Jean-Marie Lehn Universite’ Louis Pasteur www.nobelprize.org/chemistry/laureates/1987/lehn-autobio.html

1. Jean-Marie LehnUniversite’ Louis Pasteurwww.nobelprize.org/chemistry/laureates/1987/lehn-autobio.html • Nobel prize: 1987 (with Donald Cram and Charles Pederson) “for their development and use of molecules with structure-specific interactions of high selectivity.” • Country: France • From his autobiography: • His father was a baker, mother was housewife and shopkeeper. • Hobby: music (piano & organ) • “I was impressed by the coherent and rigorous structure of organic chemistry.” • About 150 collaborators from over 20 countries, leading to about 400 papers.

2. Alan J. Heeger Department of Physics, Materials Department, Institute for Polymers and Organic Solids, University of California at Santa Barbara http://nobelprize.org/chemistry/laureates/2000/index.html Nobel Prize: In chemistry, 2000 (with Alan G. McDiarmid and Hideki Shirakawa) “SEMICONDUCTING AND METALLIC POLYMERS: THE FOURTH GENERATION OF POLYMERIC MATERIALS” Country: United states of America Current Research Interests: have done pioneering research in the area of highly conducting organic solids Selected Publications : more than 660 scholarly publications • From autobiography: Was born in Sioux City (Iowa) on January22, 1936. • The Heeger family came from Russia as Jewish immigrants. • The important thing is to get a university education. • Completed high school one year early and completed undergraduate studies with a dual major in Physics and Mathematics.

3. Irving Langmuir General Electric Company Schenectady, NY, USA http://nobelprize.org/chemistry/laureates/1932/index.html Nobel Prize : 1932 "for his discoveries and investigations in surface chemistry" Country : USA From his biography • He studies embraced chemistry, physics, and engineering and were largely • the outgrowth of studies of vacuum phenomena. • His work on filaments in gases led directly to the invention of the gasfilled • incandescent lamp and to the discovery of atomic hydrogen. • He was the first to observe the very stable adsorbed monatomic films on • tungsten and platinum filaments, and was able, after experiments with oil • films on water • Hobby : mountaineering, skiing, flying, and, most of all, to understand • the mechanism of simple and familiar natural phenomena.

4. Hermann Staudinger – Biography Hermann Staudinger: 1953 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry for his discoveries in the field of macromolecular chemistry. Residence: GermanyAffiliation: University of Freiburg im Breisgau and Staatliches Institut fr makromolekulare Chemie State Research Institute for Macromolecular Chemistry, Freiburg in Br. born in Worms on the 23rd of March 1881. His father was Dr. Franz Staudinger. Hermann Staudinger is married to Magda Woit, who is for many years his co-worker and co-author of numerous publications. graduated at Halle in 1903 and qualified for inauguration as academic lecturer under Professor Thiele at Strasbourg University in spring 1907. In November 1907 he was appointed Professor of Organic Chemistry at the Institute of Chemistry of the Technische Hochschule in Karlsruhe. Hermann Staudinger died in 1965. "for his discoveries in the field of macromolecular chemistry"

5. Lars Onsager http://nobelprize.org/chemistry/laureates/1968/onsager-bio.html Nobel Prize : 1968 “ for the discovery of the reciprocal relations bearing his name, which are fundamental for the thermodynamics of irreversible processes." Country  : USA    From his autobiography : • He was born in Oslo, Norway, November 27, 1903. His father is Erling Onsager, Barrister of the Supreme Court of Norway, and his mother is Ingrid, née Kirkeby. In 1933 he married Margarethe Arledter and They had 4 children . • He received the Ch.E. degree from the Norwegian Institute of Technology (Norges Tekniske Höiskole) in 1925. He was Peter Debye's assistant in Zürich until 1928 . Emigrated to the USA and became an American citizen in 1945. J. Willard Gibbs Professor at Yale University • The subjects of his interest came to include colloids, dielectrics, order-disorder transitions, metals and superfluids, hydrodynamics and fractionation theory. • He died in 1976 .

