Jerome Karle

All their daughters grew up to work in the field of science; Louise Karle (born 1946) became a Theoretical Chemist, Jean Karle (born 1950) became an Organic Chemist, and Madeleine Karle (born 1955) became a Museum Specialist with expertise in the field of Geology.

He died of liver cancer on 6 June, 2013 at the Leewood Healthcare Center in Annandale, Virginia.

Karle was born into a Jewish family on18 June, 1918 in New York City, USA. His parents were Sadie Helen (Kun) and Louis Karfunkle.

His mother was an exceptional pianist and organist and wanted her son to become a professional pianist. Karle not only learnt to play the piano as a young boy but also participated in the ‘Music Week’ competitions held in New York City.

Although he was fairly successful in music competitions, he soon realized that public performances didn’t interest him at all. Instead, he discovered his interest in science and decided to pursue it as a full-time career. In sports, he enjoyed single-wall handball, ice skating, touch football, and swimming in the ocean.

He attended schools in the New York City public school system and gained immensely from their high standards of education, character building and discipline. In his senior years, he attended the Abraham Lincoln High School in Brooklyn - the same school attended by future Nobel Laureates, Arthur Kornberg and Paul Berg. While in school, he took courses in Chemistry and Physics.

At the age of 15, he entered City College of New York in 1933. This proved to be a difficult period for him as he had to struggle with the high academic standards of the college and travel three hours daily on the subway, to and from home. Amidst such challenges, his piano practices suffered.

After a short break, he joined the New York State Health Department in Albany in order to save enough money to pay for further studies. Meanwhile, he also resumed his piano lessons.

At Albany, he made his first significant yet humble contribution to Science. During that time, fluoridation of drinking water was in progress. He developed a process to measure the dissolved fluorine level in water, which later became the benchmark technique for water fluoridation.

In 1940, he enrolled in the Chemistry Department of the University of Michigan and received his PhD. in 1944. However, since his academic work was already over by summer 1943,he joined the Manhattan Project at the University of Chicago along with his fellow classmate and wife Dr. Isabella Karle.

In 1944, the Karle couple returned to the University of Michigan, where he worked on a project for the United States Naval Research Laboratory and Isabella worked as an instructor in the Chemistry Department.

While at Michigan, he performed some experiments on the structure of monolayers of long-chain hydrocarbon films involved in the boundary lubrication of metallic surfaces. He also obtained a theory that elucidated the electron diffraction patterns acquired from the oriented monolayers.

Karle and Hauptman devised mathematical equations to explain the arrangements of numerous spots that appeared on photographic films as a result of a crystal’s diffraction of X-rays.

Based on an analysis of the intensity of the spots, their equations made it possible to identify the exact location of atoms within the crystal’s molecules. Their method was published in 1949.

It took some time for crystallographers to realize the potential of the method. They began using it to determine the three-dimensional structure of small biological molecules, such as hormones, vitamins, and antibiotics. The technique also played an important role in the creation of new pharmaceutical products and other synthesized materials.

Before Karle and Hauptman published their method, it took two years to determine the structure of a simple biological molecule; however in the 1980s, with the aid of powerful computers that helped perform the complex calculations dictated by their method, the task took only about two days.