Nobel Prize Scientists

Francis H.C. Crick (1916-2004) was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1962, along with James D. Watson for their discovery of the double-helix structure of the DNA molecule, the building block of life. Acclaimed as their discovery was at the time, it has only grown in significance with the further development of molecular biology, and is now regarded as one of the most fundamental discoveries in the history of science. Crick was born in Northampton, England and graduated from the University of London, where he studied physics and mathematics. He served as a research scientist with the British Admiralty during World War II, and first took up the study of biology after the war. From 1947 until 1976, he worked for the Medical Research Council in Cambridge, England. He conducted his doctoral research at the Cavendish Laboratory of Cambridge University, where James Watson and he made their historic discovery in 1953. From 1976 until his death, Dr. Crick carried on his research at the Salk Institute in San Diego, California and was a professor at the University of California, San Diego. After pioneering the fundamentals of molecular biology, his interests turned to neuroscience; his last years were devoted to exploring the biological basis of consciousness.

The American astronomer Robert W. Wilson received the 1978 Nobel Prize in physics for his discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB). Dr. Wilson was at work on a new type of antenna for Bell Laboratories in Holmdel, New Jersey, when he sought to identify a source of noise in the atmosphere that could not be otherwise explained. After eliminating all other potential sources, the noise was finally identified as CMB radiation, a lingering echo of the Big Bang, the cataclysmic explosion that created the known universe. Wilson, born in Houston, Texas, joined Bell labs after earning a physics degree at Rice University and a doctorate from Caltech. He was promoted to head pf Radio Physics Research at Bell, where he continued his work developing the techniques of radio spectroscopy to unprecedented levels of accuracy, studying the molecular composition of interstellar clouds and making significant contributions to the technology of satellite communications. In this address to the Academy of Achievement, recorded at the 1987 Summit in Scottsdale, Arizona, he tells the students about his own career in physics and radioastronomy. He also outlines the evolution of cosmology since the 1920s, and discusses the development of the universe since the Big Bang.

The American chemist Dudley Herschbach received the 1986 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for contributions including his "crossed molecular beam" experiments that have yielded a molecular-level understanding of elementary chemical reactions, such as those used in the synthesis of drugs, plastics and industrial chemicals. Professor Herschbach addressed the Academy of Achievement at its 1987 Summit in Scottsdale, Arizona. In this podcast, he relates how, as a small child, he was first inspired to pursue a career in science and became the first member of his family to pursue higher education. He also discusses the molecular basis of chemical reactions and the significance of his own research. Today, he is a Professor of Physics at Texas A&M University , and continues his long relationship with Harvard University where he is Professor Emeritus. To date, he has published over 400 research papers. He continues to pursue research at the frontiers of molecular chemistry.

Dr. Burton Richter is the Director Emeritus of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) and a recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics. He was born into a Jewish family in Brooklyn and raised in the Queens neighborhood of Far Rockaway. Richter earned both his bachelor's degree and his doctorate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. As a professor at Stanford University, he built a particle accelerator called SPEAR (Stanford Positron-Electron Asymmetric Ring) with the support of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission. With it he led a team that discovered a new subatomic particle he call a psi. A team led by Samuel Ting at Brookhaven National Laboratory also made this discovery, but he called the particle J. The particle became know as the psi-J meson. This discovery (made on November 11, 1974) was part of the "November Revolution" of particle physics. The importance of this discovery is highlighted by the subsequent, rapid changes in high-energy physics at the time. Burton Richter and Samuel Ting were jointly awarded the 1976 Nobel Prize in Physics for their work. From 1984 to 1999, Burton Richter was the director of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, operated by Stanford University. The facility is located on 426 acres of Stanford-owned land on Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park, California, and employs over 10,000 people. The main accelerator is two miles long, the longest linear accelerator in the world. This podcast was recorded at the 1987 Achievement Summit in Scottsdale, Arizona and Burton Richter addressed the Academy student delegates about his life-long passion for particle physics.

As a boy, Murray Gell-Mann excelled in every possible field of academic study, except one -- physics -- but after he decided to pursue it as a career, he emerged as the era's most brilliant and original mind in the field. In his 20s, he revolutionized the study of particle physics, and for the next two decades, he dominated the field.

He was awarded the 1969 Nobel Prize in Physics, for bringing order out of the chaos of particle theory. Even a short list of his discoveries reads like a history of mankind's evolving understanding of the building blocks of matter. The renormalization group, the V-A interaction, the conserved vector current, the partially conserved axial current, the eightfold way, current algebra, the quark model and the theory of quantum chromodynamics are among his monumental original contributions to the field.

His powerful ability to envision the sub-atomic world was matched by a uniquely vivid gift for describing it, in a fanciful original terminology of "strangeness" and "color," of "quarks" and "gluons." Not content with his awe-inspiring accomplishments in theoretical physics, he founded the Santa Fe Institute to foster the interdisciplinary study of complex adaptive systems, not least the evolution of human language.

