"It is sometimes said that science has nothing to do with morality. This is wrong. Science is the search for truth, the effort to understand the world; it involves the rejection of bias, of dogma, of revelation, but not the rejection of morality... "
-Linus Carl Pauling
Dr. Pauling & Wife Ava
Linus Carl Pauling was born in Portland, Oregon, on February 28, 1901, the son of a pharmacist, Henry H.W. Pauling, and Lucy (Darling) Pauling. From an early age, Linus enjoyed mathematics and discovering how the world worked. His father realized that Linus was unusually gifted. Unsure about how to help his son, he sent a letter to The Oregonian, a newspaper, asking for advice. Sadly, this was one of his final acts. Shortly after writing the letter Herman Pauling died of a perforated ulcer in June 1910, Linus was nine years old. Thus, his mother Lucy Isabelle had to raise Linus and his two sisters, Pauline, and Frances Lucille, alone. Linus attended Washington High School in Portland. Unfortunately, his high school refused to award him his high school diploma because he still needed two civics credits. Nevertheless, Linus left school, offering to pass the exams at college, but his high school said no to this. The school awarded him his diploma 47 years late, in 1963, after learning that their former student had won the Nobel Peace Prize.
Linus needed to pay his way through college. After leaving high school he worked hard in a variety of jobs including milk delivery boy and shipyard laborer. His mother helped him get a job as an apprentice machinist, which paid a good wage. She hoped this would tempt him to abandon his college plans. He resigned his apprenticeship when, in October 1917, at the age of 16, he moved to Corvallis to begin a chemical engineering degree. He continued to support himself with a variety of jobs through two years of college. He then told his lecturers he needed to go back to Portland and find a job to support his sick mother. His instructors wanted him to complete his degree as they had identified him as an extraordinarily gifted student. The college made Linus an assistant chemistry instructor. At age 18, he could now support his mother financially and continue his degree course. But it was extremely hard work. His teaching work required about 40 contact hours a week with students. His mother died in 1919, shortly after Linus began work as a college instructor.
In his final two years at college, he devoted himself to physical chemistry – particularly the field of chemical bonding. He wanted to understand how electrons arrange themselves around nuclei so that the overall mutual attraction allows atoms to form stable molecules. In 1922 after completing his chemical engineering degree at Oregon State College, he moved south to graduate school at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). At Caltech, he used X-ray diffraction to study the structure of crystals. While he was pursuing his graduate studies at Caltech, he published seven papers on the crystal structure of minerals.
Family Life
During his studies, he married Ava Helen Miller on June 17, 1923. They eventually had four children, Linus (Carl) Jr. (1925), Peter Jeffress (1931), Linda Helen (1932), and Edward Crellin (1937). Ava had been a student in a chemistry course he taught while still an undergraduate at Oregon State College.
The last reported professions and whereabouts of the Pauling’s children are Linus Pauling, Jr., M.D., a psychiatrist, who lives in Honolulu. Peter Pauling, Ph.D., a crystallographer and retired lecturer in chemistry, resided in Wales until he died in 2003. Linda Pauling Kamb lives in the home originally built by her parents in the foothills above Pasadena. Her husband, a former Caltech professor of geology and vice president and provost, died in 2011. Crellin Pauling, Ph.D., was a professor of biology at San Francisco State University until he died in 1997. The Pauling’s have 15 grandchildren and 19 great-grandchildren.
Ava with children
Post-Doctoral Studies
In 1925 Linus received a Ph.D. in chemistry and mathematical physics. A Guggenheim Fellowship allowed Dr. Pauling to travel to Europe for two years. There he immersed himself in quantum mechanics, using mathematics to understand the behavior of electrons in atoms. During his tour, he worked with some of the biggest names in quantum mechanics, including Niels Bohr, Erwin Schrödinger, and Arnold Sommerfeld. He spent one year in Germany, during which time he became perfectly fluent in the language. In this revolutionary new field, Dr. Pauling found a physical and mathematical framework for his future theories regarding the molecular structure and its correlation with chemical properties and function.
In Europe in the late 1920s Pauling began using quantum mechanics – specifically Shrödinger’s wave equation – to understand more complex systems consisting of multiple nuclei and multiple electrons i.e., chemical compounds. He returned to Caltech in 1927, age 26, to begin work as an assistant professor of chemistry.
