Linus Pauling: The only person to receive 2 unshared Nobel Prizes
He won the Nobel Prizes in Chemistry and Peace
Only one person has received two unshared Nobel Prizes till now; he is Linus Pauling.
In 1954 he won the Prize for Chemistry. Eight years later he was awarded the Peace Prize for his opposition to weapons of mass destruction.
Pauling was a chemist who lived on the frontiers of science, reads an article of the Nobel Prize committee.
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Working in the 1930s, he was among the pioneers who used quantum mechanics to understand and describe chemical bonding. His interests and contributions were many – he published the structure of the alpha helix, investigated sickle cell anaemia as the first molecular disease, and was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1954.
The atom bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were a turning point in Pauling's life.
After the bombings, Pauling turned his attention to a different cause: peace.
He campaigned vehemently against nuclear weapons and spearheaded a petition to ban nuclear testing.
Together with other scientists he spoke and wrote against the nuclear arms race, and he was a driving force in the Pugwash movement. It sought to reduce the role of nuclear arms in international politics and was awarded the Peace Prize in 1995 "for his fight against the nuclear arms race between East and West."
In 1959, Linus Pauling drafted the famous "Hiroshima Appeal", the concluding document issued after the Fifth World Conference against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs.
He was one of the prime movers who urged the nuclear powers the USA, the Soviet Union and Great Britain to conclude a nuclear test ban treaty, which entered into force on 10 October 1963, reads the article.
On the same day, the Norwegian Nobel Committee announced that Linus Pauling had won the Peace Prize that had been held over from 1962.
