Richard R. Ernst

Obituary Richard R. Ernst (1933—2021) Nobel prizewinner who revolutionized nuclear magnetic resonance. ichard R. Ernst turned applications his arms to illustrate how the magnetization in of nuclear magnetic resonance an NMR sample behaves under the influence of (NMR) into methods for daily use in radio-frequency fields, say, he would generate chemistry, structural biology and rigorous formalisms to capture all nuances of medical diagnosis. His introduction a phenomenon. Thanks to the Ernst magic, the Rof Fourier transform-nuclear magnetic res- NMR community evolved from a few hundred onance (FT-NMR) in the 1960s paved the way scientists in the early 1970s to gatherings of for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to be thousands in a range of specialized areas of widely used in medical diagnosis and in mate- NMR today. rials research. Ernst described himself as a “work-addict”. A As well as gaining him the Nobel Prize in toolmaker, he liked to provide others with new Chemistry in 1991, Ernst’s work underpinned ways to solve problems. Yet he also believed the achievements rewarded by the two NMR that scientists should have a wide range of Nobel prizes of the twenty-first century so interests outside their field. He played the cello far — mine included. He has died, aged 87. throughout his life, and had an encyclopedic Richard Robert Ernst was born in Winter- knowledge of classical music. In his later years, thur, Switzerland. His family was part of the he wrote a frank and insightful autobiogra- city’s establishment, with a history stretch- phy (translated as Searching and Researching, ing back at least 500 years. His father taught published this year). architecture at the Winterthur ‘Technikum’ On their return from California to Switzer- (today the University of Applied Sciences) and land in 1968, Ernst and his wife travelled to INGER/VISUM/EYEVINE was a high-ranking officer in the Swiss army. In Tibet, where they became fascinated by the this distinguished milieu, musical gatherings local scroll paintings, and in the following TINA RUIS had an important place; Richard played the decades they assembled a rich collection cello. His plans to become a composer were set of sweeping the NMR spectra with weak of Tibetan art. Ernst’s joy in this culture is aside at 13, when he found a box of chemicals in continuous irradiation. He then subjected the touchingly apparent in his autobiography, the attic, left by a late uncle, and began doing resulting signal to Fourier transformation to which features beautiful illustrations of the experiments. After studying chemistry at the generate a high-resolution spectrum. works. After he retired in 1998, Ernst devoted Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Neither the materials used in NMR instru- his time and energy, as well as the Nobel prize in Zurich, he pursued doctoral studies in the ments nor the computer facilities of the 1960s money, to expanding this collection. In his new field of NMR. were up to the demands of the new technique. home, he used cutting-edge spectroscopic Shortly after the Second World War, Felix So it took another decade before FT-NMR techniques (not NMR!) to examine the paint Bloch and Edward Mills Purcell had described on his precious Tibetan scrolls to trace their NMR spectroscopy, sharing the 1952 Nobel “Plans to become a composer provenance. Prize in Physics. The principle is this: in a As a colleague on the faculty of ETH Zurich, magnetic field, the moments of certain atomic were set aside at 13, when he I had the privilege of a close scientific col- nuclei of a substance come into alignment. found a box of chemicals in laboration with Ernst from 1976 to 1986, Applying radio-frequency irradiation perturbs the attic.” which resulted in the introduction of mul- this alignment, causing the atoms to give off ti-dimensional NMR to chemistry laborato- electromagnetic signals that are unique to the ries and to structural biology. I knew Richard chemical composition and molecular struc- found applications in chemistry and structural as a strikingly intelligent, conscientious and ture of the substance. biology. FT-NMR also provided the foundation gentle colleague and friend. Together with Soon after its discovery, NMR became for the more-informative 2D NMR in the late so many who are indebted to him for having widely used in physics, for example in particle 1970s; related mathematical procedures made enriched their scientific lives, I keep fond physics, solid-state physics and in studies of MRI efficient for medical diagnosis. memories of the good times spent with this phase transitions. Applications as an analyti- In the late 1960s, Ernst returned to ETH great scientist. cal tool in chemistry started in the 1950s with Zurich, where he spent the rest of his career. continuous-wave NMR experiments, which Over four decades, he inspired generations Kurt Wüthrich is a professor of biophysics at had limited impact because their sensitivity of scientists as a professor, and as a lecturer ETH Zurich in Switzerland and Cecil H. and was too low. around the world. Ida M. Green Professor of Structural Biology Working in the mid-1960s at the then lead- His graduate students and postdoctoral at Scripps Research in La Jolla, California. He ing manufacturer of NMR instrumentation, the fellows witnessed him diving again and won a share of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry Varian Company in Palo Alto, California, Ernst again into the depths of a theory or a physi- in 2002 for developing NMR techniques for experimented with applying a single, hard cal-chemical effect. In great mathematical structural biology. pulse that excites the entire spectrum, instead detail and with unique didactic skills, using e-mail: [email protected] Nature | Vol 595 | 29 July 2021 | 645 ©2021 Spri nger Nature Li mited. All ri ghts reserved. .

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