At Caltech, he continued his intensive research on the formation of chemical bonds between atoms in molecules and crystals. To chart bond angles and distances characteristic of atoms in relation to other atoms. Quantum mechanics enabled Dr. Pauling to explain the bonding phenomenon theoretically in a far more satisfactory way than before. He began to formulate generalizations regarding the atomic arrangements in crystals with ionic bonding, in which negatively charged electrons, orbiting around the positively charged nucleus, are transferred from one atom to another. “Pauling's Rules” proved of great value in deciphering and interpreting ionic structures, particularly the complex ones of many silicate minerals.
Dr. Pauling discovered that in many cases the type of bonding — whether ionic or covalent (formed by a sharing of electrons between bonded atoms) — could be determined from a substance's magnetic properties. He also established an electronegativity scale of the elements for use in bonds of an intermediate character (having both ionic and covalent bonding); the smaller the difference in electronegativity between two atoms, the more the bond between them approaches a purely covalent bond. To explain covalent bonding, Pauling introduced two major new concepts, based on quantum mechanics: bond-orbital hybridization and bond resonance.
Chemical Bonds and Pauling’s Rules
Hybridization reorganizes an atom's electron cloud so that some electrons assume positions favorable for bonding. Since the carbon atom can form four bonds, tetrahedrally arranged — a central structural feature of organic chemistry — Dr. Pauling's explanation of it and many related features of covalent bonding attracted attention from chemists around the world. Resonance is a rapid jumping of electrons back and forth between two or more possible positions in a bond network. Resonance makes a major contribution to the structural geometry and stability of many substances. Dr. Pauling later extended his bond resonance concept to a theory of bonding in metals and intermetallic compounds.
Thus, Dr. Pauling's innovative concepts, published beginning in the late 1920s, together with numerous examples of their application to chemical compounds or compound groups gave chemists fundamental principles to apply to the growing body of chemical knowledge. They could also accurately predict new compounds and chemical reactions on a theoretical basis that was far more satisfactory than the straight empiricism of pre-Pauling chemistry.
In the early 1930’s Dr. Pauling also became increasingly interested in human physiology. In 1934 he investigated the magnetic properties of hemoglobin, the oxygen-carrying molecule in red blood cells. He then studied the roles of antigens and antibodies in the immune response, one aspect of the important phenomenon of specificity in biochemical interactions. During the mid-1930s, a significant part of his research, generously funded by the Rockefeller Foundation, moved into biochemistry and his interests shifted into molecules within living organisms. Applying techniques used in earlier diffraction studies to biological compounds, he then sought to understand the structure of proteins.
In 1939, Dr. Pauling presented some of his work on these subjects in his definitive book The Nature of the Chemical Bond and the Structure of Molecules and Crystals. This work soon became a classic and was translated into many languages. Its third edition appeared in 1960 and has remained in print to this day.
In the early 1930s, Pauling took over the teaching of freshman chemistry at Caltech. His modern theoretical approach to chemistry, unique charismatic lecturing style, and energetic showmanship (the laboratory demonstrations occasionally become pyrotechnical displays) made him an extremely popular professor. He also instructed students about his current research, giving them insight into the professional chemist's work. In 1931 Caltech promoted him to full professor of chemistry.
By the early 1930s, Dr. Pauling was able to show that quantum chemistry could do more than produce results that agreed with experiments. He used it to correctly predict the properties of molecules and their structures. Based on his electronegativity scale, Dr. Pauling made the unexpected prediction that the noble gas xenon could form compounds. It took three decades before researchers were able to show his prediction was correct.
In 1931, the American Chemical Society awarded Dr. Pauling the Langmuir Prize for the most significant work in pure science by a person 30 years of age or younger. The following year, Pauling published what he regarded as his most important paper, in which he first laid out the concept of hybridization of atomic orbitals and analyzed the tetravalency of the carbon atom.
In 1947 he put his new approach to chemical education into General Chemistry, a textbook that greatly influenced the teaching of chemistry worldwide by redirecting it from its traditional, purely empirical basis into the new chemical bond approach.
In 1940, he developed the concept of molecular complementarity, carried out in antigen-antibody reactions, a work in which the German biologist Max Delbrück participated. Through his research, Dr. Pauling was able to recognize the helical structure of certain proteins, in conjunction with the American chemist Robert B. Corey.
When World War II began, Dr. Pauling offered the U.S. government the use of his laboratory and his services as a research consultant. He devised some impressive explosives (one called "Linusite") and missile propellants for the Navy. He invented a meter that monitored oxygen levels in submarines and airplanes. This device later provided invaluable in ensuring safe levels of that life-sustaining gas for premature infants in incubators and surgery patients under anesthesia.
