physics

Richard R. Ernst

Richard R. Ernst is a physics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Richard R. Ernst rather than just read about it. In short: Richard Robert Ernst (14 August 1933 – 4 June 2021) was a Swiss physical chemist and Nobel laureate. Ernst was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1991 for his contributions towards the development of Fourier transform nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy while at Varian Associates and ETH Zurich.

Key takeaways

Richard R. Ernst belongs to physics; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Richard R. Ernst to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Richard R. Ernst from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Richard Robert Ernst (14 August 1933 – 4 June 2021) was a Swiss physical chemist and Nobel laureate. Ernst was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1991 for his contributions towards the development of Fourier transform nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy while at Varian Associates and ETH Zurich. These underpin applications to both to chemistry with NMR spectroscopy and to medicine with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). He humbly referred to himself as a "tool-maker" rather than a scientist.

Early life Ernst was born in Winterthur, Switzerland on 14 August 1933 to Robert Ernst and Irma Ernst-Brunner. He was the oldest of three children of Irma Brunner and Robert Ernst. He grew up in a house built in 1898 by his grandfather, who was a merchant. During his childhood, he was interested in music, playing the violoncello and even considering a career as a musical composer. At 13-years old, Ernst stumbled upon a box of chemicals belonging to his late uncle, a metallurgical engineer. Young Ernst was excited by what he found, and set about trying all conceivable reactions, some of which resulted in explosions that terrified his parents.

Education He enrolled in the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (ETH) in Zurich to study chemistry and received his diploma in 1957 as a “Diplomierter Ingenieur Chemiker''. He was disappointed in the course content, so conducted further research and taught himself quantum mechanics and thermodynamics in his spare time. After a break to complete his military service, Ernst earned his Ph.D. in physical chemistry in 1962 from ETH Zurich. His dissertation was on nuclear magnetic resonance in the field of physical chemistry.

Career Ernst entered Varian Associates as a scientist in 1963 and invented Fourier transform NMR, noise decoupling, and a number of other methods. He returned to ETH Zurich in 1968 and became a lecturer. His career developed into assistant professor in 1970 and associate professor in 1972. From 1976, Richard R. Ernst was Full Professor of Physical Chemistry. Ernst led a research group dedicated to magnetic resonance spectroscopy, and was the director of the Physical Chemistry Laboratory at the ETH Zurich. He developed two-dimensional NMR and several novel pulse techniques. He retired in 1998. He participated in the development of medical magnetic resonance tomography, as well as the NMR structure determination of biopolymers in solution collaborating with Professor Kurt Wüthrich. He also participated in the study of intra-molecular dynamics.

Awards and honours

Ernst was a foreign fellow of the Estonian Academy of Sciences (elected 2002), the US National Academy of Sciences, the Royal Academy of Sciences, London, the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Korean Academy of Science and Technology and Bangladesh Academy of Sciences. He was elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society (ForMemRS) in 1993. He was awarded the John Gamble Kirkwood Medal in 1989. In 1991, Ernst was on an aeroplane flying over the Atlantic when he discovered he had been awarded The Nobel Prize in Chemistry. He was invited into the cockpit, where he was given a radio to talk to the Nobel committee. Here they told him he was being honoured "for his contributions to the development of the methodology of high resolution nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy". Ernst was a member of the World Knowledge Dialogue Scientific Board. He was awarded the Marcel Benoist Prize in 1986, the Wolf Prize in Chemistry in 1991, and Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize of Columbia University in 1991. He was also awarded the Tadeus Reichstein Medal in 2000 and the Order of the Star of Romania in 2004. He also held Honorary Doctorates from the Technical University of Munich, EPF Lausanne, University of Zurich, University Antwerpen, Babes-Bolyai University, and University Montpellier. The 2009 Bel Air Film Festival featured the world premiere of a documentary film on Ernst Science Plus Dharma Equals Social Responsibility. Produced by Carlo Burton, the film takes place in Ernst's hometown in Switzerland. In 2022, another movie about Richard R. Ernst premiered at the Cameo cinema in Winterthur, produced by Lukas Schwarzenbacher and Susanne Schmid. The documentary contains a retrospective of Richard R. Ernsts life, which was filmed only a few months before his death.

Personal life Ernst was married to Magdalena (Kielholz) until his death. Together, they had three children: Anna Magdalena, Katharina Elisabeth and Hans-Martin Walter. Besides toiling with his work, Ernst also enjoyed music and art, specifically Tibetan scroll art. Using scientific techniques, Ernst would research the pigments on the scrolls to learn about their geographic origin and age. Ernst died on 4 June 2021 in Winterthur at the age of 87.

Selected bibliography Principles of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance in One and Two Dimensions, Clarendon Press, 1987 Richard R. Ernst: Nobelpreisträger aus Winterthur, Hier und Jetzt, Baden 2020 Alois Feusi: Richard Ernst: Der Selbstzweifler, dem der Nobelpreis peinlich war. Summary of his autobiography. Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 21 May 2020. Retrieved 22 May 2020

References

External links Richard R. Ernst on Nobelprize.org

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Richard R. Ernst

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Richard R. Ernst claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In physics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Richard R. Ernst before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Richard R. Ernst ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Richard R. Ernst

In research: Richard R. Ernst appears in physics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Richard R. Ernst in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Richard R. Ernst is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1933 births, 2021 deaths, Academic staff of ETH Zurich, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Richard R. Ernst outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Richard R. Ernst in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Richard R. Ernst means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Richard R. Ernst out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Richard R. Ernst in simple terms?

Why does Richard R. Ernst matter?

Because it connects several physics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Richard R. Ernst?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Richard R. Ernst.