U.S. sweeps Nobel science awards

Press, 21 October 1983, Page 6

U.S. sweeps Nobel science awards

NZPA New York The three scientists who completed the American sweep of the Nobel science awards are past the customary retirement age, and two of them said they had laboured for years with no publicity. “I think that the thing is that this is a field that hasn’t really gotten much attention,” said Professor Henry Taube, of Stanford University, the winner of the Nobel Prize in chemistry. The Noble Prize in physics was shared by William Fowler of the California Institute of Technology and Subramanyan Chandrasekhar of the University of Chicago.

Mr Taube is 67. Mr Fowler, is 72.

yesterday was Mr Chandrasekhar’s seventy-third birthday. “My work is usually appreciated only after some length of time,” said Mr Chandrasekhar. “For myself, my latest work re--presents my best efforts.” He said that work concerned black holes.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, which bestows the awards, called Mr Taube “one of the most creative contemporary workers in organic chemistry.” It cited him for “his work on the mechanisms of electron transfer reactions, especially in metal complexes.”

Mr Chandrasekhar, who became a United States citizen in 1953, has been one of the world’s top authorities

on stellar evolution for more than four decades. He was honoured for “his theoretical studies of the physical processes of importance to the structure and evolution of’ white dwarf stars.

The academy said that Mr Chandrasekhar’s bestknown work was in the 19395, when he was in his 20s. It dealt with the structures of white dwarfs, the bodies left after the collapse of a star. Mr Chandrasekhar was born on October 19,1910, at Lahore, India, now part of Pakistan, and earned doctorates from Trinity College, Cambridge, England, in 1933 and 1942. He has been a distinguished service professor of theoretical astrophysics at Chicago’s Yerkes Observatory since 1946, a®d became a member

of the Swedish academy in 1973.

Mr Chandrasekhar, in a statement released by the University of Chicago, said the work that won him the Nqbel was done on a ship while travelling from India to Britain.

“I have always worked for my own satisfaction on things outside the mainstream of science,” he said. “... I never ask if a subject is important, only if I can construct a body of knowledge that pleases me."

A University of Chicago spokesman, Larry Arbeiter, described Mr Chandrasekhar as “extremely shy” and reluctant to give preferring “to remain a private person.” Mr Taube, in a

interview from his home on the Stanford campus, said: “Too much has happened to me too fast for me to get it all straight. What does one say? Obviously, I’m pleased and of course I was astonished.

“When I started my work on the mechanics of inorganic reactions, no-one knew (about the field). This is recognition of the importance of a field. I’m not the only person in it, but I was perhaps more active than any other.” His speciality is an aspect of . inorganic chemistry known as co-ordination chemistry, which examines the reaction of meta! complexes. Much of his research has centred on understanding reactivity, an important aspect of catalysis, which is vital to life processes and to

industrial chemistry. He said that his work “helps us to understand chemistry and that helps us use chemistry for our own purposes.” The Indian Prime Minister, Mrs Indira Gandhi, said yesterday that she was happy and “thrilled” to hear that Mr Subramanayan Chandrashekhar had won the Nobel prize. Mrs Gandhi, who is in Bombay attending her Congress (I) Party’s working meeting, said that Mr Chandrashekhar was not only a great scientist but a “very fine” person.

She said she had the "privilege” of knowing him for many years. Although he was in the United States he had never lost his contact