Isidor Isaac Rabi (1898-1988) was born in Rymanow, Poland, at that time part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and immigrated with his family to the United States in the first year of his life. After earning a Ph.D. in physics at Columbia University, he went to Europe, where the twin revolutions of relativity and quantum mechanics were transforming our understanding of the universe. In Europe, he studied and worked alongside Erwin Schrodinger, Niels Bohr, Werner Heisenberg and the other titans of modern physics. Returning to the United States, he took up a professorship at Columbia, where he was to remain for most of his career, training successive generations of scientists. In 1944 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for his application of the resonance method to the measurement of the magnetic properties of atomic nuclei. His discoveries were fundamental to the development of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for internal medicine and to the creation of the laser and atomic clock. During World War II, he directed the Radiation Laboratory in Cambridge, Massachusetts, refining radar technology. As a visiting consultant with the Manhattan Project, he witnessed the detonation of the first atom bomb. After the war, he served as science advisor to President Truman, and was one of the founders of the Brookhaven National Laboratory and of the European Centre for Nuclear Research (CERN). As Chairman of the Columbia Physics Department, he oversaw the work of distinguished physicists such as Charles Townes and Leon Lederman. A beloved figure in the world of science, he received numerous awards for his commitment to the peaceful uses of atomic energy.

Herbert A. Hauptman pioneered and developed a mathematical method that has changed the entire field of chemistry and opened a new era in research in determination of molecular structures of crystallized materials. He graduated from City College of New York and obtained a master's in mathematics from Columbia in 1939. After World War II, he collaborated with Jerome Karle at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C. The combination of mathematics and physical chemistry expertise enabled them to tackle the phase problem of X-ray crystallography. By 1955, Hauptman received his doctorate in mathematics, and they laid the foundations of the direct methods in X-ray crystallography. In 1970, he joined the Medical Foundation of Buffalo where he was Research Director. He authored over 170 publications. He currently serves as President of the Hauptman-Woodward Medical Research Institute. In 1985, Dr. Hauptman shared with Dr. Jerome Karle, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. The next year, Dr. Herbert Hauptman addressed the student delegates at the 1986 Achievement Summit in Washington, D.C. about scientific research and discovery.

Jerome Karle, born Jerome Karfunkel, was awarded the 1985 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for developing revolutionary mathematical techniques through which X-ray crystallography can be used to deduce the three-dimensional structure of natural substances vital to the internal chemistry of the human body. He started college at age 15 and earned his degree from the City College of New York in 1937. Karle received his master's degree in biology from Harvard the next year. In 1940, he enrolled at the University of Michigan and received his doctorate, and starting in 1943, after completing his studies, Karle worked on the famed Manhattan Project at the University of Chicago with his wife Dr. Isabella Karle, one of the youngest scientists and few women on the project. In 1946, they moved to Washington, D.C. to work for the Naval Research Laboratory. Karle and Dr. Herbert Hauptman were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their work at the laboratory, using X-ray scattering techniques to determine the structure of crystals, which is used to study the biological, chemical, and metallurgical characteristics of substances. This technique has played a major role in the development of new pharmaceutical products and other synthesized materials. On July 23, 2009, Dr. Karle and his wife retired from the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory after a combined 127 years of service. At the retirement ceremony, the couple was presented with the U.S. Navy's Distinguished Service Award. Dr. Jerome Karle addressed the student delegates at the 1986 Achievement Summit about his journey from bright science student in Brooklyn to internationally pre-eminent researcher.

Robert H. Hofstadter (1915 -1990) received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1961 for his pioneering studies of electron scattering in atomic nuclei and for his discoveries concerning the structure of nucleons. Born in New York City, he earned his undergraduate degree at City College, with support from the General Electric Company. His doctoral research at Princeton University was concerned with infrared spectra of simple organic molecules and, in particular, with the partial elucidation of the structure of the now well-known "hydrogen bond." He was still a graduate student at Princeton University when he discovered the sodium iodide scintillator, and determined how it detects gamma rays, a discovery that launched his career as a physicist. During World War II, he worked at the Norden Laboratory Corporation, developing automatic pilot systems. He returned to Princeton after the war, to continue exploring the detection and measurement of gamma rays. His discoveries have had far-reaching effects in medicine and biology, as well as physics. From 1950, he made his home at Stanford University, where he was Max H. Stein Professor of Physics and Director of the High Energy Physics Laboratory. His studies of high-energy electrons, neutrons, x-rays, cosmic radiation and the charge distribution within the nucleus of the atom led to his Nobel Prize in 1961. Robert Hofstadter attended the 1984 Achievement Summit Minneapolis, Minnesota as a recipient of the Academy's Golden Plate Award, along with his son, Pulitzer Prize author Douglas Hofstadter, the first time in the history of the Academy that a father and son were honored together. In this audio podcast, recorded on that occasion, the elder Professor Hofstadter recalls his discovery of the sodium iodide scintillator and the impact of his discovery on his subsequent career. He reminds the Academy's student delegates that the study of little things can lead to the discovery of big ones.

The American physicist Sheldon Glashow is famed for his discoveries concerning the elementary particles of matter and the interaction of the fundamental forces of nature. In particular he extended our understanding of the relationship of the "weak force" and electromagnetism, accurately predicted the existence of the "charm quark," and co-authored the first grand unified theory of the interaction of electromagnetism with the strong and weak forces. He received the 1979 Nobel Prize in Physics for his "contributions to the theory of the unified weak and electromagnetic interaction between elementary particles," including "the prediction of the weak neutral current." Sheldon Glashow was born to immigrant parents in New York City. His early interest in science was encouraged by his parents and older brothers. He graduated from the Bronx High School of Science in 1950, along with future fellow Nobelist Steven Weinberg. After earning his undergraduate degree at Cornell University and completing Ph.D. studies at Harvard, he taught at the University of California at Berkeley in the 1960s, and at Harvard for many years thereafter. He is now the Metcalf Professor of Mathematics and Physics at Boston University. In this audio podcast, recorded at the 1984 Achievement Summit in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Dr. Glashow notes that 16 of the 17 fundamental elementary particles of matter have already been discovered; he urges the Academy's student delegates to go out and discover the 17th.