Polanyi, puh LAHN yee, John Charles (1929-...), a German-born Canadian physical chemist, advanced the study of chemical reactions by means of the infrared radiation (heat) that they emit. He shared the 1986 Nobel Prize in chemistry with the American scientists Dudley R. Herschbach and Yuan T. Lee, who had used different approaches to similar problems (see Herschbach, Dudley Robert; Lee, Yuan Tseh). Polanyi also was active in issues of public policy and arms control.