RICHARD R. ERNST
LECTURES
PRESENTATION
Prof. Dr. Richard R. Ernst
Prof. Dr. Richard R. Ernst
Richard R. Ernst became full Professor of Physical Chemistry at ETH Zurich in 1976 and
during his tenure received the 1991 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Before his official retirement
in 1998, he directed a research group devoted to magnetic resonance spectroscopy, while
acting intermittently as director of the Laboratory of Physical Chemistry.
Born 1933 in Winterthur, he finished his studies at the ETH Zurich in 1962 with a dissertation
on nuclear magnetic resonance in the discipline of physical chemistry. In 1963 he joined Varian Associates as a scientist and developed Fourier-transform NMR, noise decoupling and
several other techniques. Richard Ernst returned to ETH Zurich in 1968 and became Lecturer in the same year. He was promoted to Assistant Professor in 1970, Associate Professor
in 1972 and full Professor in 1976.
Since 1968, he conducted a research group that concentrated on methodological developments in liquid state and solid state NMR. He developed two-dimensional NMR and many
novel pulse techniques. He contributed to the development of medical magnetic resonance
tomography and, in collaboration with Professor Kurt Wüthrich, to the development of NMR
structure determination of biopolymers in solution.
Picture Front: Historical NMR image of the head of Richard R. Ernst from 1985, taken in the
Radiology at the University Hospital in Zurich.
For his contributions to the development of the methodology of high resolution nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, Richard R. Ernst received the 1991 Nobel Prize in
Chemistry.
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Lately, he has been involved in the study of intramolecular dynamics.
In addition to his research, Richard R. Ernst has been and remains engaged in numerous
other activities. He was president of the Reseach Council of ETH Zurich and is presently a
member of the Swiss Science Council, the COST Committee, the Foundation Marcel Benoist, the Hochschulrat of the Technische Universität Munich and Vicepresident of the Board
of Bruker AG, Fällanden. Furthermore he is on the editorial board of around 10 scientific
journals.
Richard R. Ernst has received numerous honours, including the Nobel Prize for Chemistry
(1991), the Wolf Prize for Chemistry (1991), the Horwitz Prize (1991), and the Marcel Benoist Prize (1986). He received honorary doctors degrees from the ETH Lausanne, Technische Universität Munich, Universität Zurich, University Antwerpen, Babes-Bolyai University,
Cluj-Napoca, and University Montpellier. He is a member of the US National Academy of
Sciences, the Royal Academy of Sciences, London, the Deutsche Akademie Leopoldina,
the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Korean Academy of Science and Technology, and
honorary member of many other societies.
Auditorium Maximum, ETH Zurich, 4.April 2012
Richard R. Ernst Lecture
The Richard R. Ernst Lecture is a yearly event organized by the Laboratory for Physical Chemistry of the ETH Zurich to honour it‘s Nobel Prize winner Professor Dr. Richard R. Ernst.
The main mission of the Richard R. Ernst Lecture is to strengthen the relationship and the
understanding among Science, Society and Politics and to raise awareness for the questions and challenges that our global society is facing today and will face in the future.
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Prof. Dr. Gottfried Schatz, Prof. Dr. Heidi Wunderli-Allenspach
Prof. Dr. Ralph Eichler, Mr. Kofi Annan, Prof. Dr. Richard R. Ernst
Richard R. Ernst Lecture 2009
Awardee; Prof. Dr. Gottfried Schatz
Richard R. Ernst Lecture 2010
Awardee; Kofi Annan
The presentation by Prof. Dr. Schatz ‚Was die chemischen Bausteine unseres Körpers von
der Herkunft des Menschen erzählen‘ (‚What the chemical building blocks of our body tell us
about the origin of human beings‘) demonstrated the amazing power of evolution by talking
about a few very interesting biological mysteries, such as vitamin B12.
The presentation ‚Scientific Research and Society‘ by Kofi Annan, followed by a round table
discussion with students from ETH Zurich, focused on the responsibilities of scientists in the
context of the challenges in the developing countries, such as diseases and nutrition.
Gottfried Schatz was born in 1936 in Strem (Austria). He took on a Professorship in Biochemistry in 1974 at the Biozentrum in Basel, of which he later became Head for several
years. He played a leading role in elucidating the biogenesis of mitochondria and was a
co-discoverer of mitochondrial DNA. From 1984 until 1989, Professor Schatz was Secretary
General of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO). After receiving emeritus
status in 2000, he served as President of the Swiss Science and Technology Council for four
years. Gottfried Schatz is the author of many publications and several books, member of
many scientific academies and has been awarded many distinguished prizes and honours
along with two honorary doctorates.
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Kofi Annan was born in 1938 in Kumasi, (Ghana). He served as United Nations Secretary
General from 1997-2006. During his tenure, he made his mark as an advocate for human
rights, the rule of law, and the revitalization of the United Nations. He has been a key player
in the fight against HIV/AIDS and a leader of the multilateral response to the global terrorist
threat.
In 2001, Kofi Annan received the Nobel Peace Prize.
