Pauling, Linus, 1901-1994
Oral history interview with Linus Pauling, 1984 May 10.
Interview in 1984 with Linus Pauling, professor of chemistry emeritus. He recalls his instructorship in quantitative analysis at Oregon Agricultural College at age 18. To Caltech for graduate study, 1922. As preparation, Arthur Amos Noyes sent him proof sheets of Noyes's new book, Chemical Principles. Studied X-ray crystallography with Roscoe G. Dickinson. Gave seminar on Debye-Huckel theory of electrolytic solutions for visiting P. J. W. Debye. Recollections of Noyes (then chairman of the Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering), Dickinson, and Ralph W. G. Wyckoff. Discusses X-ray crystallography and its history. Recollections of Gilbert N. Lewis, Caltech's rivalry with Berkeley. Paper with Richard C. Tolman on residual entropy of crystals; recalls courses with Tolman. Offer of professorship at Harvard in 1929 and MIT c. 1930. Death of Noyes (1936) and Pauling's appointment as chairman of chemistry division (1937). Remarks on Biology Division and advent of Thomas Hunt Morgan (1928). Work on hemoglobin in mid-1930s. Remarks on Karl Landsteiner and immunology. Lectures on "complementariness" as basis of biological specificity; paper with Max Delbruck. Projected book on the molecular basis of biological specificity, to be called The Nature of Life. Recollections of Albert Tyler and George W. Beadle. Comments on relations with Warren Weaver and Rockefeller Foundation. Discusses work on protein structure and discovery of alpha helix. Discusses his reasons for leaving Caltech in 1963 and the attitude of Caltech president Lee DuBridge and John Roberts, then chair of the chemistry division. Recalls his resignation of division chairmanship in 1957; attitude of trustees toward his politics; his efforts to raise money to defend colleague Sidney Weinbaum. Recalls being badgered by Lawrence Spivak on Meet the Press in 1950s. Comments on quantum mechanical theory of resonance and the chemical bond. Comments on Center for Study of Democratic Institutions.
Pauling (1901-1994). Chemist (crystal structure of molecules, chemical bond, atomic structure of proteins, quantum mechanics application to chemistry), physicist and administator. On the staff at Ludwig-Maximilians-UniversittĖ M nchen (1926-1927); UniversitattĖ Z rich (1926-1927); and the California Institute of Technology (1927-1963); chair of the chemistry division and director of Gates and Crellin Chemical Laboratories (1937-1958); on the staff at Centre for Study of Democratic Institutes (1963-1967); on the chemistry faculty at University of California at San Diego (1967-1969); and at Stanford University (1969-1974), emeritus from 1974.
Beadle, George Wells, 1903-1989.
Debye, Peter J. W. (Peter Josef William), 1884-1966
Delbr ck, Max.
Dickinson, Roscoe.
DuBridge, Lee A. (Lee Alvin), 1901-1994
Landsteiner, Karl, 1868-1943.
Lewis, Gilbert Newton, 1875-1946.
Morgan, Thomas Hunt, 1866-1945.
Noyes, Arthur A. (Arthur Amos), 1866-1936
Pauling, Linus, 1901-1994
Tolman, Richard C. (Richard Chace), 1881-1948
Weaver, Warren, 1894-1978
California Institute of Technology
Harvard University.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Oregon Agricultural College.
Rockefeller Foundation.
Crystals.
Immunology
X-ray crystallography
Interviews. aat
Oral histories. aat
Transcripts. aat
Greenberg, John Leonard, 1945-, interviewer.
AIP-ICOS
California Institute of Technology. Institute Archives. 1201 East California Blvd. (Mail Code 015A-74), Pasadena, CA 91125, USA