Jerome Karle (1918–2013), Pioneer Crystallographer and 1985 Nobel Chemistry Laureate, Dies at Age 94

TCE

The Chemical Educator

ISSN: 1430-4171 (electronic version)

Table of Contents

Abstract Volume 18 (2013) pp 242-247
DOI 10.1007/s00897132506

Jerome Karle (1918–2013), Pioneer Crystallographer and 1985 Nobel Chemistry Laureate, Dies at Age 94

George B. Kauffman*and Jean-Pierre Adloff

Department of Chemistry, California State University, Fresno, Fresno, CA 93740-8034, georgek@mail.fresnostate.edu; Honorary Professor, Université de Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France F-67100, jp.adloff@noos.fr

Published: 13 September 2013

Abstract. Jerome Karle (1918–2013), winner of the 1985 Nobel Prize in Chemistry and oldest living Nobel chemistry laureate, died of liver cancer on June 6, 2013 at the age of 94 at the Leewood Healthcare Center in Annandale, Virginia. He shared the Prize with the mathematician Herbert A. Hauptman (1917–2011). This article summarizes Karle’s life, career, and research, especially his Nobel-winning work. The failure to include his wife, Isabella Helen Karle (née Lugoski) (b. 1921), who collaborated fully in the award-winning work, in the Nobel Prize even though as many as three recipients may be included, is also discussed.

Key Words: Chemistry and History; Nobel laureates; physical chemistry; x-ray crystallography; x-ray diffraction; quantum crystallography; mathematics; naval research laboratory; Manhattan project; pharmaceuticals; change of names; scientific collaboration; molecular structure; Jewish scientists

(*) Corresponding author. (E-mail: georgek@mail.fresnostate.edu )

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