Since leaving the United Nations, Kofi Annan has continued to press for better policies to
meet the needs of the poorest and most vulnerable, particularly in Africa and not only in his
capacity of Chair of the APP (Africa Progress Panel) but also as an important part of the work
of the Kofi Annan Foundation.
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Prof. Dr. Ernst Ludwig Winnacher
Prof. Dr. Sir Roger Penrose, Prof. Dr. Richard R. Ernst
Richard Ernst Lecture 2011
Awardee; Prof. Dr. Ernst Ludwig Winnacker
Richard Ernst Lecture 2012
Awardee; Prof. Dr. Sir Roger Penrose
Prof. Dr. Winnacker‘s presentation entitled ‚Wissenschaft ohne nationale Grenzen und das
Paradoxon der Forschungsförderung‘ (Science without national borders and the paradox of
research funding‘) brought up a significant theme. The proposition that not only sciences, but
also research funding agencies should be organized independently of political interests has
been debated during the following panel discussion.
The lecture held by Prof. Sir Roger Penrose ‚From Quantum Foundations to Neuronal Microtubules: New Clues to the Basics of Conscious Mentality.‘ brought up the question of whether consciousness can be explained with natural sciences and whether quantum physics or
even further theories would be necessary to achieve such understanding.
Ernst-Ludwig Winnacker, born 1941 in Frankfurt, Main (Germany), is Secretary General of
the Human Frontier Science Program Organization (HFSPO). He studied chemistry at the
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich) where he obtained his Ph.D. in 1968.
In 1977 he was appointed Associate Professor at the Institute of Biochemistry at the Ludwig
Maximilians University of Munich where he was promoted to full professor in 1980.
Professor Winnacker is a member of the US National Academy of Sciences, Institute of Medicine, and of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina. His main fields of research are
virus/cell interaction, the mechanisms of gene expression in higher cells and prion diseases.
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Sir Roger Penrose, born 1931 in Colchester (UK), is Emeritus Rouse Ball Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford and has received numerous prizes and awards, among
them the 1988 Wolf Prize for Physics, which he shared with Stephen Hawking for their joint
contribution to our understanding of the universe. In 1994, Penrose was knighted by Queen
Elisabeth II for his services to science.
Professor Dr. Sir Penrose has also written several books for the public including ‘The
Emperor’s New Mind’ and most recently ‘Cycles of Time’.
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Prof. Dr. Ahmed Hassan Zewail
Richard R. Ernst Lecture 2013
Awardee; Prof. Dr. Ahmed Hassan Zewail
In his lecture ‚Curiosity, Nobel Prizes and the Wealth of Nations’ Prof. Ahmed H. Zewail
highlighted the importance of the characteristic trait curiosity, for any person interested in a
higher education in a scientific field. Furthermore, he made the point that scientific achievements tend to increase not only the gross national product, but also the reputation of a
country, its so-called ‘soft power’.
Prof. Dr. Zewail is Linus Pauling Professor of chemistry and Professor of physics at the
California Institute of Technology (Caltech), and currently Director of the Moore Foundation’s
Center for Physical Biology at Caltech. He received his early education in Egypt before
moving to the U.S.A. and completing a Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania. After a
postdoctoral (IBM) fellowship at the University of California, Berkeley, he joined the faculty at
Caltech. On April 27, 2009, President Barack Obama appointed him to the President’s
Council of Advisors of the White House, and in November of the same year, he was named
the first United States Science Envoy to the Middle East.
Dr. Zewail has received numerous prizes and awards and was the sole recipient of the 1999
Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his pioneering developments in femtoscience. His work has
made possible the observation of atomic motions during molecular transformations on the
time scale of femtoseconds, a millionth of a billionth of a second.
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Prof. Dr. Kamil Uğurbil
Upcoming Richard R. Ernst Lecture
20. May 2014
Awardee; Prof. Dr. Kamil Uğurbil
The Laboratory for Physical Chemistry is proud to present the Richard R. Ernst Gold Medal
2014 to Professor Dr. Kamil Uğurbil.
Dr. Kamil Uğurbil is Professor in the Departments of Radiology, Neurosciences, and Medicine, and holds the McKnight Presidential Endowed Chair of Radiology at the University of
Minnesota. He is Director of the Center for Magnetic Resonance Research (CMRR).
Dr. Uğurbil was educated at the Robert Academy in Istanbul and the Columbia University
in New York where he received his Ph.D. degree in physics, and chemical physics in 1977.
After receiving his Ph. D., he worked at AT&T Bell Laboratories and subsequently returned to
Columbia University as an Assistant Professor in 1979. In 1982, he was appointed Associate
Professor at the University of Minnesota where he started the in vivo magnetic resonance
imaging and spectroscopy research effort to investigate brain function, anatomy and chemistry, using high magnetic fields. His research in this scientific field led ultimately to the
creation of the Center for Magnetic Resonance Research (CMRR, of which he is in charge).
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Publisher:
Laboratory of Physical Chemistry
ETH Zurich
Wolfgang Pauli Strasse 10
8093 Zurich
Switzerland
http://www.lpc.ethz.ch/richard-ernst-lecture
Photos on page 1 - 8 © Heidi Hostettler
LABORATORY OF PHYSICAL
CHEMISTRY