Jerome Karle Biography, Age, Weight, Height, Friend, Like, Affairs, Favourite, Birthdate & Other

Jerome Karle was an American physical chemist and crystallographer who, along with Herbert A. Hauptman, won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1985 for their outstanding achievements in the development of direct methods for the determination of crystal structures. After receiving his PhD in physical chemistry, he worked on the Manhattan Project for three years. Thereafter, he joined the US Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) and eventually became its chief scientist for research on the structure of matter.

Meanwhile, after World War II, he collaborated with Hauptman at the NRL on the study of crystal structures. They derived mathematical equations to describe the arrangements of numerous spots that appear on photographic films, as a result of a crystal’s diffraction of X-rays. Their equations made it possible to identify the exact location of atoms within the crystal’s molecules, based on an analysis of the intensity of the spots. Although their method was published in 1949, it remained useless for quite some time, awaiting its potential applications.

Gradually, crystallographers began utilizing the method to determine the three-dimensional structure of small biological molecules. Using the powerful computers of the 1980s, this innovative method reduced the time taken to determine the structure of a simple biological molecule from two years to only two days. He worked at the NRL for more than 60 years and retired in 2009.