Throughout the 20^th century, NRC was a fertile ground for researchers making ground-breaking discoveries. Many scientists who have passed through the doors of NRC have been bestowed the honour of Nobel laureate, among them the following:

Gerhard Herzberg: Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1971
Hailed as the father of modern spectroscopy, Dr. Herzberg joined the NRC in 1948 and retired in 1995 at the age of 90. During his years at NRC, he established a laboratory that became the world centre for molecular spectroscopy.

John Polanyi: Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1986
Dr. Polanyi was awarded the Nobel Prize for the development of a new field of research in chemistry called reaction dynamics. He was a Post-doctoral Fellow at the NRC Laboratories in Ottawa from 1952 to1954. The prize was shared between Polanyi, Dudley R. Herschbach, and Yuan T. Lee.

Dudley R. Herschbach: Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1986
Dr. Herschbach was awarded the Nobel Prize for the development of a new field of research in chemistry called reaction dynamics. He was a visiting researcher at the NRC Laboratories in Ottawa in the early 1950s. The prize was shared between Polanyi, Dudley R. Herschbach, and Yuan T. Lee.

Bertram Brockhouse: Nobel Prize in Physics 1994
Dr. Brockhouse was awarded the Nobel Prize for the development of neutron spectroscopy, and for his pioneering contributions to the development of neutron scattering techniques for studies of condensed matter. He was a member of the NRC atomic energy research division at Chalk River from 1950 to 1952, and had previously worked at the NRC laboratories in Ottawa from 1944 to 1947. The prize was shared with Clifford G. Schull.

Sir Frederick Banting: Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1923
Sir Banting was awarded the Nobel Prize for the discovery of insulin. He was a member of NRC's governing Council from 1938 to1941. His work at NRC helped found the Medical Research Council and its successor the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. The prize was shared with John Macleod.

Rudolph Marcus: Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1992
Dr. Marcus was awarded the Nobel Prize for his contribution to the theory of electron transfer reactions in chemical systems. His work at NRC brought about his radical switch to theoretical work, for which he won the Nobel Prize. He worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow in NRC's Photochemistry Group from 1946 to1949.

Sir Harold Kroto: Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1996
Sir Kroto was awarded the Nobel Prize for his discovery of fullerenes – new forms of the element carbon. Sir Kroto was a Post-doctoral Fellow at NRC's Sussex Drive Laboratories in the 1960s. The prize was shared with Robert Curl. Curl worked at NRC briefly as a visiting researcher.

John Pople: Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1998
Dr. Pople was awarded the Nobel Prize for his development of computational methods in quantum chemistry. He worked at NRC in 1956 and 1957, where he developed an interest in Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR). The prize was shared with Walter Kohn.

Sir John Cockcroft: Nobel Prize in Physics 1951
Sir Cockcroft was awarded the Nobel Prize for his pioneering work on the transmutation of atomic nuclei by artificially accelerated atomic particles. He came to Canada during World War II to head the NRC Atomic Energy project as Director of the NRC Montreal and Chalk River Laboratories. The prize was shared with Earnest T.R. Walton.

Geoffrey Wilkinson: Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1973
Dr. Wilkinson was awarded the Nobel Prize for his pioneering work on the chemistry of the organometallic "sandwich compounds." He worked at the NRC Atomic energy labs, first in Montréal and later at Chalk River, from 1943 to 1946. The prize was shared with Ernst Otto Fischer.

Interested in learning more about the Nobel prize? Visit the Nobel site at: http://nobelprize.org/