Ernst, Richard Robert
1933–2021, Swiss chemist, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology
Zurich (ETH Zurich; B.S., 1956, Ph.D., 1962). He worked as a research
scientist from 1963-68 in Palo Alto, Calif., before becoming a chemistry
professor in Zürich at ETH (1968-98) until he retired. He was awarded
the 1991 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work in refining nuclear magnetic
resonance (NMR) spectroscopy (see magnetic resonance). His refinements
made NMR spectroscopy, which is an important technique of chemical analysis,
up to 100 times more sensitive and has allowed the precise analysis of
biological molecular structures, which formed the basis for the development
of MRI imaging in medicine. Among his other awards and honors were the Wolf
Prize for Chemistry, the Horwitz Prize, the Marcel Benoist Prize, and 17
honorary doctorates.
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