Isabella Karle

Isabella Helen Karle (; December 2, 1921 – October 3, 2017) was an American chemist who was instrumental in developing techniques to extract plutonium chloride from a mixture containing plutonium oxide. For her scientific work, Karle received the Garvan–Olin Medal, Gregori Aminoff Prize, Bower Award, National Medal of Science, and the Navy Distinguished Civilian Service Award (which is the Navy's highest form of recognition to civilian employees).

Early life

Isabella Helen Lugoski was born in Detroit, Michigan, on December 2, 1921, the daughter of immigrants from Poland. Her father, Zygmunt Lugoski, worked for the city's transportation system. Her mother, the former Elizabeth Graczyk, was a self-educated woman who supported her family as a seamstress of automobile upholstery and later by running a restaurant–eventually with Isabella's help, who became the restaurant's accountant after discovering a love for numbers. She attended the local public schools and skipped two grades in elementary school, despite not speaking English until the first grade. While at school, a female chemistry teacher led her to her pursuit of the field as a career.Staff
" profile"
''Journal of Chemical Education''. Accessed September 22, 2009. She also drew inspiration from a biography of Marie Curie. She attended Wayne University (now Wayne State University) in Detroit for a semester before obtaining a four-year scholarship to the University of Michigan, where she majored in physical chemistry and received a Bachelor of Science at age 19, followed by Master of Science and Ph.D. degrees in the field. During her graduate work she met her future husband and scientific collaborator, Jerome Karle, in a physical-chemistry lab where alphabetical seating dictated that the two of them would sit next to each other; the two were both advised in their Ph.D. studies by Lawrence Brockway. The pair married in June 1942 after Isabella completed her M.S. degree.

Career

Karle worked on the Manhattan Project during World War II, where she developed techniques to extract plutonium chloride from a mixture containing plutonium oxide.

She joined the United States Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) after the end of the war. At the NRL, her husband Jerome developed "direct methods" for analyzing structure of crystals. Their experimental apparatus for electron diffraction for characterizing the structures of gaseous molecules provided invaluable insights into key principles that led them later to their successful treatment of the phase problem in X-ray crystallography. However, for many years the crystallographic community remained skeptical about their utility. Isabella Karle was the first person to apply the method. She developed the symbolic addition procedure that connects the theoretical "direct method" apparatus and actual X-ray diffraction data. These contributions advanced the field of X-ray crystallography by enabling determination of the structure of crystals. This technique has played a major role in the development of new pharmaceutical products and other synthesized materials.

In 1985, Jerome Karle was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, together with mathematician Herbert A. Hauptman, for developing direct methods for analyzing X-ray diffraction data. The Nobel Committee ignored Isabella's crucial role in solving the problem in practice, and Jerome Karle and many other members of the crystallography community strongly believed that Isabella Karle should have shared the prize.

Karle was the first to publish the structures of many important molecules and received many honors. She was elected a Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences (1978) and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1993). She was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1992. In addition, she received the National Medal of Science from President Clinton (1995), various awards, and eight honorary doctorates.

As her successes became known, Isabella brought young women into her laboratory and taught them crystallography. And, as her fame for solving the structures of many difficult crystals spread throughout the community, collaborators across the world sent her samples of their crystals in glass vials. Her models of frog toxins are exhibited at the American Museum of Natural History in NYC.

On July 31, 2009, Karle and her husband retired from the Naval Research Laboratory, after a combined 127 years of service to the United States Government, with Karle joining the NRL in 1946, two years after her husband. Retirement ceremonies for the Karles were attended by United States Secretary of the Navy Ray 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.McKinney, Donna
"Jerome and Isabella Karle Retire from NRL Following Six Decades of Scientific Exploration"
, United States Naval Research Laboratory press release dated July 21, 2009. Accessed September 22, 2009.

Death

She died on October 3, 2017, at a hospice in Alexandria, Virginia at 95 from a brain tumor. She was exposed to radiation during her work on the Manhattan project.

Personal life

Karle was married to Jerome Karle, with whom she had three daughters, all of whom work in scientific fields:Jerome Karle: The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1985
Nobel Prize. Accessed September 22, 2009.
*Louise Karle (born 1946) is a theoretical chemist
*Jean Karle (1950) is an organic chemist
*Madeleine Karle (1955) is a museum specialist with expertise in the field of geology.

Awards

*Garvan–Olin Medal (1976)
* Rear Admiral William S. Parsons Award (1988)
*Gregori Aminoff Prize (1988)
* Bijvoet Medal of the Bijvoet Center for Biomolecular Research (1989)
*Bower Award (1993)
*National Medal of Science (1995)
*Navy Distinguished Civilian Service Award (2009)

References

Further reading

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External links

2015 Video interview with Isabella Karle by the Atomic Heritage Foundation
Voices of the Manhattan Project
2005 Video Interview with Isabella Karle by the Atomic Heritage Foundation
Voices of the Manhattan Project
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Karle, Isabella
1921 births
2017 deaths
American crystallographers
Scientists from Detroit
University of Michigan College of Literature, Science, and the Arts alumni
American biophysicists
National Medal of Science laureates
Recipients of the Garvan–Olin Medal
American women chemists
Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences
American physical chemists
Manhattan Project people
American women biophysicists
Bijvoet Medal recipients
Women on the Manhattan Project
Members of the American Philosophical Society
Presidents of the American Crystallographic Association
Recipients of the Navy Distinguished Civilian Service Award