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Linus Pauling

A Brief Biography of Linus Pauling

1901Linus Carl Pauling is born in Portland, Oregon, America.
1905He and his family move to Condon, Oregon, America.
1910Linus' father, Herman, dies at the age of 33. Linus, his mother and his two sisters move back to Portland to manage a boarding house.
1914One of Linus' friends shows him a chemical experiment, triggering Pauling's fascination with chemistry.
1917He enters Oregon Agricultural College (OAC) to study chemical engineering.
1922Pauling, now a senior, teaches a course in "Chemistry for Home Economics Majors" where he meets a student who will become his wife, Ava Helen Miller. Pauling graduates OAC with a B.S. in chemical engineering.
1923He publishes his first scientific paper, which concerns the crystal structure of molybdenite.
1925Pauling graduates summa cum laude from the California Institute of Technology with a Ph.D. in chemistry. He remains at Cal Tech for the next 38 years.
1930His paper on "The Nature of the Chemical Bond" is published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.
1933Pauling is elected to the National Academy of Sciences. In doing so he becomes the youngest ever member.
1939The Nature of the Chemical Bond book, considered to be one of the most referenced scientific publications ever, is published by Cornell University Press.
1942Pauling begins working for several divisions of the National Defense Research Commission and continues to do so until 1945.
1946At the invitation of Albert Einstein, Pauling becomes a member of the Emergency Committee of Atomic Scientists.
1948He receives the Presidential Medal of Merit of the United States.
1949Pauling is elected president of the American Chemical Society.
1954He receives 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."
1956He directs his research interests to mental illness.
1958Pauling and his wife, Ava Helen Pauling, present the petition to end nuclear-bomb testing to UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjoold. The petition contained over 11,000 signatures from scientists around the world.
1963He is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
1966In response to a letter from vitamin C advocate Irwin Stone, Pauling redirects his research interest to vitamins, micronutrients and orthomolecular medicine.
1970He publishes "Vitamin C and the Common Cold".
1973Pauling, Arthur B. Robinson and Keene Dimick found the Institute of Orthomolecular Medicine as a non-profit health research organization. This later becomes The Linus Pauling Institute of Science & Medicine.
1979He publishes "Cancer and Vitamin C" with co-author Ewan Cameron.
1986He publishes "How to Live Longer and Feel Better".
1994Pauling dies at his California ranch. He leaves more than 400,000 journals, scientific writings, papers, models and other scientific memorabilia to his undergraduate alma mater, Oregon State University. The collection makes up one of the great scientific archives of the 20th century.
1996The Linus Pauling Institute of Science & Medicine moves to Oregon State University and becomes the Linus Pauling Institute.
1997Balz Frei, Ph.D., assumes directorship of the Linus Pauling Institute and its Endowed Chair.
2001Inauguration of "The Linus Pauling Institute Prize for Health Research" at a conference in Portland, to celebrate the centennial of Linus Pauling's birth; the Ava Helen Pauling Chair is established at the Institute.

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Author: Alex Warren (document modification date - 10 May 2003)

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