Influential Chemists and Mathematicians

Linus Pauling

• Chemist, winner of two Nobel Prizes (Chemistry and Peace)
• Early proponent of quantum mechanics in chemistry
• Published The Nature of the Chemical Bond (1939) – influential chemistry text
• Developed five rules for ionic crystal structure and described atomic orbitals in covalent compounds
• Covalent bonding involves electron sharing, position flexibility

Kathleen Lonsdale

• Developed X-ray techniques to study chemical compounds
• Determined benzene's hexagonal carbon ring structure
• Used X-ray crystallography to analyze bladder stones and relaxant drugs
• Became one of two women fellows at the Royal Society, London (previously men-only)

John von Neumann

• Hungarian-born mathematician
• Developed early high-speed electronic digital computers
• Worked at Princeton University from 1930
• Created a model for computer architecture now called von Neumann architecture, allowing programs and data storage
• Helped develop weather predictions

Wendell Stanley

• Determined virus molecular structures using X-ray diffraction
• Shared 1946 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for research on tobacco mosaic virus
• Helped develop influenza vaccine during World War II
• Crystallized polio virus, a key step in creating a polio vaccine

Rita Levi-Montalcini

• Faced challenges with her father and societal expectations regarding women's roles
• Studied medicine at University of Turin; later made major discoveries about nerve growth factors (NGFs)
• Moved to the US in 1947 and became a professor
• NGFs are key factors in many diseases and were later recognized
• Won (1986) Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
• Worked with Stanley Cohen

Ruby Payne-Scott

• Australian radio physicist
• Worked with the radiophysics laboratory in the 1940s/50s
• One of only two women physicists
• Developed radar for Australia's coastline (WWII)
• Measured radio emissions from the Sun.
• Worked with a team to develop a method to measure radio emissions

Jonas Salk

• American virologist
• Developed the first safe and effective polio vaccine
• The vaccine used killed virus, not live
• Large-scale trials (1954) were successful
• Vaccine was effective but not long-lasting
• Polio vaccine was part of a race with Albert Sabin

Lyman Spitzer Jr.

• Renowned US astrophysicist
• First scientist to conceptualize space telescopes
• Highlights the problem of detecting non-visible radiation through Earth's atmosphere
• Proposed to put telescopes in space
• Campaign for space telescope lead to funding for Hubble Space Telescope

Robert Edwards

• British physiologist
• Developed "test-tube" pregnancy techniques
• Worked on fertilization (1955)
• Spent 20 years creating artificial fertilization methods (outside the body)
• Developed methods along with Patrick Steptoe resulting in the world's first in vitro fertilization (IVF) baby in 1978
• Awarded 2010 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine.

Rita Levi-Montalcini

• Faced challenges with her father and societal expectations about women's roles
• Pursued medical studies at the University of Turin and made major discoveries about nerve growth factors (NGFs)
• Became a professor in the US.
• Won (1986) Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
• Worked with Stanley Cohen.