Ernst, Richard Robert (1933– )

Swiss physical chemist who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1991 for his improvements in the technique of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy in the investigation of atomic nuclei by increasing the sensitivity of the NMR instrumentation and interpretation. NMR became the ideal method for examining the structure of proteins and other biological molecules, laying the foundations for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

The nuclear magnetic resonance technique subjected a sample to a single high-energy radio pulse, to which many nuclei in the sample responded, emitting an incomprehensible signal. To interpret the signal, Ernst used Fourier analysis and a computer programme, thereby cutting the analysis time in half. In 1970, Ernst again made a breakthrough in the design of NMR, known as two-dimensional Fourier NMR. By replacing a single radio pulse with even higher energy pulses, larger, more complex molecules could be investigated.

Ernst was born in Winterthur, Switzerland, and attended the Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), Zürich where he gained a PhD in 1962. From 1963 to 1968, he worked in the laboratories of Varian Associates, Palo Alto, California, then he took a job with ETH becoming professor of physical chemistry in 1976.