“Feminine Section Intrafraternity Smoker,” 1919-1920. Linus Pauling is seated at the front, far right.
Gallery of Linus Pauling
1920
Linus Pauling and Paul Emmett.
Gallery of Linus Pauling
1925
Linus Pauling, reading with Linus Jr.
Gallery of Linus Pauling
1930
Portrait of Linus Pauling, 1930s
Gallery of Linus Pauling
1931
Linus Pauling
Gallery of Linus Pauling
1938
Ava Helen and Linus peeking through a train window, Spring 1938.
Gallery of Linus Pauling
1940
Linus Pauling, 1940s
Gallery of Linus Pauling
1940
Linus Pauling, 1940s
Gallery of Linus Pauling
1941
Pauling family portrait was taken in 1941. Back of the photograph is annotated, "1941. Daddy very ill."
Gallery of Linus Pauling
1941
Members of the Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering seated together at a picnic, 1941. Pauling, the division chair, is at far right.
Gallery of Linus Pauling
1942
Linus Pauling
Gallery of Linus Pauling
1947
Linus Pauling at the Grand Canyon, circa 1947.
Gallery of Linus Pauling
1947
Linus Pauling
Gallery of Linus Pauling
1948
Oxford, United Kingdom
Linus and Ava Helen Pauling.
Gallery of Linus Pauling
1949
Linus Pauling
Gallery of Linus Pauling
1949
Pauling seated with Wilbur Miller and Gene McGuane for a radio broadcast sponsored by the Western Connecticut Section of the American Chemical Society.
Gallery of Linus Pauling
1950
Linus Pauling and George Beadle, circa the 1950s.
Gallery of Linus Pauling
1950
Linus Pauling
Gallery of Linus Pauling
1955
Linus Pauling, unidentified and George Beadle participating in what is believed to be a groundbreaking ceremony for the Church Laboratory, circa 1955
Gallery of Linus Pauling
1955
The Paulings in India.
Gallery of Linus Pauling
1955
Kyoto, Japan
Linus Pauling reading in Kyoto, Japan.
Gallery of Linus Pauling
1957
Still image from one of Pauling’s 1957 lecture films on valence and molecular structure.
Gallery of Linus Pauling
1957
Saint Petersburg, Russia
Pauling in Leningrad
Gallery of Linus Pauling
1957
Pauling examining molecular models with Soviet scientists.
Gallery of Linus Pauling
1958
Linus Pauling
Gallery of Linus Pauling
1966
Pauling (with a broken foot) seated for a sculpture portrait session.
Gallery of Linus Pauling
1970
Ava Helen and Linus Pauling with Boris Davydov of the Second Department of the Soviet Embassy. Lenin Peace Prize ceremony event, June 15, 1970.
Gallery of Linus Pauling
1970
Dmitry Skobeltsyn, Linus Pauling, and Ava Helen Pauling, Lenin Prize ceremonies, June 15, 1970.
Gallery of Linus Pauling
1980
Pauling holding a model of the alpha helix, circa the 1980s.
Gallery of Linus Pauling
1984
Pauling receiving the Priestley Medal from an unidentified ACS representative.
Gallery of Linus Pauling
1988
Linus Pauling
Gallery of Linus Pauling
1991
Stephen Lawson and Linus Pauling celebrating at Pauling’s 90th birthday party, 1991.
Achievements
Membership
National Academy of Sciences
1933
American Philosophical Society
1936
The Royal Society of London
1948
Alpha Chi Sigma
American Chemical Society
Royal Society of Arts
1960
Awards
Nichols Medal
Willard Gibbs Award
Davy Medal
Presidential Medal for Merit by President Harry S. Truman of the United States
Gilbert N. Lewis medal
Pasteur Medal
Nobel Prize in Chemistry
Addis Medal
John Phillips Memorial Award
Avogadro Medal
Pierre Fermat Medal in Mathematics
International Grotius Medal
Silver Medal, Institute of France
Washington A. Roebling Medal
Gandhi Peace Award
Lenin Peace Prize
Gold Medal Honoree
Lomonosov Gold Medal
Golden Plate Award
John K. Lattimer Award
Priestley Medal
Vannevar Bush Award
Richard C. Tolman Medal
Daisaku Ikeda Medal
Lavoisier Medal by Fondation de la Maison de la Chimie
Pauling seated with Wilbur Miller and Gene McGuane for a radio broadcast sponsored by the Western Connecticut Section of the American Chemical Society.
The Nature of the Chemical Bond and the Structure of Molecules and Crystals
(The Nature of the Chemical Bond provides a general treatm...)
