Richard Robert Ernst
Ernst, Richard Robert (1933 -) is a Swiss physical chemist who won the 1991 Nobel Prize in chemistry for his development of the methodology of high resolution nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy.
From 1970 to 1999, NMR spectroscopy had developed into perhaps the most important instrumental measuring technique within chemistry. This occurred because of a dramatic increase in both the sensitivity and the resolution of the instruments, two areas in which Ernst had contributed more than anyone else. NMR spec-troscopy is used for mapping out the structure of molecules, identifying the presence of chemical substances, and tracking the course of chemical reactions. His work was the basis for the development of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), a method used in making noninvasive diagnoses of the body.
Ernst was born Aug. 14, 1933, in Winterthur, Switzerland. Experimenting as a teen-ager with chemicals found in the attic of his home convinced him that he wanted to become a chemist. He obtained his first degree at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich in 1957. He remained there to begin his postgraduate research. After receiving his doctorate in 1962, Ernst moved to the United States to become a research scientist at Varian Associates, a medical technology company in Palo Alto, California. He was instrumental in the development of an advanced system of NMR called Fourier-transform NMR spectroscopy. Varian patented the process, but other companies developed commercial instruments based on it.
In 1968, he returned to the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich to head an NMR research group. The developments that he pioneered led the way to the use of NMR to discover the three-dimensional structure of molecules, especially of giant biomolecules, which are involved in the life processes of plants and animals. His work also transformed all the applications of NMR, making it a sensitive instrument for determining the chemical composition of compounds and for understanding the interactions of atoms in chemical reactions.