LPI - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Communications Officer
- Research Coordinator
Job Titles:
- Research Associate
- Research Staff
Linus Carl Pauling was born in Portland, Oregon, on February 28, 1901. He received his early education in Oregon, finishing in 1922 with a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from Oregon Agricultural College in Corvallis - now Oregon State University. Already he was drawn to the challenge of how and why particular atoms form bonds with each other to create molecules with unique structures.
For postgraduate study, Pauling went to the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), which provided a stipend for research and teaching. In 1925 he received a Ph.D. in chemistry and mathematical physics. Awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, in 1926-27 he studied in Europe with physicists who were exploring the implications of quantum mechanics for atomic structure. In this revolutionary new field, Pauling found a physical and mathematical framework for his own future theories regarding molecular structure and its correlation with chemical properties and function.
An earlier version of this short biography was prepared by Barbara Marinacci and published in "Linus Pauling - In Memoriam" (Linus Pauling Institute of Science and Medicine, 1994, ©LPISM).
Job Titles:
- Director of the Linus Pauling Institute
- Endowed Chair and Director
Emily Ho, PhD is the Director of the Linus Pauling Institute and professor in the College of Public Health and Human Sciences at Oregon State University. Her research focuses on understanding the mechanisms by which nutrient status and healthy foods affect the initiation and/or progression of chronic diseases such as cancer.
Her work has helped drive dietary requirements and recommendations for micronutrients such as zinc for communities with susceptibility to poor nutrition. An important strength to her approach in her research is maintaining a mechanistic focus on diet/environment interactions, and encouraging to work in multi-disciplinary teams to facilitate the translation of cellular mechanistic studies to impact human populations.
Prior to becoming director of the LPI, she was the Endowed Director of the Moore Family Center for Whole Grain Foods, Nutrition and Prevention in the College of Public Health and Human Sciences. Dr. Ho obtained her BS in Nutritional Sciences at the University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada, obtained her doctorate in Nutrition Sciences at Ohio State University in 2000.
After a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California, Berkeley, she joined the nutrition faculty at Oregon State University in 2003. As faculty and leader at Oregon State University, she has a strong commitment to engaging and facilitating multi-directional translational research projects with basic scientists, clinicians, policy-makers and communities, and involving experiential learning with students and postdoctoral researchers.
Job Titles:
- Principal Investigator
- Principal Investigator, Linus Pauling Institute / Associate Dean for Research and Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, College of Pharmacy
Research Interests
Research in the Stevens laboratory is aimed at determining the role and function of vitamins and dietary phytochemicals in human health and disease. Mass spectrometry-based metabolomics is a new direction in the laboratory for discovery of biological effects and mechanisms of actions.
Job Titles:
- Principal Investigator
- Principal Investigator, Linus Pauling Institute / Associate Professor, Department of Animal Sciences
Job Titles:
- Professor for Cancer Prevention
- Professor for Healthy Aging Research
Cancer prevention & diet, cruciferous vegetables, transplacental cancer prevention
Job Titles:
- Finance
- Operations Manager
- Administration and Support Staff
Job Titles:
- Endowed Director
- Principal Investigators
Job Titles:
- Principal Investigator / Burgess and Elizabeth
Job Titles:
- Core Laboratory Technician
When Linus Pauling died on Aug. 19, 1994, the world lost one of its greatest scientists and humanitarians and a much respected and beloved defender of civil liberties and health issues.
Because of his dynamic personality and his many accomplishments in widely diverse fields, it is hard to define Linus Pauling adequately. A remarkable man who insistently addressed certain crucial human problems while pursuing an amazing array of scientific interests, Dr. Pauling was almost as well known to the American public as he was to the world's scientific community. He is the only person ever to receive two unshared Nobel Prizes - for Chemistry (1954) and Peace (1962).
