the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry's Section on Biological Chemistry. Luck was the namesake of the James Murray Luck Award for Excellence in Scientific Reviewing, which was created in 1979 by the National Academy of Sciences. Annual Reviews Luck was the founder of Annual Review of Biochemistry, which published its first issue in 1932. Luck decided to offer a course on current research in biochemistry to graduate students. In designing the course, he said he felt "knee-deep in trouble", as he only felt sufficiently knowledgeable about a few areas of biochemistry relative to the graduate students. Additionally, the volume of current research was overwhelming, with 6,500 abstracts regarding biochemistry published in Chemical Abstracts in 1930. In July 1930, Luck wrote to about 50 biochemists in the US, United Kingdom, and Canada to ask if an annual volume of critical reviews on biochemistry research would be useful, to which he received positive responses. His correspondence suggested possible authors and topics for his first several volumes. Stanford University Press agreed to publish the journal on a three-year contract, with financial assistance from the Chemical Foundation. Prior to this, Luck's only experience in the publishing industry was working for a summer as a book salesman in Western Canada. Volume I was published in July 1932, consisting of thirty reviews from thirty-five authors of nine different countries; the volume was 724 pages. At the completion of the contract with Stanford University Press, the Advisory Committee of the journal, which included Carl L. Alsberg, Denis Hoagland, and Carl L. A. Schmidt, decided to assume a legal identity as the journal's publisher, though keeping Stanford University Press as the printer. On December 12, 1934, they submitted articles of incorporation with the California Secretary of State to create Annual Review of Biochemistry, Ltd., which was organized as a nonprofit. In February 1938, the name was changed to Annual Reviews, Inc. In 1938, Annual Reviews and the American Physiological Society agreed to collaborate to create a new journal, with the first volume of Annual Review of Physiology published in 1939. A third journal, Annual Review of Microbiology, was created in 1947. Luck participated in administrative work for Annual Reviews until his retirement from the Editor-in-Chief position in 1967 or 1968. At the time of his retirement, Annual Reviews had thirteen titles. Diplomacy In 1962, he was made the science attaché of the US Embassy in Bern,