Linus Pauling
Linus Carl Pauling FRS (/ˈpɔːlɪŋ/ PAW-ling; February 28, 1901 – August 19, 1994)[4] was an American chemist, biochemist, chemical engineer, peace activist, author, and educator. He published more than 1,200 papers and books, of which about 850 dealt with scientific topics.[5] New Scientist called him one of the 20 greatest scientists of all time.[6] For his scientific work, Pauling was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1954. For his peace activism, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1962. He is one of five people to have won more than one Nobel Prize (the others being Marie Curie, John Bardeen, Frederick Sanger, and Karl Barry Sharpless).[7] Of these, he is the only person to have been awarded two unshared Nobel Prizes,[8] and one of two people to be awarded Nobel Prizes in different fields, the other being Marie Curie.[7]
Linus Pauling
August 19, 1994 (aged 93)
- Alpha sheet
- Ancestral sequence reconstruction
- Backbonding
- Beta sheet
- Bond order
- Breath gas analysis
- Coiled coil
- Corey-Pauling rules
- CPK coloring
- Crystal structure prediction
- Electronegativity
- Elucidating chemical bonds and molecular structures
- Geometrical frustration
- Hybridisation theory
- Hydrogen bonding
- Ice-type model
- Linear combination of atomic orbitals
- Molecular clock
- Molecular medicine
- Non-carbon nanotube
- Orbital overlap
- Pauling equation
- Pauling's rules
- Pauling–Corey–Branson alpha helix
- Pauling's principle of electroneutrality
- Quantum chemistry
- Quantum graph
- Residual entropy
- Resonance (chemistry)
- Slater–Pauling rule
- Space-filling model
- Valence bond theory
- Vitamin C megadosage
- Xenic acid
- Advocating nuclear disarmament
4
- ACS Award in Pure Chemistry (1931)
- Irving Langmuir Award (1931)
- Member of the National Academy of Sciences (1933)
- Davy Medal (1947)
- Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1954)
- Nobel Peace Prize (1962)
- Roebling Medal (1967)
- Lenin Peace Prize (1968–1969)
- National Medal of Science (1974)
- Lomonosov Gold Medal (1977)
- NAS Award in Chemical Sciences (1979)
- Priestley Medal (1984)
- Vannevar Bush Award (1989)
- Caltech (1927–1963)
- UC San Diego (1967–1969)
- Stanford (1969–1975)
- Cornell University (1937–1938)
- University of Oxford (1948)
- Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions (1963–1967)
Pauling was one of the founders of the fields of quantum chemistry and molecular biology.[9] His contributions to the theory of the chemical bond include the concept of orbital hybridisation and the first accurate scale of electronegativities of the elements. Pauling also worked on the structures of biological molecules, and showed the importance of the alpha helix and beta sheet in protein secondary structure. Pauling's approach combined methods and results from X-ray crystallography, molecular model building, and quantum chemistry. His discoveries inspired the work of Rosalind Franklin, James Watson, Francis Crick, and Maurice Wilkins on the structure of DNA, which in turn made it possible for geneticists to crack the DNA code of all organisms.[10]
In his later years, he promoted nuclear disarmament, as well as orthomolecular medicine, megavitamin therapy,[11] and dietary supplements, especially ascorbic acid (commonly known as Vitamin C). None of his ideas concerning the medical usefulness of large doses of vitamins have gained much acceptance in the mainstream scientific community.[6][12] He was married to the American human rights activist Ava Helen Pauling.