Jerome Karle
Jerome Karle was an influential scientist best known for his pioneering work in crystallography, a field crucial for understanding the arrangement of atoms in solids. Born to Eastern European immigrant parents in New York, Karle's early life was marked by a strong emphasis on education and the arts, encouraged by a family of artists. He attended New York City College and later obtained his master's degree from Harvard University, despite facing anti-Semitic barriers.
Karle's significant contributions began while he was with the New York State Health Department, where he developed a method for measuring fluorine in water, facilitating the effective fluoridation of drinking water. His career advanced with his involvement in the Manhattan Project and later at the Naval Research Laboratory, where he made groundbreaking advancements in crystallography alongside his wife, Isabella Lugowski. Their innovative approach to using X-rays to analyze crystal structures earned them the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1985, although Isabella did not receive the recognition, a point Karle believed was unjust.
Karle's work has had lasting impacts on both chemistry and medicine, particularly in understanding enzymes and studying medicinal properties of rare organisms. He remained committed to education and mentorship throughout his life, teaching at the University of Maryland until his retirement in 2009.
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Jerome Karle
Scientist
- Born: June 18, 1918
- Birthplace: New York, New York
- Died: June 6, 2013
Karle, a renowned chemist, was awarded a Nobel Prize for pioneering a technique for using X-rays to investigate crystal structures.
Early Life
Jerome Karle (jur-OHM kahrl) was the son of Eastern European immigrants to the United States, Louis Karfunkle and Sadie Helen Kun. Raised in New York by a family of artists, Karle participated in athletics and music, and it was his mother’s hope that he would be a professional pianist. Karle enjoyed a balanced childhood, but at Abraham Lincoln High School he was encouraged in his greatest passion: science.
Abraham Lincoln High School is famous for a high number of Nobel laureates among its alumni. A program in place during Karle’s school years allowed for early graduation for students taking extra classes. Sophie Wolf, a school staff member, encouraged students to study all areas of science, and she fostered a large group of young scientists. Among Karle’s fellows was Arthur Kornberg, who went on to codiscover the enzyme that builds deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). Karle, too, would take an interest in biology.
In 1933, Karle began attending New York City College. The college was tuition free, but it demanded that students take tough courses in everything from science to public speaking. Karle, hoping to go into medicine, graduated in 1937 and went to Harvard University to get a master’s degree in biology. At Harvard, he was rebuked by an anti-Semitic dean who did not want any more Jews attending, but Karle earned his master’s degree anyway and went on to the University of Michigan for a doctorate. There, Karle was denied a teaching assistantship solely because he was Jewish. However, one of Karle’s teachers protested, and Karle got the position. It was at Michigan that Karle met Isabella Lugowski, his future wife and research partner.
Life’s Work
By the time Karle received his doctorate in 1944, he already had made a significant scientific contribution. While working for the New York State Health Department, Karle invented a method for measuring the amount of fluorine in water. Fluoridation of drinking water is helpful in preventing tooth decay, and Karle’s process made it possible to deliver the treatment in an effective way: Karle’s achievement would be helpful in the widespread use of fluoridation starting in the 1950’s.
Karle’s interest changed to physical chemistry in between his stints at Harvard and Michigan. After gaining a doctorate in physical chemistry, Karle and his wife worked briefly on the Manhattan Project, which developed the first atomic weapons, at the University of Chicago. There, Isabella devised a method for making pure plutonium chloride, but the two were not major players in the atomic bomb’s development.
In 1944, Karle went back to the University of Michigan and worked for the Naval Research Laboratory. In 1946, he moved to Washington, D.C., where he joined the Naval Research Laboratory. There, Karle’s job was to study crystallography, the arrangement of atoms in a solid. Karle’s previous work had been studying gas-phase electron diffraction, and he had formulated his own theory about diffraction patterns. Working with solids instead of gases was a new experience, but fresh minds were what the field needed at that time. Scientists had long accepted that when an X-ray hits a crystal, only some of the resulting information is usable, making it difficult to determine the phases of the diffracted rays. Karle, along with his coworker Herbert Hauptman, saw no reason why this could not be challenged. Working together and using their knowledge of diffraction and mathematical models, they invented a method for using X-rays to directly observe crystal structure. Although this discovery occurred in the early 1950’s, it was not until 1985 that Karle and Hauptman were awarded the Nobel Prize. Isabella, who was responsible for the practical application of Karle and Hauptman’s theory, was not awarded a prize, which Karle believed was unfair. The Karles expanded their work by finding a way to build a complete structure from a fragment of one crystal and by adapting their analysis method for other types of crystals. They retired in 2009.
Significance
Karle’s work has proved vital in the field of medicine, which originally had interested him. Not having earned the Nobel Prize until thirty years after his discovery, Karle was able to describe some of the positive effects of his work in his Nobel Prize acceptance. Direct analysis of crystals was necessary for the understanding of enzymes, the structures that trigger the body’s chemical responses. Karle’s method of creating structures from fragments also allowed the study of medicinal properties in rare or endangered organisms, which could not provide enough samples naturally. Even though he worked assiduously on research, Karle never lost his interest in younger generations, and he has taught for many years at the University of Maryland.
Bibliography
Hargittai, István. The Road to Stockholm. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002. This book is about the Nobel Prize and the people who earn it. Both Karle and Hauptman are discussed.
Huang, Lulu, Lou Massa, Isabella Karle, and Jerome Karle. “Calculation of Strong and Weak Interactions in TDA1 and RangDP52 by the Kernel Energy Method.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 106, no. 10 (March, 2009): 3664-3669. A research document from near the end of the service of Jerome and Isabella Karle with the Navy Research Academy. It is suitable for those acquainted with the technical language of chemistry.
Karle, Jerome. “Recovering Phase Information from Intensity Data.” In Nobel Lectures, Chemistry 1981-1990, edited by Tore Frängsmyr and Bo G. Malmström. Singapore: World Scientific, 1992. Includes Karle’s Nobel lecture, which provides technical details about the process for which he earned the award and describes its subsequent uses.