Martin David Kamen (1913-2002) received a B.S. in chemistry from the University of Chicago in 1933 and a Ph.D. in physical chemistry from the same institution in 1936. He continued his research at Berkeley's Radiation Laboratory (later known as the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory) in 1936, where he co-discovered carbon-14 in 1940 with Samuel Ruben. Kamen was expelled from the Radiation Laboratory in 1944 as a security risk for unspecified reasons. During his career at Washington University (1945-1957) he focused on the biochemical processes of photosynthesis. Much of his energy at this time was diverted by non-scientific matters: a libel suit against the Chicago Tribune, which falsely accused him of being a communist, as well as a successful 7-year battle to recover his passport, which had been rescinded by the U.S. government. In 1948, Kamen testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee. In 1985, Kamen published an autobiography, Radiant Science, Dark Politics, documenting the details of this period in his personal and professional life. Following four years at Brandeis University (1957-1961), he joined the University of California, San Diego Chemistry Department, where he acted as a "founding father" of the new campus. Kamen was named Professor Emeritus in 1977.
Martin David Kamen Papers, 1923 - 1992 (MSS 98)
Extent: 7 Linear feet (14 archives boxes, 1 oversize folder)
Martin David Kamen, the son of Russian emigrant Aaron Kamenetsky and Latvian or Lithuanian emigrant Goldie Achber, was born a U.S. citizen in Toronto, Canada, on August 27, 1913. Kamen received a B.S. in chemistry from the University of Chicago in 1933 and a Ph.D. in physical chemistry from the same institution in 1936. He has been married to Esther Hudson (1938-1941), Beka Doherty, a journalist (1949-1963), and Virginia Swanson, a pathologist (1967-1987). Kamen is most widely known for his co-discovery of carbon-14, although for most of his career he has worked in the area of biochemistry focusing on mechanisms of photosynthesis.
On the advice of one of his mentors (David Gans), who had suggested that he continue his research in chemistry and nuclear physics at the E.O. Lawrence's Radiation Laboratory, Kamen set out for Berkeley immediately upon graduating from the University of Chicago in the winter of 1936. Kamen worked at the laboratory without pay for six months before E.O. Lawrence offered him a formal position, with a salary, overseeing the preparation and distribution of the cyclotron's radioactive products. Kamen's most distinguished contribution while at the Radiation Laboratory was his co-discovery, with University of California, Berkeley chemist Samuel Ruben, of carbon-14.
Kamen remained at the Radiation Laboratory until July, 1944, when he was summarily dismissed (without explanation) from the Manhattan Project and the laboratory. It was not until a full decade later that he learned conclusively that he had been blacklisted by the U.S. Army as a "security risk." Kamen's dismissal was followed by a year of reneged job offers in both academia and industry. In the spring of 1945 he was hired by Arthur Holly Compton to work in the medical school of Washington University running the cyclotron program. Teaching tracer methodology to the medical faculty and preparing radioactive tracer materials for their clinical research, Kamen's research interests gradually shifted away from nuclear physics and radiochemistry and more fully into biochemistry. With the publication in 1947 of his highly acclaimed text Radioactive tracers in Biology, retitled in later editions as Isotropic Tracers in Biology, Kamen ended his work on carbon-14.
In the next most significant phase of his research, Kamen focused on the mechanisms of photosynthesis in bacteria. It is this work for which he is most admired within the community of biochemists. His book on this subject is Primary Processes in Photosynthesis (1963). In later research, regarding the comparative biochemistry of cytochromes, Kamen and his collaborators established the general occurrence of hematin compounds in all photosynthetic tissue and identified the physical and chemical structure of a large number of new cytochromes.
Kamen's pioneering work with radioactive tracers placed him in high demand as a conference participant in the international scientific community, as well as at home. It was, therefore, more than a mere inconvenience when the U.S. government revoked his passport in 1947, on the eve of a planned lecture tour of Palestine. After repeated attempts to regain his passport failed, Kamen engaged legal assistance in 1950. Even then, it took five more years of hearings, interventions on his behalf by colleagues and friends in government, and court action before his passport was reissued.
The struggle to regain his right to travel freely was important to Kamen and it took up a great deal of his time. It was not, however, the only diversion to occupy his energies outside the laboratory during the postwar years. With communism increasingly identified in the U.S. as an evil influence, Kamen's dismissal from the Radiation Laboratory seemed to some individuals, evidently highly placed, to carry a menacing significance. In 1948, he was called to testify before the House on Un-American Activities (HUAC) regarding the possibility that he had leaked "atomic secrets" to the Russians while employed on the Manhattan Project. Although he was cleared of those charges by the HUAC, the label "atomic spy" proved especially difficult to shake. In 1951, Kamen began libel suits against the Tribune Company, whose Chicago and Washington, D.C. newspapers carried front-page stories (July 7, 1951) identifying him as the "high atomic scientist" Senator Hickenlooper of Iowa had named in a speech as a "spy and a traitor." As with his passport, Kamen triumphed in the end, winning a $7,500 judgment against the Tribune Co. in 1955. These events, as well as his scientific research and musical life are chronicled by Kamen in his autobiography, Radiant Science, Dark Politics.
