A pioneer behind x-ray crystallography, Isabella Karle

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Katie Hafner (1:35)

Every year on December 10th, the country of Sweden holds a very special ceremony.

Guests arrive at Stockholm's premier concert hall in their finest gowns and tuxedos. The king and queen of Sweden are there, too, sporting crown jewels, all to celebrate Nobel Day when the Nobel Prizes are bestowed. Nobel Day is full of pomp and circumstance. Hundreds of distinguished guests fill the hall. The laureates then walk onto the stage and take their seats.

In 1985, the Nobel Prize for Chemistry went to two Americans. Herbert Hauptmann and Jerome Karle. They were awarded for solving something called the phase problem. We'll get in to what that is later, but for now, all you need to know is this. It was a really complicated mathematical and chemical problem. And there, having solved it, is one reason most modern medicine is available today. Professor Ingvar Lindqvist, a Swedish chemist, conferred the medals to Hauptmann and Karle.

Ingvar Lindqvist (2:51)

Herbert Hauptmann and Jerome Karle.

On behalf of the Academy, I wish to convey to you our warmest congratulations. And I now ask you to receive your prizes from the hands of His Majesty the King.

Katie Hafner (3:09)

Yet many people, to this day, take issue with a particular fact about that evening's ceremony. Jerome Karle's wife, Isabella, sat in the audience watching her husband receive the award. The problem, they say, is that Isabella Karle shouldn't have been among the onlookers. She should have been on the stage, sharing the prize with the two men whose achievements were possible only because of the work she did.

I'm Katie Hafner, and this is Lost Women of Science. Today, how Isabella Karle, one of history's premier chemists, made breakthrough discoveries in foundational physical chemistry, and why the Nobel Committee's decision to leave her off the 1985 prize left the scientific community stunned.

Isabella Lugowski had a gift for math from an early age. In fact, loving numbers is one of her earliest memories. She was born on December 2, 1921 Her parents were both Polish immigrants, and the family moved around a bit until they settled in Detroit, Michigan. Isabella's father worked for the Detroit transportation system. Her mother was a seamstress and also owned a restaurant. Little Isabella hung around the restaurant, and that's where math just started to make sense.

Isabella Karle (4:55)

My earliest recollections were in the back rooms of the restaurant. It served breakfast and it served large lunches to construction people.

Katie Hafner (5:07)

That's Isabella at age 94 It's from an oral history recorded by the Atomic Heritage Foundation in 2015

Isabella's mother realized fairly early that her daughter liked numbers. The butcher brought fresh meat to the restaurant every day, and they paid him once a week.

Isabella Karle (5:26)

So once a week, I added up all the numbers of the money that was owed him.

Katie Hafner (5:32)

Isabella started public school at six years old, and she thrived in the classroom, despite Polish being her native language.

Isabella Karle (5:40)

I was sort of the top girl in the class, and the teachers used to wonder how I did that since I didn't speak English.

Katie Hafner (5:51)

She skipped second grade. Then she skipped fifth grade, too.

But science, as a serious interest, it never really occurred to her until she realized coursework in science was a prerequisite for college.