In addition to the Nobel Prize, Taube also received many other major scientific awards, including the Priestley Medal in 1985 and two Guggenheim Fellowships early in his career (1949 and 1955), as well as numerous honorary doctorates.

At 12, Taube left his hometown and moved to Regina to attend Luther College where he completed high school.

[2] After graduating, Taube stayed at Luther College and worked as laboratory assistant for Paul Liefeld, allowing him to take first year university classes.

He initially wanted to return to Canada to work, but did not receive a response when he applied for jobs at the major Canadian universities.

[5] After leaving Chicago, Taube worked as a professor at Stanford University until 1986, a position that allowed him to focus on research,[5] while also teaching classes at the undergraduate and graduate levels.

[11] Taube's initial research at Cornell University focused on the same areas he studied as a graduate student, oxidizing agents containing oxygen and halogens, and redox reactions featuring these species.

[4] Taube's key discovery was the way molecules build a type of "chemical bridge" rather than simply exchanging electrons, as previously thought.

[14] An article in Science called this paper "one of the true classics in inorganic chemistry" after his Nobel Prize was announced.

[4] Taube was awarded the 1983 Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for his work on the mechanisms of electron transfer reactions, especially in metal complexes.

"[16] He received his award on December 8, 1983, with the presentation speech being delivered by Ingvar Lindqvist of the Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences.

[4] His initial paper in Chemical Reviews was 30 years old at the time of his Nobel Prize victory, but the correlation he described between the rate of ligand substitution and electronic configuration for transition metal coordination complexes was still the predominant theory about the reaction chemistry of these compounds.

[22] In 1985, Taube received the American Chemical Society's highest honor, the Priestley Medal, which is awarded to recognize "distinguished services to chemistry".

He published a book, Electron Transfer Reactions of Complex Ions in Solution (Current Chemical Concepts) in 1970.

[29] His research contributions have been honored in several ways, including a symposium at the 1982 annual American Chemical Society meeting.

"[31] Harry Gray, a professor at California Institute of Technology said, "He was in a class by himself, a role model and leader whom we all admired and loved.

"[10] Former student Peter Ford remembers that Taube "made chemistry not only challenging and stimulating, but a lot of fun as well.

When he stopped his active research projects in 2001, Taube continued to be available as a reviewer and consultant, but his main goal was "enjoying life".