The Nature of the Chemical Bond provides a general treatment, essentially nonmathematical, of present (as of 1960) knowledge about the structure of molecules and crystals and the nature of the chemical bond.
(Aimed at first-year college students who plan to major in...)
Aimed at first-year college students who plan to major in chemistry or closely related fields, the book is written in a logical, clear, and understandable style. In addition, many excellent figures are included, along with numerous problems and 75 pages of appendices covering such topics as the symmetry of molecules and crystals, hybrid bond orbitals, and magnetic properties of substances.
Introduction to Quantum Mechanics with Applications to Chemistry
(Two-time Nobel Prize winner Linus Pauling and E. Bright W...)
Two-time Nobel Prize winner Linus Pauling and E. Bright Wilson, Jr., Professor Emeritus of Chemistry at Harvard University, provide a readily understandable study of "wave mechanics," discussing the Schrodinger wave equation and the problems which can be solved with it. Introduction to Quantum Mechanics is a perfect vehicle for demonstrating the practical application of quantum mechanics to a broad spectrum of chemical and physical problems.
(America’s premier scientist and peace activist Linus Paul...)
America’s premier scientist and peace activist Linus Pauling and Daisaku Ikeda worked for decades in the cause of disarmament, international understanding, and universal peace. Both men, active and vocal in their advocacy of responsible and humane progress in science, offer pointers to young people, on whose shoulders the problems of the twenty-first-century rest.
Linus Pauling was an American chemist. He was a founder of quantum chemistry, molecular biology, and molecular genetics. He received two unshared Nobel Prizes - for Chemistry (1954) and for Peace (1962).
Background
Ethnicity:
Linus Pauling's father was German and his mother was English.
Linus Carl Pauling was born on February 28, 1901, in Portland, Oregon, United States. He was the son of Herman Henry William and Lucy Isabelle (Darling) Pauling.
Linus Pauling's lifelong fascination with chemistry was ignited during childhood by a friend's chemistry set. He was born to a family that lacked the resources to buy him a chemistry set, so Pauling created his own using chemicals he found in an abandoned iron smelter. He quickly taught himself more about chemistry than he could learn in his local high school.
His father realized that Linus was unusually gifted. Unsure about how to help his son, he sent a letter to The Oregonian, a newspaper, asking for advice. Sadly, this was one of his final acts. Shortly after writing the letter Herman Pauling died of a perforated ulcer. It was June 1910 and Linus was nine.
Following his father’s death, Linus’s mother paid the bills by taking in boarders.
Education
By the time he was 15, Linus had the school credits he needed to enroll at Oregon State Agricultural College in Corvallis (now Oregon State University).
Unfortunately his high school - Washington High School, Portland - refused to award him his high school diploma because he still needed two civics credits. Nevertheless, Linus left school, offering to pass the exams at college, but his high school said no to this.
The school awarded him his diploma 47 years late, in 1963, after learning that their former student had won the Nobel Peace Prize.
He received his early education in Oregon, finishing in 1922 with a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from Oregon Agricultural College in Corvallis - now Oregon State University. Already he was drawn to the challenge of how and why particular atoms form bonds with each other to create molecules with unique structures.
For postgraduate study, Pauling went to the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), which provided a stipend for research and teaching. In 1925 he received a Doctor of Philosophy degree in chemistry and mathematical physics. Awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, in 1926-1927 he studied in Europe with physicists who were exploring the implications of quantum mechanics for atomic structure. In this revolutionary new field, Pauling found a physical and mathematical framework for his own future theories regarding the molecular structure and its correlation with chemical properties and function.
During his tour, he worked with some of the biggest names in quantum mechanics, including Niels Bohr, Erwin Schrödinger, and Arnold Sommerfeld. He spent one year in Germany, during which time he became perfectly fluent in the language. He returned to Caltech in 1927, age 26, to begin work as an assistant professor of chemistry.
Pauling needed to pay his way through college. After leaving school he worked hard in a variety of jobs including milk delivery boy and shipyard laborer. His mother helped him get a job as an apprentice machinist, which paid a good wage. She hoped this would tempt him to abandon his plans for college.
He supported himself with a variety of jobs through two years of college. He then told his lecturers he needed to go back to Portland and find a job to support his sick mother. His lecturers wanted him to complete his degree: they had identified him as an extraordinarily gifted student.
The college made Pauling an assistant chemistry instructor. Aged just 18, he could now support his mother financially and continue his degree course. But it was very hard work. His teaching work required about 40 contact hours a week with students.
Pauling’s mother died in 1919, shortly after Pauling began work as a college instructor.
