Linus Carl Pauling - Part V

June 14, 2010

Send to a friend | Printable Version

In 1952 by his political activism as a pacifist the U.S. State Department denied him a passport and he couldn't assist to speak at a scientific conference in London where he had been invited.

In 1954 his passport was restored a little time before he received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for "his research into the nature of the chemical bond and its applications to the elucidation of the structure of complex substances" in Stockholm.

When awarding him the Nobel Prize in Chemistry the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences cited his seminal work on the nature of the chemical bond and the structure of molecules and crystals and also acknowledged his application of the resulting concepts to the elucidation of the structure proteins, specifically the alpha helix.

Dr. Linus Pauling began to use his elevated new position as a Nobel laureate to good effect in his growing social and peace activism. In 1958 he published a book named No More War. It was a plea for international peace and became an instant best-seller.

He and his wife strongly opposed nuclear testing. They could gather signature and support of 11,000 scientists for their petition against nuclear testing in front of the United Nations.

Linus and Ava began to perform a great deal of activities and actions to stop nuclear tests in different countries besides the United States.

On January 2, 1961, Time magazine chose the scientists of the United States as its "Men of the Year." Linus Pauling was one of the selected ones on the cover of the magazine. In 1962, believe it or not, graduate summa cum laude Dr. Linus Pauling received his &#&high-school&#& diploma from Washington &#&High School&#& in Portland, Oregon.

When On August 5, 1963, after more than eight years of difficult negotiations, the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union signed the Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Pauling's six-year unrelenting anti-testing campaign was finally vindicated

On October 10, 1963, the day on which the limited test ban went into effect, it was announced that Linus Pauling would be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 1962 in Norway. Dr Linus Pauling became the only person ever to receive two unshared Nobel Prizes and one of only four individuals to have won multiple Nobel Prizes.

There was an important member of the selection committee in Norway who commented that without Dr. Pauling's galvanizing impetus probably the treaty would not have been signed.

Dr. Linus Pauling was one of the most influential chemists in history and ranks among the most important scientists in any field of the 20th century, he was among the first scientists to work in the fields of quantum chemistry, molecular biology, and orthomolecular medicine.