Marshall Davidson Hatch is a biochemist living in Australia. He gained international attention in 1968 when he discovered a previously unknown means by which a plant takes in carbon dioxide to merge with carbohydrates. Technically referred to as a "pathway," this new discovery was named after Hatch and his re search colleagues: Slack and Kortschak. The description of this pathway provided a logical alternative to the Calvin photosynthetic pathway. Hatch later discovered an enzyme that aids in re-synthesis. The description of his findings, published in 1969, provided evidence of a cycle of synthesis and re- synthesis that had not been recogni zed before by any other researcher. Further study found that this cycle is important in the nutritional systems of plants in extreme climates.

Hatch was born in Perth, Australia. He attended college in Australia and the United States. After graduating from college, he began his research career with a position at the Commonwealth Scientific Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO). He worked there from 1955 until 1959, during which time he published a comprehensive paper on the processes of plants changing starch and sugars into ethanol and carbon dioxide. After a two-year stay in the United States, he returned to Australia, in 1961, to accept a position with a sugar refining company. After the publication of his discoveries, he accepted the position of chief research scientist at a division of CSIRO.