After his enrollment at California Institute of Technology, he was a teaching fellow in 1922-1925 and a research fellow in 1925-1927. He worked at the California Institute of Technology as an assistant professor in 1927-1929, and an associate professor in 1929-1931. He became a professor of chemistry in 1931-1964.
In 1936-1958 he was a chairman of the division of chemical and chemical engineering and a director at the California Institute of Technology (Gates and Crellin Laboratories of Chemistry). He was also a member of the Executive Committee, the board of trustees, there in 1945-1948.
He worked as a research professor at the Center for Study Democratic Institutions in 1963-1967.
Pauling was a professor of chemistry at the University of California at San Diego, (1967-1969) and a professor of chemistry at Stanford (1969-1974).
In 1974 he became the president of the Linus Pauling Institute of Science and Medicine and worked here as a research professor until 1994.
Linus Pauling also was a lecturer in chemistry at several universities.
During WWII, Pauling's laser-like focus on his work shifted for the first time since his childhood. He took a public stance against war and the use of nuclear weapons while advocating for international diplomacy through the United Nations. He was later awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his crusade against nuclear-weapons testing.
His political activism brought on suspicion that he was a communist. Due to irrational distrust of liberalism among United States political leaders at the time, he was blacklisted and was not allowed to leave the country. His belief in pacifism may have cost him what could have been the crowning achievement of his career.
Views
After Linus Pauling joined the Caltech faculty in the autumn of 1927, he continued his intensive research on the formation of chemical bonds between atoms in molecules and crystals. To chart bond angles and distances characteristic of particular atoms in relation to other atoms, he used x-ray diffraction (learned earlier as a graduate student) - supplemented after 1930 by electron diffraction, an even newer technique that he brought to the United States from Europe. Quantum mechanics enabled Pauling to explain the bonding phenomenon theoretically in a far more satisfactory way than before. He began to formulate generalizations regarding the atomic arrangements in crystals with ionic bonding, in which negatively charged electrons, orbiting around the positively charged nucleus, are transferred from one atom to another. “Pauling's Rules” proved of great value in deciphering and interpreting ionic structures, particularly the complex ones of many silicate minerals.
Pauling discovered that in many cases the type of bonding - whether ionic or covalent (formed by a sharing of electrons between bonded atoms) - could be determined from a substance's magnetic properties. He also established an electronegativity scale of the elements for use in bonds of an intermediate character (having both ionic and covalent bonding); the smaller the difference in electronegativity between two atoms, the more the bond between them approaches a purely covalent bond. To explain covalent bonding, Pauling introduced two major new concepts, based on quantum mechanics: bond-orbital hybridization and bond resonance.
Hybridization reorganizes an atom's electron cloud so that some electrons assume positions favorable for bonding. Since the carbon atom can form four bonds, tetrahedrally arranged - a central structural feature of organic chemistry - Pauling's explanation of it and of many related features of covalent bonding attracted attention from chemists around the world. Resonance is a rapid jumping of electrons back and forth between two or more possible positions in a bond network. Resonance makes a major contribution to the structural geometry and stability of many substances, such as benzene or graphite, for which a static, non-resonating bond system would be inadequate. Pauling later extended his bond resonance concept to a theory of bonding in metals and intermetalic compounds.
Pauling's innovative concepts, published beginning in the late 1920s, together with numerous examples of their application to particular chemical compounds or compound groups gave chemists fundamental principles to apply to the growing body of chemical knowledge. They could also accurately predict new compounds and chemical reactions on a theoretical basis that was far more satisfactory than the straight empiricism of pre-Pauling chemistry.
In 1939 Pauling brought together his work on these subjects in his definitive book The Nature of the Chemical Bond and the Structure of Molecules and Crystals, which became a classic and was translated into many languages. Its third edition appeared in 1960 and has remained in print to this day. The original handwritten manuscript was given by a former student of Pauling's to the Linus Pauling Institute of Science and Medicine and is now part of the Ava Helen and Linus Pauling Papers in the Valley Library at Oregon State University.
Pauling's interest in molecular structure continued throughout his long career, and the theoretical calculations involved meant utter happiness to him. He used what he called the "stochastic method," which drew upon his own encyclopedic knowledge and formidable memory and allowed him to postulate a likely molecular structure, based on reasoning and theoretical calculation. Detailed laboratory verifications would often be carried out by associates - as with most of his research projects. Many of his discoveries and inventions were then expanded upon and utilized profitably in the industry by others. And though in later years he was primarily involved in biomedical research, his curiosity often impelled him to identify the intricate structures of many clay minerals, transition metals, intermetallic compounds, and other substances. In 1992 he was awarded one of his last patents for a novel technique of fabricating superconductive materials.