With an associate, Dr. Pauling originated a synthetic form of blood plasma for use in emergency transfusions in battlefield clinics. He also took part in a wartime presidential commission formed to recommend future directions of government-funded scientific and medical research programs. Two major outcomes were the postwar expansion of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), allowing for extramural research funding, and the creation of the National Science Foundation. Acknowledging Pauling's patriotic wartime activities, President Harry Truman in 1948 presented the Presidential Medal for Merit to him "for outstanding services to the United States from October 1940 to June 1946."
Criticism of Atomic Weapons
After the war ended Dr. Pauling again focused on his protein-structure studies at Caltech. Around this time, he originated the concept of ‘molecular disease’. In 1945, while hearing a physician describe sickle cell anemia, he surmised that it might be caused by a defect in the red blood cells hemoglobin. After three years of diligent research, he and his associate Dr. Harvey Itano ascertained this prevalent disease as molecular in origin, caused by a genetically transmitted abnormality in the hemoglobin molecule. In susceptible patients, hemoglobin molecules in venous blood, lacking oxygen, become self-complementary; distorted, they stick together and form long rods that interfere with blood circulation. This led him to search for more molecular disease disorders. Thus, the medical specialties of hematology, serology, immunology, applied genetics, and pathology owe much to Dr. Pauling's contributions, which were made long before his intense interest in the promise of nutritional therapy became widely known.
However, after witnessing the disasters caused by the dropping of nuclear bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Dr. Pauling became passionately involved with the pacifist movement. In 1946, Dr. Pauling became a member of the Emergency Committee of Atomic Scientists, an organization that warned the public of the hazards associated with the development of nuclear weapons. One of the main founders of this committee was Albert Einstein, which aimed to raise awareness about the dangers associated with the development of nuclear weapons. The following year, Dr. Pauling signed the Russell-Einstein Manifesto, appealing to the search for peaceful solutions during the cold war.
Unfortunately, due to his passivist beliefs, during the infamous McCarthy era in the early 1950s, he was treated almost as a traitor. Despite his past patriotism, for several years he was denied a passport to travel abroad to scientific conferences. The State Department's reason: "Not in the best interests of the United States." It was not until 1954 when Dr. Pauling received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry that his passport was reinstated.
In 1958, Pauling participated in the ‘Baby Tooth Survey’, which demonstrated the dangers of above-ground nuclear testing. After conducting various investigations concerning the risks posed by nuclear tests for public health, including genetic mutation, Dr. Pauling and his wife brought before the United Nations a petition signed by more than 11,000 scientists for the cessation of the nuclear tests in 1958. Unfortunately, U.S. nuclear tests continued until September 1992. Overall, the U.S. conducted more nuclear tests than all other countries combined. While the early nuclear tests were carried out at remote islands in the Pacific Ocean, starting in July 1946 at the Bikini atoll, the brunt of U.S. nuclear testing - 928 - was conducted at the Nevada Test Site.
As international tension and competition between the U.S. and the Soviet Union accelerated, he became publicly more vocal on the buildup and proliferation of nuclear weaponry. In 1958 he published the popular book No More War!
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Protein Bonding & Alpha Helix Structure
While a visiting lecturer at Oxford University in 1948, Dr. Pauling had insight regarding the fundamental structure of proteins that had eluded him for more than a decade. Working with a sheet of paper that he folded over at sites where he knew from theoretical considerations that the chain could bend, he found that the polypeptide chain, formed from sequences of amino acids, would coil into a particular helical structure, which he named the alpha helix. He based this theoretical configuration on chemical-bonding considerations plus x-ray diffraction evidence from certain fibrous proteins. This proposal, as well as a companion concept of a related "pleated sheet" structure, proved correct. Subsequent x-ray diffraction studies have found that the alpha helix is a major component of both globular and fibrous proteins and extensively controls their structure and function.
A few years later, in 1953, Watson and Crick proposed that the structure for DNA, the genetic substance of living things, is a two-stranded double helix, with one strand of the helix complementary to the other. Pauling's proposals of helical structure and molecular complementariness underlay their theory. Confirmation and knowledge of the DNA structure immediately launched the new field of molecular genetics, which has revolutionized virtually all of biology.
In the mid-1950s Pauling extended his earlier interest in human physiology into studying the mental and somatic health of groups and individuals. Health statistics, which he had begun to use with his nuclear-hazard studies and antinuclear proselytizing, now became an epidemiological tool. For instance, he demonstrated statistically that smoking was a major threat to health, decreasing the average life span by eight years, well before the medical establishment began issuing strong warnings. He also studied other factors involved in longevity.
