Michael Polanyi

Michael Polanyi was born Mihály Pollacsek in Budapest in 1891, the fifth child of a secular Jewish family; his father built much of Hungary's railway system. He studied medicine at the University of Budapest and served as a medical officer in the Austro-Hungarian army in the First World War, while also earning a doctorate in physical chemistry. He moved to Germany, and in 1926 he became a professor at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in Berlin, where he did important research on chemical reaction rates, X-ray diffraction and the strength of metals. After the Nazis came to power in 1933 he resigned and moved to England, becoming professor of physical chemistry at the University of Manchester. There he turned increasingly to economics and philosophy, opposing central planning of science and the economy, and he later exchanged his chemistry chair for one in social studies. In Personal Knowledge (1958) he argued that all knowledge, including science, depends on personal commitment and skills that cannot be fully put into words, which he called tacit knowledge. Two of his students and his son John won Nobel Prizes. He died in 1976.

Michael Polanyi is also an author in the library: author page and works.

Faith: Born into a Jewish family; a Christian from 1913, he married in a Roman Catholic ceremony. Source: Wikipedia