Pauling's involvement with human physiology and health, which dominated the last three decades of his research career, had long precedents. During the mid-1930s a significant part of his research, generously funded by the Rockefeller Foundation, moved into biochemistry - a field he had previously avoided - as he became increasingly interested in the highly complex molecules within living organisms. Applying techniques used in earlier diffraction studies to biological compounds, he now sought to understand the structure of proteins.
In 1934 he investigated the magnetic properties of hemoglobin, the oxygen-carrying molecule in red blood cells. He then studied the roles of antigens and antibodies in the immune response, one aspect of the important phenomenon of specificity in biochemical interactions.
In 1940 he made the novel proposal that this specificity is achieved through molecular complementariness, which he regarded as the secret of life. The concept - involving a "hand-in-glove" fit of one molecule against or into another molecule that has a shape complementary to the first - was tested in his laboratory over the next 10 years by means of numerous serological experiments, yielding results published in no less than 34 scientific papers. In 1946 Pauling postulated that the gene might consist of two mutually complementary strands - a concept anticipating Watson and Crick's discovery of DNA structure seven years later.
Pauling originated the concept of molecular disease. In 1945, while hearing a physician describe sickle cell anemia, he instantly surmised that it might be caused by a defect in the red blood cell's hemoglobin. After three years of painstaking research, he and his associate Dr. Harvey Itano identified this prevalent disease as molecular in origin - caused by a genetically transmitted abnormality in the hemoglobin molecule. In susceptible patients, hemoglobin molecules in venous blood, lacking oxygen, become self-complementary; distorted and sticking together, they form long rods that interfere with blood circulation.
Pauling's description of this first molecular disease (as he called it) initiated a search for many more such disorders. The new idea quickly became immensely important in medicine and is now the main focus of human genome research. Thus the medical specialties of hematology, serology, immunology, applied genetics, and pathology owe much to Pauling's contributions, which were made long before his intense interest in the promise of nutritional therapy became widely known.
He invented a meter that monitored oxygen levels in submarines and airplanes; the device later provided invaluable in ensuring safe levels of that life-sustaining gas for premature infants in incubators and for surgery patients under anesthesia.
With an associate, Dr. Pauling originated a synthetic form of blood plasma for use in emergency transfusions in battlefield clinics. He also took part in a wartime presidential commission formed to recommend future directions of government-funded scientific and medical research programs. Two major outcomes were the postwar expansion of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), allowing for extramural research funding, and the creation of the National Science Foundation. Acknowledging Pauling's patriotic wartime activities, President Harry Truman in 1948 presented the Presidential Medal for Merit to him "for outstanding services to the United States from October 1940 to June 1946."
While a visiting lecturer at Oxford University in 1948, Pauling had a sudden insight regarding the fundamental structure of proteins, and insight that had eluded him for more than a decade. Working with a sheet of paper that he folded over at sites where he knew from theoretical considerations that the chain could bend, he found that the polypeptide chain, formed from sequences of amino acids, would coil into a particular helical structure, which he named the alpha helix. He based this theoretical configuration on chemical-bonding considerations plus x-ray diffraction evidence from certain fibrous proteins. This proposal, as well as a companion concept of a related "pleated sheet" structure, proved correct. Subsequent x-ray diffraction studies have found that the alpha helix is a major component of both globular and fibrous proteins and extensively controls their structure and function.
A few years later, in 1953, Watson and Crick proposed that the structure for DNA, the genetic substance of living things, is a two-stranded double helix, with one strand of the helix complementary to the other. Pauling's proposals of helical structure and molecular complementariness underlay their theory. (Possibly Pauling, who also pursued DNA's structure, would have discovered the double helix himself had he attended a 1952 London conference and seen, as did Watson and Crick, crucial new DNA x-ray diffraction data, but this trip was prevented by the denial of a passport.) Confirmation and knowledge of the DNA structure immediately launched the new field of molecular genetics, which has revolutionized virtually all of biology.
Quotations:
"When I was a boy, 18 years old, I became interested in the question of just why are atoms held a certain distance apart. How far apart are they when they are bonded together and what is it that holds them at this distance? What is the chemical bond between atoms? What are the structures of molecules? They were just beginning to be determined."
"Most scientific discoveries, made by some person say, would have been made very shortly by someone else if that person hadn’t existed. And yet it seems to me that I have introduced into my work on the chemical bond a way of thinking that might not have been introduced by anyone else, at least not for quite a while. I suppose that the complex of ideas that I originated in the period around 1928 to 1933 - 1931 was probably my most important paper - has had the greatest impact on chemistry."
