Linus Pauling
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| Linus Pauling | |
|---|---|
 Linus Pauling in 1954 | |
| Born | 28 February 1901 Portland, Oregon, USA |
| Died | 19 August 1994 (aged 93) Big Sur, California, USA |
| Residence | United States |
| Nationality | American |
| Fields | Quantum chemistry Biochemistry |
| Institutions | Caltech, UCSD, Stanford |
| Alma mater | Oregon Agricultural College Caltech |
| Doctoral advisor | Roscoe G. Dickinson |
| Other academic advisors | Arnold Sommerfeld Erwin Schrödinger Niels Bohr |
| Doctoral students | Jerry Donohue Martin Karplus Matthew Meselson Edgar Bright Wilson William Lipscomb |
| Known for | Elucidating the nature of chemical bonds and the structures of molecules Advocating nuclear disarmament |
| Notable awards | Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1954) Nobel Peace Prize (1962) Lenin Peace Prize (1968-1969) |
| Notes The only person to win unshared Nobel Prizes in two different fields | |
Pauling is one of only four individuals to have won multiple Nobel Prizes.[3] He is one of only two people awarded two Nobel Prizes in different fields (the Chemistry and Peace prizes), the other being Marie Curie (the Chemistry and Physics prizes), and the only person awarded two unshared prizes.[4]
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[edit] Biography
[edit] Early years
Pauling was born in Portland, Oregon, as the first born child to Herman Henry William Pauling (1876–1910) and Lucy Isabelle "Belle" Darling (1881–1926).[5] He was named "Linus Carl", in honor of Lucy's father, Linus, and Herman's father, Carl.[6] Herman and Lucy—then 23 and 18 years old, respectively—had met at a dinner party in Condon. Six months later, the two were married.[7]Herman Pauling descended from South-German farmers, who had immigrated to a German settlement in Concordia, Missouri. Carl Pauling moved his family to California before settling in Oswego. There, he worked as an ironmonger at a foundry.[8] After completing grammar school, Herman Pauling served as an apprentice to a druggist. Upon completion of his services, he became a wholesale bread salesman.[9]
Pauling's mother, Lucy, of Irish descent, was the daughter of Linus Wilson Darling, who had served as a teacher, farmer, surveyor, postmaster and lawyer at different points of his life. Linus Darling was orphaned at age 11 and apprenticed under a baker before becoming a schoolteacher. He fell in love with a young woman named Alice from Turner, Oregon, whom he eventually married.[10] On July 17, 1888, Alice gave birth to the couple's fifth child, but he was stillborn. Less than a month later, she died, leaving Darling to take care of their four young daughters.[11]
Linus Pauling spent his first year living in a one-room apartment with his parents in Portland. In 1902, after his sister Pauline was born, Pauling's parents decided to move out of the city.[12] They were crowded in their apartment, but couldn't afford more spacious living quarters in Portland. Lucy stayed with her husband's parents in Oswego, while Herman searched for new housing. Herman brought the family to Salem, where he took up a job as a traveling salesman for the Skidmore Drug Company. Within a year of Lucile's birth in 1904, Herman Pauling moved his family to Oswego, where he opened his own drugstore.[12] The business climate in Oswego was poor, so he moved his family to Condon in 1905.[13]
In 1909, Pauling's grandfather, Linus, divorced his second wife and married a young schoolteacher, almost the same age as his daughter Lucy. A few months later, he died of a heart attack, brought on by complications from nephritis.[14] Meanwhile, Herman Pauling was suffering from poor health and had regular sharp pains in his abdomen. Lucy's sister, Abbie, saw that Herman was dying and immediately called the family physician. The doctor gave Herman a sedative to reduce the pain, but it only offered temporary relief.[15] His health worsened in the coming months and finally died of a perforated ulcer on June 11, 1910, leaving Lucy to care for Linus, Lucile and Pauline.[16]
Linus was a voracious reader as a child, and at one point his father wrote a letter to The Oregonian inviting suggestions of additional books to occupy his time.[17] Pauling first planned to become a chemist after being amazed by experiments conducted with a small chemistry lab kit by his friend, Lloyd A. Jeffress.[18] In high school, Pauling continued to conduct chemistry experiments, borrowing much of the equipment and material from an abandoned steel plant. With an older friend, Lloyd Simon, Pauling set up Palmon Laboratories. Operating from Simon's basement, the two young adults approached local dairies to offer their services in performing butterfat samplings at cheap prices. Dairymen were wary of trusting two young boys with the task, and as such, the business ended as a failure.[19]
By the fall of 1916, Pauling was a 15-year-old high school senior and had enough credits to enter Oregon State University (OSU), known then as Oregon Agricultural College.[20] However, he did not have enough credits for two required American history courses that would satisfy his requirement to earn a high school diploma. He asked the school principal if he could take these courses concurrently during the spring semester. The principal denied his request, and Pauling decided to leave the school in June without a diploma.[21] His high school, Washington High School in Portland, awarded him the diploma 45 years later, after he had won two Nobel Prizes.[22][23] During the summer, Pauling worked part-time at a grocery store, earning eight dollars a week. His mother set him up with an interview with a Mr. Schwietzerhoff, the owner of a number of manufacturing plants in Portland. Pauling was hired as an apprentice machinist with a salary of 40 dollars a month. Pauling excelled at his job, and saw his salary increase to 50 dollars a month after being on the job for only a month.[24] In his spare time, he set up a photography lab with two friends and found business from a local photography company. He hoped that the business would earn him enough money to pay for his future college expenses.[25] Pauling received a letter of admission from OAC in September 1917 and immediately gave notice to his boss and told his mother
