the Bay to Berkeley, he was a successful basketball player at Berkeley High School (Berkeley, California). After achieving his B.S. in Chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley, he continued his studies there and was awarded a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry in May 1938. He was immediately appointed instructor in the Chemistry Department, and became an assistant professor in 1941.
Ruben and colleague Martin Kamen, a University of Chicago Ph.D. and researcher in chemistry and nuclear physics working under Ernest O. Lawrence at the Berkeley Radiation Laboratory, set out to elucidate the path of carbon in photosynthesis by incorporating the short-lived radioactive isotope carbon-11 (11CO2) in their many experiments between 1938 and 1942. Aided by the concepts and collaboration of C. B. van Niel, at Stanford University's Hopkins Marine Station, it became clear to them that reduction of CO2 can occur in the dark and may involve processes similar to bacterial systems. This interpretation challenged the century-old Adolf von Baeyer theory of photochemical reduction of CO2 adsorbed on chlorophyll which had guided decades of effort by Richard Willstätter, Arthur Stoll, and many others in vain searches for formaldehyde.
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