Richard Ernst

Richard R. Ernst
Born	Richard Robert Ernst 14 8, 1933
Birthplace	Winterthur, Switzerland
Died	Template:Death date and age Winterthur, Switzerland
Nationality	Swiss
Occupation	Physical chemist, academic
Known for	Development of high-resolution nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy
Education	ETH Zurich (Ph.D.)
Awards	Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1991), Marcel Benoist Prize (1986), Wolf Prize in Chemistry (1991)

Richard Robert Ernst (14 August 1933 – 4 June 2021) was a Swiss physical chemist whose pioneering contributions to the methodology of high-resolution nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy transformed the field of analytical chemistry and earned him the 1991 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. His work on Fourier transform NMR and two-dimensional NMR techniques revolutionized the ability of scientists to determine the three-dimensional structure of biological molecules, with far-reaching applications in chemistry, biology, and medicine — including the development of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) as a medical diagnostic tool. Born and raised in Winterthur, Switzerland, Ernst spent much of his career at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich), where he conducted the research that would reshape an entire scientific discipline. The story of how he learned of his Nobel Prize — awakened by an airplane captain mid-flight while traveling between Moscow and New York — became one of the more memorable anecdotes in the history of the Nobel awards.

Early Life

Richard Robert Ernst was born on 14 August 1933 in Winterthur, a city in the canton of Zurich, Switzerland. He grew up in a culturally rich environment and developed an early interest in both science and the arts. As a young man, Ernst became fascinated with chemistry after discovering a case of chemicals that had belonged to a deceased uncle. His early experiments with these chemicals sparked a lifelong devotion to scientific inquiry. Winterthur, known for its museums and cultural institutions, also nurtured in Ernst a deep appreciation for Tibetan art and music — interests he would pursue throughout his life alongside his scientific career.

Education

Ernst pursued his higher education at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich), one of Europe's foremost institutions for science and engineering. He studied chemistry and went on to complete his doctoral research at the same institution, earning his Ph.D. in physical chemistry. His doctoral work focused on NMR spectroscopy, laying the groundwork for the methodological innovations that would define his career. The rigorous scientific training he received at ETH Zurich provided him with the theoretical and experimental foundations necessary for his later breakthroughs.

Career

Early Work at Varian Associates

After completing his doctoral studies at ETH Zurich, Ernst moved to the United States, where he took a position as a research scientist at Varian Associates in Palo Alto, California. Varian was a leading manufacturer of scientific instruments, including NMR spectrometers. It was during his time at Varian, in the 1960s, that Ernst and his colleague Weston A. Anderson made a critical breakthrough: the application of Fourier transform (FT) methods to NMR spectroscopy. Prior to this innovation, NMR experiments were conducted using continuous-wave methods, which were slow and limited in sensitivity. By applying short, intense radio-frequency pulses and then using Fourier transform mathematics to analyze the resulting signals, Ernst and Anderson dramatically increased both the sensitivity and the speed of NMR measurements. This Fourier transform NMR (FT-NMR) technique represented a fundamental advance that made NMR spectroscopy a far more powerful and versatile analytical tool.

Return to ETH Zurich

In 1968, Ernst returned to Switzerland to join the faculty of ETH Zurich, where he would spend the remainder of his academic career. At ETH, he continued to push the boundaries of NMR methodology. His most significant contribution during this period was the development of two-dimensional (2D) NMR spectroscopy in the 1970s and early 1980s. Traditional one-dimensional NMR spectra could become extremely complex for large molecules, with overlapping signals making interpretation difficult. Ernst's 2D NMR techniques spread the spectral information across two frequency dimensions, allowing researchers to resolve overlapping signals and, critically, to determine which atoms in a molecule were physically close to one another. This capability proved transformative for structural biology, as it enabled scientists to determine the three-dimensional structures of proteins and other biological macromolecules in solution — something that had previously been possible only through X-ray crystallography of solid crystals.

Ernst's methodological innovations extended to the development of multiple-pulse and multi-dimensional NMR experiments, each designed to extract specific types of structural and dynamic information from molecular systems. His group at ETH Zurich became one of the world's leading centers for NMR research, attracting talented students and postdoctoral researchers from around the globe. The techniques Ernst developed were rapidly adopted by laboratories worldwide and became standard tools in chemistry, biochemistry, materials science, and pharmaceutical research.