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry
In 1954 Pauling was the sole recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, “for his research into the nature of the chemical bond and its application to the elucidation of the structure of complex substances.” The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences cited his seminal work on the nature of the chemical bonds and the structure of molecules and crystals and acknowledged his application of the resulting concepts to elucidating the structure of proteins, specifically the alpha helix. At that time, his published research had exceeded over 650 articles, which he addressed many topics, which range from the subatomic area, such as the connection between molecular defects, to cover medical-biological topics such as hereditary diseases up to the impact of radioactivity on organisms.
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry allowed Dr. Pauling to have a strong scientific platform and more freedom to continue his peace activism. In 1959, Dr. Pauling drafted the famous "Hiroshima Appeal", the concluding document issued after the Fifth World Conference against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs.
Dr. Pauling’s wife Ava was greatly involved in the peace activities, both with her husband and on her own. Pauling said that his Nobel Peace Prize should have gone to her, or at least been shared between them. In his talks and informal writings, he often spoke both tenderly and humorously of their complementary partnership.
The Nobel Prize for Peace
Dr. Pauling was one of the prime movers who urged the nuclear powers of the USA, the Soviet Union, and Great Britain to conclude a nuclear test ban treaty, which entered into force on October 10th, 1963. On the same day, the Norwegian Nobel Committee announced that Linus Pauling had been awarded the Peace Prize that had been held over from 1962. A key member of the selection committee in Norway commented later that the treaty would probably not have been completed without Dr. Pauling's galvanizing impetus.
His peace activism continued throughout his life. For almost a decade, in the role of an elder statesman for peace, he protested adamantly against U.S. military action in Vietnam and elsewhere in Southeast Asia. He also criticized the U.S. for interfering in Latin American nations, as in Cuba and Nicaragua, and or waging war with Iraq in the Persian Gulf instead of using economic sanctions and negotiation. Decrying the strife within the former Yugoslavia, in 1991 he wrote "An Appeal for Peace in Croatia" and signed other international petitions that cited gross human-rights violations.
Dr. Pauling often urged scientists to get involved in politics and society: "It is sometimes said that science has nothing to do with morality. This is wrong. Science is the search for truth, the effort to understand the world; it involves the rejection of bias, of dogma, of revelation, but not the rejection of morality... One way in which scientists work is by observing the world, making note of phenomena, and analyzing them."
In 1964 Linus Pauling left his tenured professorship at Caltech because of pressure from administrators and conservative trustees who disapproved of his prominent, persistent anti-nuclear and international peace-promoting activities. Pauling had been at the Institute for 42 years — first as a graduate student, then as a faculty member. In 1937 he was appointed Chairman of its Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering and Director of the Gates and Crellin Laboratories — positions that he had abdicated in 1958 under administrative pressure.
Leaving Pasadena for Santa Barbara, Dr. Pauling became a founding fellow of the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions, which enabled him to pursue humanitarian issues, particularly the use of scientific thinking in solving problems in modern society. Later he held professorships in chemistry at the University of California, San Diego (1967-69), and at Stanford University (1969-73).
Close-Packed Spheron Theory of Atomic Nuclei
In 1965, Pauling authored a research paper titled, ‘Close-Packed Spheron Model of the atomic nucleus’, which was published in some of the well-respected journals including ‘Science’.
Dr. Pauling’s basic assumption here was that, in atomic nuclei, the nucleons were in large part aggregated into clusters that are arranged as closely as allowed by the laws of physics. Nuclei with more neutrons than protons were called tritons or dineutrons by Dr. Pauling. Likewise, the clusters of neutrons and protons occupying localized 1s orbitals were called spherons. The most important spherons in Dr. Pauling’s conception were aggregates of two neutrons and two protons, which he called helions, though they were already known to physicists as alpha particles. The localized 1s orbitals that these spherons occupied could also be described mathematically as hybrids of the central-field orbitals that are outlined in shell theory. This process of hybridization of orbitals provided a formal basis for relating the cluster model – of which Dr. Pauling’s theory was an extreme version – and the shell model.
Dr. Pauling also put forth the idea that the spherons in a nucleus were arranged in a series of concentric layers. For a large nucleus, the outer part of the cavity inside the surface layer was occupied by spherons that were in contact with the inner side of the surface layer. These spherons constituted a layer of their own, within which Pauling believed there might reside yet another layer of spherons. To avoid confusion with the “shells” of the shell model, he referred to his spheron layers as follows: “the mantle” for the surface layer, and the “outer core” and “inner core” for the two additional constituents of a three-layer nucleus.