In 1957 Kamen left Washington University at the invitation of Brandeis University to organize a graduate department of biochemistry. From Brandeis, Kamen went to La Jolla, California, where between 1961 and 1974 he helped Roger Revelle and others develop the sciences at the newly created University of California, San Diego campus. In the late 1960s, Kamen spent part of his time establishing a photosynthesis laboratory in Gif-sur-Yvette for the French National Center for Scientific Research. Between 1974-1978 he was an adjunct professor of chemistry at the University of Southern California. Kamen returned to UC San Diego in 1977 and became professor emeritus. Kamen died in 2002 in Montecito, California.
Although he probably remains best known for his co-discovery of carbon-14, Martin Kamen has contributed extensively to the field of biochemistry. The Kamen Papers provide valuable information about how, when, and with whom he conducted research, especially in the area of photosynthesis. Correspondence and research notes span most of Kamen's career, from his early undergraduate and graduate work at the University of Chicago (1932-1936) to laboratory work done in the 1970s during his tenure as chairman of the Chemistry Department at UC San Diego. Absent from this collection is documentation of Kamen's work done with Ruben and others between 1937 and 1944; these files are housed at UC Berkeley's Bancroft Library. Almost all of the materials in the collection are in English, but there is some correspondence in French, news clippings in German, and an account of the discovery of C-14 in Japanese.
Most of the Kamen files date between 1945 and 1955 and offer a rare opportunity for investigating the far reaching impact of the postwar political climate on the scientific community in the United States. Documentation of Kamen's experiences in the aftermath of his 1944 dismissal from the Radiation Laboratory as a "security risk" is especially rich and formed the bases for the two legal battles Kamen mounted: one against the Tribune newspapers for libel (in 1951) and one against the U. S. government (in 1955) for revoking his passport in 1947 and refusing to reissue it. The collection is also enhanced by the once-secret Federal Bureau of Investigation and Atomic Energy Commission records which Kamen acquired through the Freedom of Information Act. These provide telling examples of the reality and persistence of high level harassment aimed at scientists suspected of "disloyalty." Both sets of records, and the correspondence associated with their procurement, are included in the SUBJECT FILES Series.
In addition to his contributions to biochemistry, Kamen was a "founding father" of the San Diego campus of the University of California; he arrived in 1961 and served as Acting Dean of Graduate Studies between 1965 and 1967. Kamen was also a strong leader of the Chemistry Department, which he chaired from 1970 through 1972. Some sense of his administrative contributions in these areas may be derived from a draft of his "Proposal for a Division of Biochemistry" (n.d.); from three memos he sent in 1972, one each to Vice Chancellors Paul Saltman and Bernard Sisco, and one to Chancellor William McElroy; and from a single letter dated April 2, 1973, addressed to Chancellor McElroy (for these items, see the SUBJECT FILES series, UCSD Chemistry Department, box 14, folder #5). These are the only items in the collection regarding the administrative and policymaking aspect of Kamen's contributions to UCSD. Some of his financial contributions to the San Diego campus are documented, including an annually disbursed fellowship. There are also records of Kamen's academic and intellectual work while at UCSD, in the form of lecture, research, and laboratory notes. In contrast, there is very little indication of his academic or personal life during most of the years (1957-1961) he spent at Brandeis University, nor is there record of his specific activities at the University of Southern California (1974-1978). His tenure at Washington University (1945-1957) in St. Louis is well represented. Finally, despite the inclusion of pages from an early scrapbook and scattered personal references in some pieces of correspondence, the collection is focused almost exclusively on Kamen's professional life. There is one significant exception: the correspondence gives a clear picture of Kamen's accomplishments as a violist and sheds light on the intertwining of his interests in music and his scientific endeavors. The existence of a professional level musical community within his circle of colleagues is evident, as is the pleasure he took in friendships with Isaac Stern, Henri Temianka and Keith Humble.
Accessions Processed in 1992
Arranged in five series: 1) BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIALS; 2) CORRESPONDENCE; 3) LITIGATION; 4) WRITINGS; and 5) SUBJECT FILES.
Accessions Processed in 1996
Arranged in one series: 6) ESSAYS.