Membership
To Linus Pauling came many honors. In 1933, at the remarkably young age of 32, he was elected to the prestigious National Academy of Sciences, and in 1936 to the equally prestigious American Philosophical Society. In 1948 he became a foreign member of The Royal Society of London, the premier honorary scientific society of Great Britain. Many other scientific societies and associations throughout the world made him a member or honorary member.
National Academy of Sciences
,
United States
1933
American Philosophical Society
,
United States
1936
The Royal Society of London
,
United Kingdom
1948
Alpha Chi Sigma
,
United States
American Chemical Society
,
United States
Royal Society of Arts
,
United Kingdom
1960
Personality
A multifaceted genius with a zest for communication, Linus Pauling for years was probably the most visible, vocal, and accessible American scientist. He was a master at explaining difficult, even abstruse, medical, and scientific information in terms understandable to intelligent laypersons. He wrote numerous articles and books for the general public - on science, peace, and health.
Linus Pauling was never reluctant to inspire or enter into controversy by expressing unorthodox scientific ideas, taking a strong moral position, or rousing the public to some worthy cause. He often provoked the scientific, medical, and political communities with his imaginative scientific hypotheses and strong social activism. He took professional and personal risks that most of his colleagues avoided. Steadfast and stubborn, yet rarely losing his cheerful equilibrium, he continued on his chosen and sometimes solitary path as a visionary of science and a prophet of humanity.
In 1962, during the Kennedy administration, the Paulings were invited to a special party at the White House honoring Nobel laureates. Dr. Pauling spent the day outside the gates carrying a placard that protested atmospheric nuclear testing. Then that evening, he and his wife sat down to an elegant dinner with the Kennedys. And when some live music was played, the couple felt inspired to get up and dance - to the delight of onlookers.
Along with other eminent scientists (such as Einstein) who felt a moral imperative to voice concerns about where the post-Hiroshima human society was heading, he began to speak out against further development, testing, abuse of nuclear arms, as well as against new state-imposed "loyalty oaths."
During the infamous McCarthy era in the early 1950s, he was treated almost as a traitor. Despite his past patriotism, for several years he was denied a passport to travel abroad to scientific conferences. The State Department's reason: "Not in the best interests of the United States." Only in 1954, when Pauling received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, was an unrestricted passport reinstated.
Physical Characteristics:
A black beret worn over a shock of curly white hair became Pauling's trademark, along with a pair of lively blue eyes that conveyed his intense interest in challenging topics.
Quotes from others about the person
“There was no one like Linus in all the world. The combination of his prodigious mind and his infectious grin was unbeatable.” - James Watson.
“Linus Pauling should be regarded as the father of molecular biology.” - Francis Crick
“Mr. Pauling possesses one of the best minds I have ever observed in a person of his age, and in many ways, he is superior to his instructors.” - Floyd Rowland, chair of Chemical Engineering, Oregon State Agricultural College, professor.
Connections
Linus Pauling always emphasized the importance of having a full and happy personal life. In 1923 he married Ava Helen Miller, who had been a student in a chemistry course he taught while still an undergraduate at Oregon Agricultural College. Dr. Pauling frequently credited his wife with influencing the development of his social consciousness. She was greatly involved in peace activities, both with her husband and on her own. Pauling said that his Nobel Peace Prize should really have gone to her, or at least been shared between them. In his talks and informal writings he often spoke both tenderly and humorously of their complementary partnership. She died in 1981. In tribute to her dedication to world peace, the Ava Helen and Linus Pauling Lectureship in World Peace has been established by the Paulings' alma mater, Oregon State University in Corvallis, where the Paulings' papers, medals, and other memorabilia are housed in Special Collections at the Valley Library. Additionally, the Linus Pauling Institute established the endowed Ava Helen Pauling Chair in 2001 to honor Ava Helen Pauling's memory.
The Paulings had four children. Linus Pauling, Jr., Doctor of Medicine, a psychiatrist, lives in Honolulu. Peter Pauling, Doctor of Philosophy, a crystallographer and retired lecturer in chemistry, resided in Wales until his death in 2003. Linda Pauling Kamb lives in the home originally built by her parents in the foothills above Pasadena. Her husband, a former Caltech professor of geology and vice president and provost, died in 2011. Crellin Pauling, Doctor of Philosophy, was a professor of biology at San Francisco State University until his death in 1997. There are 15 grandchildren and 19 great-grandchildren.