chemistry

Marshall Hatch

Marshall Hatch is a chemistry topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Marshall Hatch rather than just read about it. In short: Marshall (Hal) Davidson Hatch AM (born 24 December 1932) was an Australian biochemist and plant physiologist. He was the chief research scientist at the CSIRO Division of Plant Industry in Canberra.

Key takeaways

Marshall Hatch belongs to chemistry; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Marshall Hatch to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Marshall Hatch from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Marshall (Hal) Davidson Hatch AM (born 24 December 1932) was an Australian biochemist and plant physiologist. He was the chief research scientist at the CSIRO Division of Plant Industry in Canberra. He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, a Fellow of the Royal Society, a Foreign Associate of the US National Academy of Sciences and was awarded Honorary Doctorates from the University of Göttingen and the University of Queensland. In Australia, in 1966, he elucidated, jointly with Charles Roger Slack, the C4 pathway for the fixation of carbon, which is also sometimes known as the Hatch-Slack pathway. He is now retired.

Early life Hatch was born in Perth, Western Australia to Alice (née Dalziell) and Lloyd Davidson Hatch. His father was an accountant and the family moved to Sydney in 1947. His primary education was at Applecross Primary School and he then had a year of high school at Wesley College before moving east. He was 14 when he commenced at Newington College where he completed the last four years (1947–1950) of his high school education. He was a member of the First XV Rugby team and won the State under 17 years mile championship at Newington. He then majored in biochemistry at the University of Sydney completing his BSc with Honours in 1954 and a PhD in 1959.

Career From 1955 to 1959 he was a plant research scientist at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) in Sydney. He was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship in 1959 to work with Professor Paul Stumpf in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of California, Davis. From 1961 to 1966 Hatch worked as research officer in the David North Plant Research Centre at Colonial Sugar Refining Co Ltd in Brisbane with K.T. Glasziou. He was a reader in botany at the University of Queensland in 1967; he returned to CSR from 1968 to 1969 serving as director of the David North Plant Research Centre. Since 1970 he has been chief research scientist at CSIRO Plant Industry in Canberra.

Honours Centenary Medal in 2001 for service to Australian society and science in biochemistry and physiology. International Prize for Biology in 1991 for his contributions to the plant sciences. Member of the Order of Australia in 1981 for public service in the field of plant metabolism. Rank Prize in Nutrition in 1981, along with Hugo Kortschak and Roger Slack, for "outstanding work on the mechanism of photosynthesis which established the existence of an alternative pathway for the initial fixation of carbon dioxide in some important food plants". Lemberg Medal in 1974, Australian Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Marshall Hatch

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Marshall Hatch claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In chemistry, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Marshall Hatch before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Marshall Hatch ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Marshall Hatch

In research: Marshall Hatch appears in chemistry research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Marshall Hatch in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Marshall Hatch is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1932 births, Australian biochemists, Australian fellows of the Royal Society, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Marshall Hatch outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Marshall Hatch in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Marshall Hatch means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Marshall Hatch out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Marshall Hatch in simple terms?

Marshall (Hal) Davidson Hatch AM (born 24 December 1932) was an Australian biochemist and plant physiologist. He was the chief research scientist at the CSIRO Division of Plant Industry in Canberra.

Why does Marshall Hatch matter?

Because it connects several chemistry ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Marshall Hatch?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Marshall Hatch.