What did Swiss chemist Richard Ernst contribute to humanity?

CAIRO – 15 August 2022: The Nobel Prize celebrated the 89th  birth anniversary of the Swiss chemist Richard Ernst, who was born on August 14, 1933.

The Nobel Prize, on its official account on Twitter, published a quote from Richard Ernst, in which he said: “Scientific endeavors, with their positive and negative aspects, are an integral part of humanity.”

Richard Ernst studied at the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, where he studied chemistry and physics. He worked with Kurt Wüthrich, winner of the 2002 Nobel Prize in Chemistry in the field of nuclear magnetic resonance. Richard Ernst received the 1991 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his contributions to the development of high-resolution nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy.

According to the institute, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded Ernst the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for achieving "a significant development in the methodology of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy" that enabled the innovation of magnetic resonance imaging, which has become an essential tool in modern medicine.

Nuclear magnetic resonance is a spectroscopic technique applied to specific atomic nuclei (particularly hydrogen and proton nuclei that are present in large numbers in living organisms) and have the property of behaving like small magnets.

Ernst passed away on June 4, 2021.