Karle was born inNew York City, on June 18, 1918, the son of Sadie Helen (Kun) and Louis Karfunkle.[5] He was born into aJewish family with a strong interest in the arts.[6][7] He had played piano as a youth and had participated in a number of competitions, but he was far more interested in science.[2] He attendedAbraham Lincoln High School inBrooklyn, and would later joinArthur Kornberg (awarded the Nobel in Medicine in 1959) andPaul Berg (a winner in Chemistry in 1980), as graduates of the school to win Nobel Prizes.[8] As a youth, Karle enjoyedhandball,ice skating,touch football and swimming in the nearbyAtlantic Ocean.[2]
He enrolled at theUniversity of Michigan in 1940 and met his future wife,Isabella Lugoski, who was sitting at an adjoining desk during his first course in physical chemistry. The two married in 1942. They were both supervised in their PhD studies by physical chemistLawrence Brockway. Though Karle completed his studies in 1943, he was awarded hisPhD the following year.[2][9]
Karle and Herbert A. Hauptman were awarded theNobel Prize in Chemistry in 1985 for their work in using X-ray scattering techniques to determine the structure of crystals, a technique that is used to study the biological, chemical, metallurgical and physical characteristics. They were able to employ theSayre equation in centrosymmetric structure, developing the so-calleddirect methods. Through isolating the position of the atoms in a crystal, the molecular structure of the material being studied can be determined, allowing processes to be designed to duplicate the molecules being studied. This technique has played a major role in the development of new pharmaceutical products and other synthesized materials.[3]
Jerome (left foreground) andIsabella Karle (seated center) at their 2009 retirement ceremony
Karle and his wife retired from the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory on July 31, 2009, after a combined 127 years of service to the United States Government, with Karle joining the NRL in 1944 and his wife two years later. At the time of his departure from government service, Karle held the chair of science as chief scientist of the Laboratory for the Structure of Matter. Retirement ceremonies for the Karles were attended byUnited States Secretary of the NavyRay Mabus, who presented the couple with the Department of the Navy Distinguished Civilian Service Award, the Navy's highest form of recognition to civilian employees.[11]
^Jerome KarleArchived 2013-10-05 at theWayback Machine,City College of New York. Accessed June 6, 2013. "Jerome Karle is an American Jewish physical chemist who shared the 1985 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with a fellow CCNY classmate, Herbert Hauptman, 'for their outstanding achievements in the development of direct methods for the determination of crystal structures.'"
^"Columbia Gardens Cemetery". Retrieved2021-10-24.2013 - Jerome Karle, chemist, interred. Won the Nobel Prize in 1985 for the direct analysis of crystal structures using X-ray scattering techniques.
_and_Isabella_Lugoski_Karle_(1921-2017).jpg)
