Sidney rittenberg jr
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Biographical Memoirs: Volume 80 (2001)
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DAVID RITTENBERG
November 11, 1906–January 24, 1970
BY DAVID SHEMIN AND RONALD BENTLEY
DAVID RITTENBERG WAS a leader in the development of the isotopic tracer technique for the study of biochemical reactions in intermediary metabolism. In a brief but historic paper published in Science in 1935, Rittenberg and Rudolph Schoenheimer described work at the Department of Biochemistry at Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons. Their pioneering experiments used deuterium, 2H, the heavy, stable isotope of hydrogen, to trace the fate of various compounds in the animal body. The m
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Sidney Rittenberg
American scholar (1921-2019)
Sidney Rittenberg (Chinese: 李敦白; pinyin: Lǐ Dūnbái; August 14, 1921 – August 24, 2019) was an American journalist, scholar, and Chinese linguist who lived in China from 1944 to 1980.[1] He worked closely with Mao Zedong, Zhu De, Zhou Enlai, and other leaders of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) during the Chinese Communist Revolution, and was with these central Communist leaders at Yan'an.[2] Later, he was imprisoned in solitary confinement, twice.[3] In his book "The Man Who Stayed Behind", Rittenberg stated that he was the second American citizen to join the CCP, the first being the Lebanese-American Doctor Ma Haide (born Shafick George Hatem.)
Early life
Rittenberg was born into a Jewish family in Charleston, South Carolina and he lived there until his college studies.[4][5] He was the son of Muriel (Sluth) and Sidney Rittenberg,[1] who was president of the Charleston City Council. After attending Porter Military Academy, he turned down a full scholarshi
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David Rittenberg
American biochemist
David Rittenberg (November 11, 1906 – January 24, 1970) was an American biochemist who pioneered the isotopictagging of molecules. He was born and died in New York, and spent almost the whole of his life there. He obtained his B.S. in 1929 from the City College of New York, and his Ph.D. in 1935 at Columbia University under the supervision of Harold Urey.[1]
Research on isotopes as tracers
Rittenberg's doctoral work concerned thermodynamic properties of molecules containing 2H (deuterium),[2] and he built his career principally on work with isotopes.[3]
His introduction of the use of 2H[4] as a tracer to follow the fate of various different compounds in human metabolism changed the prevailing scientific theory, from a static, "wear and tear" view of metabolic processes, to a dynamic theory in which there is constant and rapid buildup and degradation of body constituents.
In their Biographical Memoir[1] David Shemin and Ronald Bentley described the approach in these terms
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