Gates Chemical Laboratory: Where Two-Time Nobel Prize Winner Linus Pauling Worked

After receiving his PhD from Caltech in 1925, Linus Pauling joined the Institute's faculty. Working in what was then the Gates Chemical Laboratory, Pauling used the principles of quantum mechanics to understand and describe, for the first time, the chemical bonding of atoms to form molecules. He published his classic text on the subject, The Nature of the Chemical Bond, in 1939 and was awarded the 1954 Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for his research into the nature of the chemical bond and its application to the elucidation of the structure of complex substances." His work on the nature of the chemical bond and the structure of molecules led to investigations into the structure of proteins; his studies of hemoglobin, in particular, revealed the cause of sickle-cell anemia and are considered to have ushered in the field of modern molecular biology. Not even a decade after his chemistry Nobel, Pauling won the 1962 Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to stop the use of weapons of mass destruction, becoming the only person ever to receive two unshared Nobel prizes—a distinction that stands even today.