In addition to the general recognition as one of the two greatest scientists of the 20th century, he was usually acknowledged by his colleagues as the most influential chemist since Lavoisier, the 18th-century founder of the modern science of chemistry. His introductory textbook General Chemistry, revised three times since its first printing in 1947 and translated into 13 languages, has been used by generations of undergraduates. After Pauling entered the field of chemistry as a professional in the mid-1920s, his work, grounded in physics, has affected the work of every chemist. He is also often considered the founding father of molecular biology, which has transformed the biological sciences and medicine and provided the base for biotechnology.
A multifaceted genius with a zest for communication, Linus Pauling for years was probably the most visible, vocal, and accessible American scientist. A black beret worn over a shock of curly white hair became his trademark, along with a pair of lively blue eyes that conveyed his intense interest in challenging topics. He was a master at explaining difficult medical and scientific information in terms understandable to intelligent laypersons. He wrote numerous articles and books for the general public - on science, peace, and health. Popular books in which Linus Pauling detailed his nutritional recommendations are Vitamin C and the Common Cold, Cancer and Vitamin C (with Ewan Cameron, M.D.), and How to Live Longer and Feel Better. He was perennially sought as a speaker for conferences, political rallies, commencements, and media programs.
Linus Pauling was never reluctant to inspire or enter into controversy by expressing unorthodox scientific ideas, taking a strong moral position, or rousing the public to some worthy cause. He often provoked the scientific, medical, and political communities with his imaginative scientific hypotheses and strong social activism. He took professional and personal risks that most of his colleagues avoided. Steadfast and stubborn, yet rarely losing his cheerful equilibrium, he continued on his chosen and sometimes solitary path as a visionary of science and a prophet of humanity.
To give one example of his committed yet free-spirited nature: In 1962, during the Kennedy administration, the Paulings were invited to a special party at the White House honoring Nobel laureates. Dr. Pauling spent the day outside the gates carrying a placard that protested atmospheric nuclear testing. Then that evening, he and his wife sat down to an elegant dinner with the Kennedys. And, when energetic music was played, the couple felt inspired to get up and dance - to the delight of onlookers.
Pauling put his elevated new position as a Nobel laureate to good effect in his growing social activism. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, he evolved into a fully heroic figure to hundreds of thousands of Americans who admired the chemist's courageous protest against atmospheric nuclear testing. He maintained, using scientific data and statistics to make his points, that radioactive fallout would increase the incidence of cancer and genetic disorders, including birth defects. As international tension and competition between the U.S. and the Soviet Union accelerated, he also riveted public attention on the buildup and proliferation of nuclear weaponry - preparations for thermonuclear warfare that he believed would destroy most of the planet's living creatures. He addressed both issues in his popular book No More War! (1958). He maintained that patient, reasoned negotiation and diplomacy, using the objectivity and procedures of the scientific method, would settle disputes in a more lasting, rational, and far more humane way than war. He asked scientists to become peacemakers.
In this most intense phase of the Cold War, Linus Pauling's name was often in the news - as when he circulated a petition against atmospheric nuclear testing and the excessive buildup of nuclear arsenals. The petition was presented in early 1958 to the United Nations after being signed by some 9,000 - eventually, more than 11,000-scientists worldwide. The U.S. government's opposing position was defended - sometimes vituperatively - by most of the press and by various scientists, such as physicist Edward Teller, many of whom were federal employees.
Pauling's six-year unrelenting antitesting campaign was finally vindicated when a treaty was signed by the then-three nuclear powers - the U.S., Great Britain, and the U.S.S.R.
On October 10, 1963, the day on which the limited test ban went into effect, it was announced that Linus Pauling would be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 1962. A key member of the selection committee in Norway commented later that the treaty would probably not have been effected without Dr. Pauling's galvanizing impetus. Its timely inception has spared innumerable people from suffering from cancer and genetic damage. Linus Pauling was greatly admired and is still much appreciated for his courageous public stand by many people who lived through those years. Today, of course, preventing nuclear warfare and fallout from above-ground weapons testing, as well as curbing the proliferation of nuclear arms, is the position accepted by most people worldwide.