He continued to develop his close-packed spheron theory of atomic nuclei and sought to use the techniques of creative visualization that had served him so well in his past theoretical work. Despite his periodic appeals to the practicality of his theory over several decades and disregarding his insistence that the theory had been vindicated by its prediction of novel discoveries, Dr. Pauling’s ideas on polyspherons were never generally accepted by his peers in either physics or chemistry. Today the utility of his model of the atomic nucleus remains in doubt.
Orthomolecular Medicine & Vitamin C
In 1966 Dr. Pauling began to explore the possible effects of vitamin C in preventing colds and flu. He had previously spoken about the importance of vitamins in the late 1930s. He summarized his views in the 1970 book Vitamin C the Common Cold and Flu. This text became a bestseller and brought wide public attention while creating a huge and continuously increasing demand for this micronutrient.
From published studies, from physiological and evolutionary reasoning, and his and his wife's own experiences, he became convinced of the value of vitamin C in large doses as a prophylactic or palliative for the common cold. Later he became convinced of ascorbate's value in not only combating the flu, but also cancer, cardiovascular disease, and numerous degenerative problems associated with the aging process. He added other micronutrients, such as vitamin E and the B vitamins, to his list of helpful supplements and published two other popular books and several papers, both scientific and popular, on nutritional therapy.
As happened during his earlier efforts in awakening the public to the dangers of nuclear weapons, Dr. Pauling's pronouncements about vitamin C and orthomolecular medicine were criticized by pharmaceutical-related organizations. Much of his published research on this subject was ignored by mainstream medicine and some critics even dismissed his ideas as quackery.
Overall, his work greatly helped establish the science of orthomolecular medicine. This field is based on the idea that substances normally present in the body, such as vitamin C, can be used to prevent disease and illness. Dr. Pauling later broadened this concept into orthomolecular medicine to mean the "right molecules in the right concentration". He further developed this approach to the prevention and treatment of disease and attainment of optimum health based on the physiological and enzymatic actions of specific nutrients, such as vitamins, minerals, and amino acids present in the body.
He maintained that biochemical individuality, molecular disease, or environmental stress may increase the need for certain micronutrients, such as vitamin C, considerably above the RDA. He also warned against the overuse of such substances as sugar and chemical sweeteners. Unlike many advocates in the field of nutritional medicine, he considered orthomolecular medicine a crucial adjunct to standard medical practice and therefore did not rule out conventional treatments, such as surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation, when considered appropriate.
Dr. Pauling’s orthomolecular roots were derived in part from the research he had done at Caltech on the mechanism of action of anesthetic agents in the brain and in exploring the possibility that mental retardation and mental illness (especially schizophrenia) were caused by various biochemical deficiencies and genetic disorders. This work in brain-fluid chemistry and studying the nutritional environment later led to collaborative clinical research with Dr. Abram Hoffer on the therapeutic efficacy of vitamins in cancer.
In 1972 Dr. Pauling co-founded the Institute of Orthomolecular Medicine, a non-profit organization for scientific research. After retiring to the status of Professor Emeritus at Stanford in 1973, the Institute of Orthomolecular Medicine has been renamed the Linus Pauling Institute of Science and Medicine. This was established primarily to conduct research and education in orthomolecular medicine, following his belief that nutrition could prevent, ameliorate, or cure many diseases, slow the aging process, and alleviate suffering. At the Linus Pauling Institute, Dr. Pauling and his staff worked on developing diagnostic tests and tools for analyzing a multitude of compounds found in bodily fluids. In his view, biochemical individuality, involving unique dietary needs specific to individuals, determines how optimum health can be achieved through the judicious use of natural substances.
As a prominent, knowledgeable, and articulate spokesman for the use of nutrients as means to achieve health, prolong life and provide inexpensive, readily available, non-toxic alternatives to drugs, Dr. Pauling gained many ardent admirers among the public. There were also doubters and critics. To the attacks from physicians and other authorities in medicine who through the years dismissed or ridiculed his assertions, Dr. Pauling always responded with solid research data and logical reasoning. As happened earlier with his outspoken antinuclear and peace activism, and even to some extent with his original work on the nature of the chemical bond, assaults from critics did not stop Dr. Pauling from maintaining his position. He utilized the media's ongoing interest in him to good effect in promoting his "regimen for better health," with vitamin C as its keystone. No doubt the public today knows Dr. Linus Pauling more for his advocacy of vitamin C and orthomolecular medicine than for his work on chemical bonds or for world peace.
