Richard Ernst, professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH Zurich), Nobel laureate, and groundbreaking scientist, died on 4 June. He was 87. By working at the interfaces between chemistry, physics, and biology, Ernst opened the door to magnetic resonance of materials, proteins, and nucleic acids. His work on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) revolutionized medical diagnosis.
Born on 14 August 1933 and raised in Winterthur near Zurich, Switzerland, Ernst graduated with a diploma (BA) in chemistry from ETH Zurich, followed by a PhD from the same institution under the supervision of Hans Primas and Hans Günthard. Except for a few years with Varian Associates in Palo Alto, California, he spent his entire career as a member of the ETH Zurich faculty. He had a rare talent for picking graduate students and postdoctoral associates, many of whom now hold faculty positions.
In 1945, physicists Felix Bloch at Stanford University and Edward M. Purcell at Harvard University discovered nuclear magnetic resonance in bulk matter by observing very weak signals that emanate from the nuclei of atoms, which possess magnetization like the needle of a compass. Ernst transformed magnetic resonance from an academic curiosity into a universal tool by making it possible to observe all nuclei in a molecule or a human body simultaneously rather than sequentially. The resulting signals can be analyzed by Fourier transformation, a mathematical operation that retrieves with clarity all frequencies in seemingly inextricable signals. Ernst developed methods to unravel signals that overlap in several dimensions, to correlate frequencies of different nuclei in a molecule, and to separate different spatial dimensions in a body. Simultaneous observation of all nuclei drastically improved the sensitivity of magnetic resonance. Information-rich images that are generated allow researchers and radiologists to observe all magnetic nuclei in a molecule or human body.
Ernst’s breakthrough applies to work in a variety of fields. In biology, simultaneous observation of magnetic resonance signals allows the structure and dynamics of biomolecules such as proteins and nucleic acids (DNA or RNA) to be determined in solution as well as in microcrystals, fibrils, sediments, and other solids. Magnetic resonance not only circumvents the need for obtaining crystals for diffraction but also opens the way to the study of the flexibility and structural adaptability of biomolecules. In materials science, simultaneous observation of magnetic resonance signals has been exploited with great success in batteries, catalysts, polymers, and porous materials of all sorts, as improved sensitivity makes it possible to determine the arrangement of atoms and ions in space and their ability to move around.
PHOTO: ETH-BIBLIOTHEK ZÜRICH, BILDARCHIV/FOTOGRAF: UNBEKANNT/PORTR_13862/CC BY-SA 4.0
Ernst was honored as the sole recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1991, which coincided with the extravagantly celebrated 90th anniversary of the death of Alfred Nobel and the 700th anniversary of the Swiss Confederation. Upon his return to Switzerland from Stockholm, Ernst was celebrated like a national hero, with spectacular fireworks and many television and radio interviews. He had mixed feelings about his award and the related celebrations, as he was well aware that others had paved the way for his success: Paul Lauterbur and Peter Mansfield, who had made images of humans, and Weston Anderson, Jean Jeener, Ray Freeman, Kurt Wüthrich, and others, who had contributed to obtaining structures of molecules. Three of these scientists would be awarded Nobel Prizes in later years, but Ernst was disappointed that the others did not receive proper recognition.
Ernst also received the Marcel Benoist Prize in Switzerland, the Wolf Prize in Israel, and the first of more than a dozen honorary doctorates from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne. His autobiography, Nobelpreisträger aus Winterthur (Nobel laureate from Winterthur), richly illustrated with works of Tibetan art that he collected, was published in German in 2020. An English translation will be released soon.
Ernst’s influence went far beyond the field of physical chemistry. He was for many years one of the most cited Nobel laureates. As a guest speaker at universities around the world, especially after his retirement in 1998, he deftly associated science with other concerns, including Tibetan art and Buddhism. In his talks, he also expressed a biting criticism of university education, which he believed should focus on instilling a sense of responsibility beyond mere knowledge and technical skills, and he sharply denounced inequalities and injustice. His fiery speeches against the evils of US imperialism earned him the enmity of his critics.
The richness of Ernst’s career reflects the complexity of the man. Always on the lookout for new methods to probe the secrets of matter, he also sought to unravel the mysteries of music and art. Even though he had given up playing Bach’s cello suites because “his fingers did not obey his ear,” he continued to study intricate works of 18th-century composers. He also explored the Buddhist painting schools of Tibetan monasteries as well as the pantheon of deities represented on thangkas that he ardently collected.
I began working with Ernst as a postdoc in 1980. His support helped me earn the title of privatdozent before departing ETH Zurich in 1985. While there, I h elped him complete a book on the principles of nuclear magnetic resonance that took many years to write. Owing in large part to Ernst’s demanding sense of breadth and farsighted vision, the book continues to be widely cited as a reference for practitioners of magnetic resonance, even decades after its publication.
Along with his students and other collaborators, I appreciated Ernst’s rigor, tinged with a certain stiffness; his incorruptible intransigence; and his oscillations between moods of arrogance and humility, forever unsatisfied and in search of balance. Like the spirits transmitted by reincarnation according to the Tibetan traditions that he admired so much, the spirit of this great scientist will undoubtedly enrich future generations.
