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Hans Geiger—German Physicist and the Geiger Counter
The German physicist Hans Wilhelm Geiger is best known as the inventor of the Geiger counter to measure radiation. In 1908, Geiger introduced the first successful detector of individual alpha particles. Later versions of this counter were able to count beta particles and other ionizing radiation. The introduction in July 1928 of the Geiger-Müller counter marked the introduction of modern electrical devices into radiation research.Walter Hess—Nobel Prize for Work on the Brain
The 1949 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was shared by 2 physicians—the Swiss physiologist Walter Rudolf Hess and the Portuguese neurologist Antonio Egas Moniz (1874-1955) for their work on the brain. Hess received his share for the discovery of the functional organization of the diencephalon as a coordinator of the activities of the internal organs. Moniz was awarded his share for the discovery of the therapeutic value of leukotomy (prefrontal lobotomy) in the treatment of certain psychoses.Charles Townes—Nobel Laureate for Maser-Laser Work
The American physicist Charles Hard Townes shared the 1964 Nobel Prize in Physics with 2 Soviet physicists, Aleksandr M. Prokhorov (1916–2002) and his student Nikolay G. Basov (1922–2001), for fundamental work in the field of quantum electronics, which led to the construction of oscillators and amplifiers on the maserlaser principle. Townes conceived the idea of the maser in 1951 and built the first device in 1953. The Soviet scientists, working independently of Townes, provided much of the theoretical work for lasers and masers.Charles K. Kao—Father of Fiber Optics
Charles Kuen Kao is known as the “father of fiber optic communications” for his discovery in the 1960s of certain physical properties of glass, which laid the groundwork for high-speed data communication in the Information Age. Before Kao's pioneering work, glass fibers were widely believed to be unsuitable as a conductor of information because of excessively high signal loss from light scattering. Kao realized that, by carefully purifying the glass, bundles of thin fibers could be manufactured that would be capable of carrying huge amounts of information over long distances with minimal signal attenuation and that such fibers could replace copper wires for telecommunication.Albert Sabin—Conqueror of Poliomyelitis
Albert Bruce Sabin, an American virologist, developed a live virus vaccine against poliomyelitis, an acute viral disease characterized clinically by fever, sore throat, headache, and vomiting and often by stiffness of the neck and back and as well as involvement of the central nervous system, leading to paralysis and possibly death. Sabin postulated that a live, weakened (attenuated) virus, administered orally, would provide immunity during a longer period than that provided by a killed virus, the approach used by Jonas Salk (1914-1995).Frederick Soddy—Pioneer in Radioactivity
Frederick Soddy, a British chemist, won the 1921 Nobel Prize in chemistry for his contributions to the knowledge of the chemistry of radioactive substances and his investigations into the origin and nature of isotopes. In 1913, he was the first to announce the concept that atoms can be identical chemically and yet have different atomic weights. These related atoms are called isotopes, a word coined by Soddy, meaning same or equal place (Greek, isos topos).Aleksandr Prokhorov—Lasers and Masers
The 1964 Nobel Prize in physics was shared by 3 physicists: Russians Aleksandr Mik hail ovich Prokhorov (1916-2002) and Nikolay G. Basov (1922-2001) and American Charles H. Townes (1915-) for fundamental research in quantum electronics that led to the development of the maser and laser. Specifically, Basov and Prokhorov performed the basic research that led to the invention of laser and maser devices, which was accomplished independently by Townes and others. Maser stands for microwave amplication by stimulated emission of radiation; a laser is an optical maser.Abbie Lathrop, the “Mouse Woman of Granby”: Rodent Fancier and Accidental Genetics Pioneer
Abbie E. C. Lathrop was born in Illinois in 1868, the only child of schoolteachers who were originally from Granby, MA. Few details about her childhood are known. Lathrop was homeschooled for the first 16 years of her life, after which she attended an unidentified academy for approximately 2 years, which allowed her to obtain an Illinois teaching certificate. She taught elementary school for several years but was not successful, apparently because of chronic ill health. Lathrop eventually quit teaching and moved to a farm in Granby in 1900.Walter Clement Noel—First Patient Described With Sickle Cell Disease
Historical reviews of medical discoveries usually focus on the physician or scientist who first reported the novel finding or the scientific and intellectual climate at the time of the development. The individual study patient is rarely considered—sometimes because of privacy concerns but perhaps more often because the specific afflicted person is not considered of universal interest. However, for sickle cell disease, first described in 1910 by noted Chicago-based internist James Bryan Herrick (1861-1954), enough details are available about the first patient for a compelling story because of the determined research efforts of a medical historian and a physician (Savitt TL and Goldberg MF, JAMA 1989;261(2): 266-271).Robert F. Curl Jr—Nobel Laureate in Chemistry
American chemist Robert Floyd Curl Jr, shared the 1996 Nobel Prize for chemistry with 2 other chemists, Richard Errett Smalley (1943-2005) of Rice University in Houston, TX, and Sir Harold Walter Kroto (1939-) of the University of Sussex in Brighton, England, for their discovery of fullerenes, a previously unrecognized form of carbon that opened up a new aspect of chemistry—fullerene science. Fullerenes are hollow, spherical clusters of carbon atoms bonded together into highly symmetric, cagelike structures.Vladimir Prelog—Nobel Prize for Work in Stereochemistry
Chemist Vladimir Prelog shared the 1975 Nobel Prize for chemistry with Sir John Warcup Cornforth (1917-) of the University of Sussex, in Brighton, Great Britain, for studies in the stereochemistry of organic molecules and reactions, specifically for the techniques and rules that can determine whether a partially asymmetrical compound is dextro or levo.William Murphy—Nobel Prize for the Treatment of Pernicious Anemia
The 1934 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine was shared by George H. Whipple (1878-1976), George R. Minot (1885-1950), and William Parry Murphy for their work on finding a cure for pernicious anemia, previously an invariably fatal disease. Whipple conducted his research on dogs and concluded in 1920 that liver in the diet cured pernicious anemia and increased the reticulocyte count. With Whipple's work as background, Murphy and Minot studied patients with pernicious anemia and found in 1926 that a diet rich in liver could control the disease in humans.Luis Walter Alvarez: Another “Mayo-Trained” Nobel Laureate
Many people inside and outside of Mayo Clinic know about Philip Showalter Hench (1896-1965) and Edward Calvin Kendall (1866-1972)—fortune-favored Mayo investigators who shared the 1950 Nobel prize in physiology or medicine with Polish chemist Tadeus Reichstein (1897-1996) for adrenal corticosteroid research.1 Mayo Clinic is justifiably proud of Hench and Kendall. The institution where they spent all (Hench) or almost all (Kendall) of their professional carees√, and where Hench also did part of his training, has honored them with commissioned portraits, a large named lecture hall, special Nobel anniversary conferences, and other kudos.