6. BRUCE MERRIFIELD BORN : TEXAS, 1921 NOBEL PRIZE : DEVELOPMENT OF METHODOLOGY FOR CHEMISCAL SYNTHESIS ON SOLID MATRIX, 1984 • AT HIGH SCHOOL HE INTERESTED IN CHEMISTRY AND MANAGED TO BE RUNNER UP IN THE SCIENCE CONTEST • AFTER GRADUATION HE WORKED FOR A YEAR AT THE PHILIP R. PARK RESEARCH FOUNDATION ASSISTING WITH GROWTH ON SYNTHTIC AMINO ACID DIETS • HE WORKED ON A DINUCLEOTIDE GROWTH FACTOR WHICH LED TO THE NEED FOR PEPTIDE SYNTHESIS AND SOLID PHASE PEPTIDE SYNTHESIS • HE RECEIVED SEVERAL AWARDS FOR HIS WORK ON PEPTIDE CHEMISTRY, BASIC MEDICAL RESEARCH, AND SYNTHTIC ORGANIC CHEMISTRY

7. Gerd Binnig Nobel Prize in Physics in 1986 for his work in Scanning Tunneling Microscopy Born in Frankfurt, W. Germany, on July 20, 1947 Educated at J.W. Goethe University in Frankfurt, where he received his bachelor's degree in 1973 and his doctorate degree in 1978. Hobbies : music (singing, playing the guitar and the violin), and sports (soccer, tennis, skiing, sailing and playing golf Assigned to IBM's Almaden Research Center in San Jose, Calif., from 1985 to 1986, and was a visiting professor at nearby Stanford University from 1987 to 1988.

8. Paul J. Flory Stanford University http://nobelprize.org/chemistry/laureates/1974/flory-autobio.html Nobel Prize : 1974 for there Chemistry Country : U.S.A From his autobiography Family : He was born on 19 June, 1910, in German, His being the sixth generation native to America. His father a clergyman-educator; His mother had been a schoolteacher. Work : Since 1964 He joined of the Company, became interested in exploration of the fundamentals of polymerization and polymeric substances, Cincinnati University,Cornell University He accepted a professorship in the Department of Chemistry at Stanford University He perceived a way to treat the effect of excluded volume on the configuration of polymer chains: a2 ~ M0.2

9. Peter Josephus Wilhelmus Debye University : Berlin University; Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institut (now Max-Planck-Institut) für Physik Berlin, Germany http://nobelprize.org/chemistry/laureates/1936/debye-bio.html Nobel Prize : In Chemistry, 1936, "for his contributions to our knowledge of molecular structure through his investigations on dipole moments and on the diffraction of X-rays and electrons in gases".

10. Theodore Svedberg The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1926. For his work on “ Disperse systems” He was born in the county of Gavleborg, on August 30 ,1884 The son of Elisa Svedberg , a works manager , and his wife, Augusta He gained Bachelor of Arts degree in 1905 , Master's degree in 1907 and Doctor of Philosophy in 1908. Mainly work concerned with physical properties colloids (diffusion, light absorption) and macromolecular compounds(proteins, carbohydrates, and high polymers)

11. Lord Rayleigh (John William Strutt) : Nobel Prize in Physics 1904 He was born on November 12, 1842 at Langford Grove , Maldon, Essex. “ For investigations of the densities of the most important gases and for his discovery of argon in connection with these studies ” Lord Rayleigh was also famous for hisTheory of Sound, also the theory of water drops!

12. Pierre-Gilles de Gennes Nobel Prize for Physics in 1991 Nobel: Phenomena of order in the simple systems which can be generalized to more complex from matter, and in particular for liquid crystals and polymer Born : Paris (France) in 1932 Majored :the Ecole Normale Supérieure in 1955 Work From 1955 to 1959, research engineer at the Atomic Energy Center (Saclay), working mainly on neutron scattering and magnetism In 1961, assistant professor in Orsay and soon started the Orsay group on supraconductors. Later (1968), switched to liquid crystals In 1971, became Professor at the Collège de France, and participated to STRASCOL on polymer physics. From 1980, became interested in interfacial problems : the dynamics of wetting and adhesion "for discovering that methods developed for studying order phenomena in simple systems can be generalized to more complex forms of matter, in particular to liquid crystals and polymers"