Last Years
In the last few years of his life, Dr. Pauling reduced his previously frequent worldwide lecturing and associated travel. He largely divided his time between his coastal ranch, where he did theoretical work and wrote for publications, and his apartment at Stanford close to the Linus Pauling Institute, where he served as Director of Research after resigning from the chairmanship of the Board of Trustees in 1992.
Dr. Pauling continued to publish articles about health as well as reminiscences of his career in science and his peace work. He wrote many scientific papers on orthomolecular medicine and structural chemistry. The latter included more detailing of his close-packed spheron theory.
In retrospect, the breadth of Dr. Pauling's interests and research was enormous and his published work prodigious, encompassing more than 1,065 publications, from scientific and popular books and articles to book forewords and reviews to letters to editors and printed speeches. The subjects of the papers he published reflect his great scientific versatility: about 350 publications in the fields of experimental determination of the structure of crystals by the diffraction of X-rays and the interpretation of these structures in terms of the radii and other properties of atoms; the application of quantum mechanics to physical and chemical problems, including dielectric constants, X-ray doublets, momentum distribution of electrons in atoms, rotational motion of molecules in crystals, Van der Waals forces, etc.; the structure of metals and intermetallic compounds, the theory of ferromagnetism; the nature of the chemical bond, including the resonance phenomenon in chemistry; the experimental determination of the structure of gas molecules by the diffraction of electrons; the structure of proteins; the structure of antibodies and the nature of serological reactions; the structure and properties of hemoglobin and related substances; abnormal hemoglobin molecules in relation to the hereditary hemolytic anemias; the molecular theory of general anesthesia; an instrument for determining the partial pressure of oxygen in a gas; and other subjects. Published in 1939, his book ‘The Nature of the Chemical Bond’ is one of the most influential books ever published in the field of chemistry and it has been cited as a reference in many important journals and scientific papers. Pauling founded the concept of ‘molecular disease’; these discoveries inspired research work on many more such disorders and are the basis of today’s ‘human genome research’.
Both Pauling and his wife developed cancer. Ava Pauling died of stomach cancer in 1981. Ten years later Dr. Pauling discovered that he had prostate cancer. Although he underwent surgery and other treatments, cancer eventually spread to his liver. Following Dr. Pauling's death on August 19, 1994, at the age of 93 at his ranch near Big Sur on the California coast, a memorial service was held at Stanford Memorial Church in Palo Alto on Aug. 29, 1994. A grave marker for Dr. Pauling was placed in Oswego Pioneer Cemetery in Lake Oswego, Oregon by his sister Pauline, but his ashes, along with those of his wife, were not buried there until 2005.
The assets of the Linus Pauling Institute of Science and Medicine were used to establish the Linus Pauling Institute as a research institute at OSU in 1996 to investigate the function and role of micronutrients, phytochemicals, and other constituents of food in maintaining human health and preventing and treating disease.
Dr. Pauling was attacked for his political beliefs and for going outside of accepted channels in making his results widely known. Nevertheless, during his long career, he wrote more than five hundred papers and eleven books, won every important prize awarded in his field, and can be considered the most significant chemist of his time.
On March 6, 2008, the United States Postal Service released a 41 cent stamp honoring Pauling designed by artist Victor Stabin.
Linus Pauling Awards
In addition to those already mentioned, Dr. Pauling received more than four dozen honorary degrees worldwide and numerous accolades:
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1931: Langmuir Prize, by the American Chemical Society.
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1933: member of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States.
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1936 - Member of the American Philosophical Society.
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1946: Gibbs Medal, American Chemical Society, Chicago Section.
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1947: Davy Medal, awarded by the Royal Society "in recognition of his distinguished contributions to the theory of valence and for its theoretical application to systems of biological importance." 16
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1947 - Fellow of the Royal Society, London.
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1951: Lewis Medal, by the American Chemical Society, California section.
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1952: Pasteur Medal, by the Biochemical Society of France.
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1956: Avogadro Medal, by the Italian Academy of Sciences.
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1960: Man of the Year, according to Time magazine.
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1962: Gandhi Peace Prize.
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1969: Lenin Peace Prize.
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1974: National Medal of Sciences.
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1977: Lomonosov Medal, awarded by the Russian Academy of Sciences.
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1979: first recipient of the Medal of Chemistry from the United States National Academy of Sciences.
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1984: Priestley Medal, awarded by the American Chemical Society.