Richard R. Ernst
Biographical Information
Richard R. Ernst, Nobel Laureate, is Professor Emeritus of the Swiss Federal Institute of
Technology Zürich, Switzerland, Laboratorium für Physikalische Chemie, ETH Zürich,
Switzerland. Richard Ernst developed a fascination for mathematics, music, and chemistry
as well as an appreciation of the world’s “multiple dimensions” as a young child.
After having received his Ph. D. in Technical Sciences from the Swiss Federal Institute of
Technology in Zurich, he decided he wanted to experience more than the “Ivory Tower”
of academia and felt it would be “more useful” to go into industry. In 1962 he went to
work with Wes Anderson at Varian Associates, a company doing pioneering research in
radar and microwave technology in Palo Alto, California. He returned to the ETH in 1968
where he became Full Professor in 1976. Building upon the earlier ideas of Wes Anderson,
Jean Jeener, Paul lauterbur and others, there he explored the possibilities of interpreting
the multidimensional information in nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). He was
awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1991, for his contributions to the development
of the methodology of high resolution NMR spectroscopy. Professor Ernst is also a leading
expert on Tibetan Art and is equally passionate about important issues that involve the
responsibility of scientists in society. |
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