Impact on Magnetic Resonance Imaging

While Ernst's primary research focus was on NMR spectroscopy for chemical analysis, the principles he developed had profound implications for the field of medical imaging. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), which uses nuclear magnetic resonance phenomena to produce detailed images of the interior of the human body, relies on many of the same pulse-sequence and Fourier transform concepts that Ernst pioneered. Although the development of MRI as a clinical tool is primarily credited to other researchers, including Paul Lauterbur and Peter Mansfield (who shared the 2003 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine), Ernst's foundational work on FT-NMR and multi-dimensional techniques provided essential building blocks for MRI technology. The ability to manipulate and analyze NMR signals with precision, which Ernst's methods made possible, was directly applicable to the challenge of generating high-quality medical images.

Academic Leadership and Mentorship

Throughout his tenure at ETH Zurich, Ernst served not only as a researcher but also as a dedicated educator and mentor. He supervised numerous doctoral students and postdoctoral researchers, many of whom went on to distinguished careers in academia and industry. His laboratory was known for its collaborative atmosphere and its commitment to methodological rigor. Ernst was appointed as a full professor of physical chemistry at ETH Zurich, a position he held until his retirement in 1998. Even after his formal retirement, he remained active in the scientific community and continued to contribute to discussions about the future of NMR and its applications.

Personal Life

Richard Ernst lived much of his life in Winterthur, the city of his birth. He was known for his wide-ranging intellectual and cultural interests beyond the laboratory. In particular, Ernst was an avid collector of Tibetan scroll paintings (thangkas) and developed a scholarly knowledge of Tibetan art. He also had a deep appreciation for music, particularly classical music, which he considered an important complement to his scientific pursuits. Ernst was married and had a family, though he generally maintained a private personal life.

Ernst was described by colleagues and acquaintances as modest and unassuming despite his scientific achievements. The circumstances of his learning about the Nobel Prize illustrated his characteristically understated nature: he was asleep on a flight from Moscow to New York when the airplane's captain woke him to relay the news that he had been awarded the 1991 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. The plane was at approximately 30,000 feet at the time.

Richard R. Ernst died on 4 June 2021 in Winterthur at the age of 87.

Recognition

Ernst received numerous awards and honors over the course of his career in recognition of his contributions to NMR spectroscopy. The most prominent of these was the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1991, awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences "for his contributions to the development of the methodology of high resolution nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy." The Nobel Committee specifically cited his development of Fourier transform NMR and two-dimensional NMR techniques as transformative advances for the chemical sciences.

Prior to the Nobel Prize, Ernst received the Marcel Benoist Prize in 1986, Switzerland's most prestigious science award, often referred to as the "Swiss Nobel Prize." In the same year as his Nobel Prize, he also received the Wolf Prize in Chemistry (1991), one of the most respected international science prizes outside the Nobel system.

Additional honors included the Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize, the Ampere Prize, and numerous honorary doctorates from universities around the world. Ernst was elected as a member or foreign member of several national academies of science, reflecting the global recognition of his work. His contributions were also recognized through named lectureships and the establishment of awards in his honor at various scientific institutions.

The story of Ernst's notification of his Nobel Prize — being awakened on an airplane by the captain — has been frequently recounted as an example of the unexpected and sometimes dramatic ways in which Nobel laureates learn of their awards.

Legacy

Richard Ernst's contributions to NMR spectroscopy fundamentally altered the landscape of analytical chemistry and structural biology. The Fourier transform NMR methodology he pioneered in the 1960s remains the standard approach to NMR experimentation worldwide, and virtually every modern NMR spectrometer operates on principles he helped establish. His two-dimensional NMR techniques opened entirely new avenues for determining molecular structures, particularly for biological macromolecules such as proteins and nucleic acids. The structural biology revolution of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries — including the determination of thousands of protein structures by NMR — owes a direct debt to Ernst's methodological innovations.

The principles underlying Ernst's work also contributed to the development and refinement of MRI, which has become one of the most important diagnostic tools in modern medicine. While Ernst did not develop MRI directly, the pulse-sequence design and signal-processing methods he created were essential precursors to the imaging techniques that allow physicians to visualize soft tissues, detect tumors, and diagnose neurological conditions without ionizing radiation.

At ETH Zurich and beyond, Ernst's influence extended through the many students and collaborators he trained, who carried his methods and scientific philosophy into laboratories and institutions around the world. His emphasis on rigorous methodology and creative experimental design set a standard for the field that persists to this day.

It is also notable that the name "Richard Ernst" is shared by other individuals in various fields. A geologist named Richard Ernst at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, has been recognized for his work on large igneous provinces and received the 2025 NSERC Synergy Award for Innovation. That researcher, who has conducted extensive fieldwork in Siberia studying ancient volcanic events, is a distinct individual from the Nobel laureate. Additionally, Richard P. Ernst (1858–1934) served as a U.S. Senator from Kentucky, further illustrating the commonality of the name.