2 Americans Take Nobel Chemistry Prize; W. German Wins in Physics

Two Americans today shared the 1985 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for research aiding the design of drugs, and the physics honor went to a West German for a discovery benefiting the electronics industry.

Herbert A. Hauptman of the Medical Foundation in Buffalo, N.Y., and Jerome Karle of the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory in Washington won the chemistry prize for developing a mathematical technique to determine quickly the chemical structures of small molecules.

Klaus von Klitzing, 42, of the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research in Stuttgart, West Germany, won the Nobel Prize in Physics “for the discovery of the quantized Hall effect,” a precise technique for measuring electrical resistance, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said.

Stig Lundkvist, head of the Nobel Committee, said Von Klitzing’s work was crucial to the development of the semiconductor industry, which provides the basis for today’s electronic revolution.

Champagne to Celebrate

“It’s fantastic. I can’t conceive of it,” Von Klitzing said as he and colleagues uncorked Champagne to celebrate the prestigious prize, awarded since 1901 and regarded as the ultimate stamp of acclaim for scientists.

The academy said the research conducted by Hauptman and Karle, which dates from the 1950s has been applied to everything from pesticide development to the design of the newest medicines.

“It is almost impossible to give an example in the field of chemistry where this method is not being used,” a Nobel judge said.

Their method, which could not be applied until the advent of modern computer technology, gives a three-dimensional map of molecules, making it possible to copy the structure for use any time the molecule’s structure needs to be known.

Hauptman, 68, and Karle, 67, are the 29th and 30th Americans to win the chemistry prize. The two will share the $225,000 in prize money.

‘Disbelief and Excitement’

Hauptman was swimming at the YMCA in Buffalo when he received the news, and Karle was flying from Munich to Washington at the time of the announcement and apparently was unaware that he had won.

“I doubt he knows,” said Karle’s wife, Isabella, also a chemist at the naval lab. “I think it’s fantastic.”

Hauptman, reached at the small research foundation, said: “My initial impression was shock, disbelief and excitement. The work was not well understood or well received years ago.”

Von Klitzing is the 15th German to win the Nobel for physics. The selection recognized the new European influence in the field. Europeans won the physics prize last year as well, ending a 10-year period of dominance by Americans.

Von Klitzing’s high-accuracy measuring system required the advanced technology of the computer industry, which in turn benefited from his discovery, the academy said.

Experiment in 1980

Von Klitzing’s crucial experiment, preceded by research by Japanese and by International Business Machines Corp., was conducted in the spring of 1980 in Grenoble, France.

He demonstrated the so-called Hall conductivity, by which an electric current on a metal strip is changed in exact steps if a magnetic field is applied to it.

“Of equally great interest is that we are dealing here with a new phenomenon in quantum physics, and one whose characteristics are still only partially understood,” the academy said.

Quantum physics describes and predicts the properties and behavior of matter. It covers the world of particles, electromagnetic radiation and the interaction between matter and radiation.