To Linus Pauling came many honors. In 1933, at the remarkably young age of 32, he was elected to the prestigious National Academy of Sciences, and in 1936 to the equally prestigious American Philosophical Society. In 1948 he became a foreign member of The Royal Society of London, the premier honorary scientific society of Great Britain. Many other scientific societies and associations throughout the world made him a member or honorary member. In chemistry, in addition to the Nobel Prize (1954), Pauling was given numerous awards, including the Davy, Pasteur, Willard Gibbs, T.W. Richards, G.N. Lewis, Priestley, Avogadro, and Lomonosov medals. He was the first recipient of the National Academy of Sciences Award in Chemical Sciences, in 1979. The National Library of Medicine gave him its Sesquicentennial Commemorative Award in 1986; he was given other notable medical awards, such as the Addis, Phillips, Virchow, Lattimer, and the French Academy of Medicine medals. He received the Martin Luther King, Jr. Medical Achievement Award for his pioneering work in determining the cause of sickle cell anemia - the molecular disease prevalent among African-Americans.
President Ford awarded him the National Medal of Science in 1975, and in 1989 the National Science Board presented him with the Vannevar Bush Award in recognition of his outstanding contributions to science, technology, and society. He also received prominent medals and awards in mineralogy, international law, philosophy, and the social sciences. Among the humanitarian awards Pauling won, the most notable, of course, was the Nobel Peace Prize for 1962; he was also given the Gandhi and Lenin peace prizes and the Albert Schweitzer Peace medal. Pauling was named Humanist of the Year in 1961. Pauling also received the Gold Medal of the National Institute of Social Sciences. In addition, Pauling was awarded honorary degrees by some 50 universities and colleges throughout the world. Several universities have created their own Linus Pauling Lectureship or Medal, to honor other scientists or humanitarians in his name.
Nine biographies and three anthologies of his writings and speeches have been published thus far, and a two-volume collection of many of his most important scientific publications was published in 2002.
Linus Pauling always emphasized the importance of having a full and happy personal life. In 1923 he married Ava Helen Miller, who had been a student in a chemistry course he taught while still an undergraduate at Oregon Agricultural College. Dr. Pauling frequently credited his wife with influencing the development of his social consciousness. She was greatly involved in peace activities, both with her husband and on her own. Pauling said that his Nobel Peace Prize should really have gone to her, or at least been shared between them. In his talks and informal writings he often spoke both tenderly and humorously of their complementary partnership. She died in 1981. In tribute to her dedication to world peace, the Ava Helen and Linus Pauling Lectureship in World Peace has been established by the Paulings' alma mater, Oregon State University in Corvallis, where the Paulings' papers, medals, and other memorabilia are housed in Special Collections at the Valley Library. Additionally, the Linus Pauling Institute established the endowed Ava Helen Pauling Chair in 2001 to honor Ava Helen Pauling's memory.
The Paulings had four children. Linus Pauling, Jr., M.D., a psychiatrist, lives in Honolulu. Peter Pauling, Ph.D., a crystallographer and retired lecturer in chemistry, resided in Wales until his death in 2003. Linda Pauling Kamb lives in the home originally built by her parents in the foothills above Pasadena. Her husband, a former Caltech professor of geology and vice president and provost, died in 2011. Crellin Pauling, Ph.D., was a professor of biology at San Francisco State University until his death in 1997. There are 15 grandchildren and 19 great-grandchildren.
Following Pauling's death at the age of 93 at his ranch near Big Sur on the California coast, a memorial service was held at Stanford Memorial Church in Palo Alto on Aug. 29
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- Research Innovator Faculty Scholar
Job Titles:
- Research and Communications
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- Administrative Coordinator
Shorey LE, Madeen EP, Atwell LL, Ho E, Löhr CV, Pereira CB, Dashwood RH, Williams DE. (2013) Differential modulation of dibenzo[def,p]chrysene transplacental carcinogenesis: maternal diets rich in indole-3-carbinol versus sulforaphane. Toxicol Appl Pharmacol 270:60-69.