Editing Michael Polanyi (section)

==Life==
===Early life===
Polanyi, born Mihály Pollacsek in Budapest, was the fifth child of Mihály and Cecília Pollacsek (born as [[Cecília Wohl]]), secular Jews from [[Ungvár]] (then in Hungary but now in Ukraine) and [[Wilno]], then [[Russian Empire]], respectively. His father's family were entrepreneurs, while his mother's father, Osher Leyzerovich Vol, was the senior teacher of Jewish history at the [[Vilnius|Vilna]] rabbinic seminary.{{citation needed|date=June 2023}} The family moved to Budapest and [[Magyarization|Magyarized]] their surname to Polányi. His father built much of the Hungarian railway system, but lost most of his fortune in 1899 when bad weather caused a railway building project to go over budget. He died in 1905. Cecília Polányi established a salon that was well known among Budapest's intellectuals, and which continued until her death in 1939. His older brother was [[Karl Polanyi]], the political economist and anthropologist, and his niece was [[Eva Zeisel]], a world-renowned ceramist.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.government-online.net/eva-zeisel-obituary/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131112152211/http://www.government-online.net/eva-zeisel-obituary/|url-status=usurped|archive-date=12 November 2013|title=Eva Zeisel obituary |publisher=Government Online|date=15 January 2012|website=government-online.net|access-date=6 April 2018}}</ref>

===Education===
In 1908, Polanyi graduated the teacher-training secondary school, the [[Minta Gymnasium]]. He then studied medicine at the University of Budapest, obtaining his medical diploma in 1914.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Scott |first1=William T. |last2=Moleski |first2=Martin X. |title=Michael Polanyi: scientist and philosopher |date=2005 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford New York Auckland |isbn=9780195174335 |pages=16–21 |url=https://academic.oup.com/book/36398/chapter-abstract/320036558 |access-date=6 June 2023}}</ref> He was an active member of the [[Galileo Circle]]. With the support of {{ill|Ignác Pfeifer|de|Ignácz Pfeifer|hu|Pfeifer_Ignác}}, professor of chemistry at the [[Budapest University of Technology and Economics|Royal Joseph University]] of Budapest, he obtained a scholarship to study chemistry at the [[Technische Hochschule]] in [[Karlsruhe]], Germany. In the [[First World War]], he served in the [[Austria-Hungary|Austro-Hungarian]] army as a medical officer, and was sent to the [[Austria-Hungary#Serbian front 1914–1916|Serbian front]]. While on sick-leave in 1916, he wrote a PhD thesis on [[adsorption]]. His research was encouraged by [[Albert Einstein]] and supervised by {{ill|Gusztáv Buchböck|hu}}, and in 1919 the [[Royal University of Pest]] awarded him a doctorate.

===Career===
In October 1918, [[Mihály Károlyi]] established the [[Hungarian Democratic Republic]], and Polanyi became Secretary to the Minister of Health. When the Communists seized power in March 1919, he returned to medicine. When the [[Hungarian Soviet Republic]] was overthrown, Polanyi emigrated to Karlsruhe in Germany, and was invited by [[Fritz Haber]] to join the [[Kaiser Wilhelm Society|Kaiser Wilhelm Institut]] für Faserstoffchemie (fiber chemistry) in Berlin. A Christian since 1913, in a Roman Catholic ceremony he married Magda Elizabeth Kemeny.<ref>Torrance, Thomas F. (2002). "Mihály Polányi and the Christian faith: personal report" (pdf). Polanyiana (1–2), pp. 167–176.</ref> In 1926 he became the professorial head of department of the Institut für Physikalische Chemie und Elektrochemie (now the [[Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society|Fritz Haber Institute]]). In 1929, Magda gave birth to their son [[John Charles Polanyi|John]], who was awarded a Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1986. Their other son, [[George Polanyi]], who predeceased him, became a well-known economist.

His experience of [[Hyperinflation in the Weimar Republic|runaway inflation]] and high unemployment in [[Weimar Germany]] led Polanyi to become interested in economics. With the coming to power in 1933 of the [[Nazism|Nazi]] party, he accepted a chair in physical chemistry at the University of Manchester. Whilst there he was elected to membership of the [[Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society]] on 8.5.1934.     Two of his pupils, [[Eugene Wigner]] and [[Melvin Calvin]], went on to win the Nobel Prize. Because of his increasing interest in the social sciences, Manchester University created a new chair in [[Social Science]] (1948–58) for him.

Polanyi was among the 2,300 names of prominent persons listed on the [[Nazi]]s' [[The Black Book (list)|Special Search List]], of those who were to be arrested on the invasion of Great Britain and turned over to the [[Gestapo]].

From June 1944 to 1947, Polanyi participated in the activities of [[The Moot]], a Christian discussion circle concerned with shaping the post-war society, at the invitation of [[Karl Mannheim]] and [[J. H. Oldham]].{{sfn|Mullins|Jacobs|2005|p=28–29, 37}}

In 1944 Polanyi was elected a member of the [[Royal Society]],<ref name="frs"/> and on his retirement from the University of Manchester in 1958 he was elected a senior research fellow at [[Merton College]], Oxford.<ref name="MCreg">{{cite book|editor1-last=Levens|editor1-first=R.G.C.|title=Merton College Register 1900–1964|date=1964|publisher=Basil Blackwell|location=Oxford|page=499}}</ref> In 1962 he was elected a foreign honorary member of the [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]].<ref name=AAAS>{{cite web|title=Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter P|url=http://www.amacad.org/publications/BookofMembers/ChapterP.pdf|publisher=American Academy of Arts and Sciences|access-date=19 April 2011}}</ref>