Original author is unknown, found in Manchester archives · Public domain

Michael Polanyi worked at the top of two separate fields a generation apart: in physical chemistry he pioneered fibre diffraction analysis in 1921 and, in 1934, the dislocation theory explaining how ductile metals bend without breaking, work that helped earn him election to the Royal Society in 1944. He then turned to philosophy and economics, arguing against positivism and for a "polycentric spontaneous order" that shaped later thinking on decentralized planning. Two of his doctoral students went on to win Nobel Prizes, as did his son John Polanyi.