The Phase Problem of X-Ray Crystallography
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Description
(This information was taken from the Distinguished Scientist Lecture Series Program 1987-1988).
Dr. Hauptman, a Nobel laureate, is president and research director of the Medical Foundation of Buffalo and Research Professor of Biophysical Sciences at the State University of New York at Buffalo. Born in New York City, Dr. Hauptman earned the M.A. degree from Columbia University and the Ph.D. degree from the University of Maryland. He taught mathematics at the University of Maryland until 1970, during which time he also worked in mathematics and mathematical physics at the Naval Research Laboratory. He joined the Medical Foundation of Buffalo as head of the Mathematical Biophysics Laboratory in 1970 and was appointed president in 1986. Dr. Hauptman received early honors for his work with the Belden Prize in Mathematics in 1935 and the RESA Award in Pure Sciences in 1959. He was elected president of the Association of Independent Research Institutes in 1979 and 1980, and received the Travel Grant Award from the National Science Foundation for travel to India in 1982. In 1984 he was co-recipient of the Patterson Award, and in 1985 he was co-recipient with Jerome Karle of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work in the "direct method," an analytical technique to determine the three-dimensional structure of molecules. He recently received the Norton Medal and the Gold Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement. Dr. Hauptman has published extensively in the field of crystallography and phase determination. In addition to articles in scholarly journals and anthologies, he is the author of Crystal Structure Determination: The Role of the Cosine Seminvariants, co-author with Jerome Karle of Solution of the Phase Problems, and editor of Direct Methods in Crystallogy" hy, Proceedings of the 1976 Intercongress Symposium.
His Work: Dr. Hauptman has developed statistical formulae applied to X-ray crystallography, a means of examining the architecture of substances by taking the crystallized spots and reconstructing them into a three-dimensional picture. His "direct methods" are now the standard procedure for determining the structure of small molecules such as hormones, vitamins and drugs.
His Lecture: March 12, 1988: "The Phase Problem of X-Ray Crystallography"
Keywords
Mathematical
Creation Date
March 12, 1988
Recommended Citation
Hauptman, Herbert A., "The Phase Problem of X-Ray Crystallography" (1988). DSLS 1987-1988. 3.
https://digitalcommons.bard.edu/dsls_1987_1988/3