Jerome Karle - Part II

May 7, 2010

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When Jerome Karle entered the &#&University of Michigan&#& in 1940 he met Isabella Lugoski. By fate she was sitting at an adjoining laboratory desk the first day he went to physical chemistry class. He married her in 1942.

Isabella and Jerome were both attracted to physical chemistry and took their degrees with Professor Lawrence O. Brockay. He completed his studies in 1943, and went off to work on the Manhattan Project at the University of Chicago, which his wife joined a few months later. Dr. Isabella Karle was one of the youngest scientist and few women on the project.

That was the reason why Jerome Karle was awarded his Ph.D. at the &#&University of Michigan&#& the following year, 1944.

They returned from Chicago to the &#&University of Michigan&#&, where Jerome worked on a project for the United States Naval Research Laboratory and in 1946, they moved to Washington, D.C. to work both of them for the Naval Research Laboratory.

Jerome and Isabella had three daughters, all of whom work in science-related fields. Louise (born 1946) is a theoretical chemist. Jean (1950) is an organic chemist. Their youngest daughter, Madeleine (1955) is a museum specialist with expertise in the field of geology.

After World War II , while in Washington Jerome Karle began an important collaboration with Herb Hauptman exploring new ways to determine the structure of crystals using x-ray diffraction techniques.

In 1953 Karle and Hauptman published a monograph, The Phases and Magnitudes of the Structure Factors, in which they demonstrated how phase structures could be inferred directly from diffraction patterns.

Their method was neglected for some years after its publication, but the efforts of Karle's chemist wife, Isabella, to point out its potential applications gradually induced crystallographers to begin using the method to determine the three-dimensional structure of thousands of small biological molecules, including those of many hormones, vitamins, and antibiotics.

Before Karle and Hauptman developed their method, it took two years to deduce the structure of a simple biological molecule; in the 1980s, using powerful computers to perform the complex calculations demanded by their method, the task took about two days. This technique has been of fantastic help in the development of new pharmaceutical products and other synthesized materials.

For their work in this field, Hauptman and Karle shared the 1985 Nobel Prize for chemistry.

Jerome and Isabella Karle retired from the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory on July 31, 2009, after a combined 127 years of service to the United States Government. Jerome Karle joined the NRL in 1944 and his wife two years later.

Jerome Karle held the Chair of Science as Chief Scientist of the Laboratory for the Structure of Matter when he retired from government service.

Jerome and Isabella Karle were awarded with the Department of the Navy Distinguished Civilian Service Award, the Navy's highest form of recognition to civilian employees.