The Russell Varian Prize was an international scientific prize awarded for a single, high-impact and innovative contribution in the field of

nuclear magnetic resonance Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) is a physical phenomenon in which nuclei in a strong constant magnetic field are perturbed by a weak oscillating magnetic field (in the near field) and respond by producing an electromagnetic signal with a ...

(NMR), that laid the foundation for the development of new technologies in the field. It honored the memory of Russell Varian, the pioneer behind the creation of the first commercial NMR

spectrometer A spectrometer () is a scientific instrument used to separate and measure spectral components of a physical phenomenon. Spectrometer is a broad term often used to describe instruments that measure a continuous variable of a phenomenon where the ...

and the co-founder, in 1948, of

Varian Associates Varian Associates was one of the first high-tech companies in Silicon Valley. It was founded in 1948 by Russell H. and Sigurd F. Varian, William Webster Hansen, and Edward Ginzton to sell the klystron, the first vacuum tube which could amplif ...

, one of the first high-tech companies in

Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that serves as a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical areas San Mateo Coun ...

. The prize carried a monetary award of €15,000 and it was awarded annually between the years 2002 and 2015 (except for 2003) by a committee of experts in the field. The award ceremony alternated between the European Magnetic Resonance (EUROMAR) Conference and the International Council on Magnetic Resonance in Biological Systems (ICMRBS) Conference. Originally, the prize was sponsored by Varian, Inc. and later by

Agilent Technologies Agilent Technologies, Inc. is an American life sciences company that provides instruments, software, services, and consumables for the entire laboratory workflow. Its global headquarters is located in Santa Clara, California. Agilent was establi ...

, after the latter acquired Varian, Inc. in 2010. The prize was discontinued in 2016 after Agilent Technologies closed its NMR division.

Russell Varian Prize Awardees

*2002

Jean Jeener Jean Louis Charles Jeener is a Belgian physical chemist and physicist, well known for his experimental and theoretical contributions to spin thermodynamics in solids and for his invention of Two-dimensional nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy ...

. Contribution: Multi-dimensional Fourier NMR spectroscopy. *2004 Erwin L. Hahn. Contribution:

Spin echo In magnetic resonance, a spin echo or Hahn echo is the refocusing of spin magnetisation by a pulse of resonant electromagnetic radiation. Modern nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) make use of this effect. The NMR ...

phenomena and experiments. *2005

Nicolaas Bloembergen Nicolaas Bloembergen (March 11, 1920 – September 5, 2017) was a Dutch-American physicist and Nobel laureate, recognized for his work in developing driving principles behind nonlinear optics for laser spectroscopy. During his career, he was a p ...

. Contribution: Nuclear magnetic relaxation. *2006

John S. Waugh John Stewart Waugh (April 25, 1929 – August 22, 2014) was an American chemist and Institute Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is known for developing average hamiltonian theory and using it to extend NMR s ...

. Contribution: Average Hamiltonian theory. *2007 Alfred G. Redfield. Contribution: Relaxation Theory. *2008

Alexander Pines Alexander Pines (born June 22, 1945) is an American chemist. He is the Glenn T. Seaborg Professor Emeritus, University of California, Berkeley, Chancellor's Professor Emeritus and Professor of the Graduate School, University of California, Berke ...

. Contribution: Cross-polarization method for NMR in solids. *2009 Albert W. Overhauser. Contribution:

Nuclear Overhauser effect The nuclear Overhauser effect (NOE) is the transfer of nuclear spin polarization from one population of spin-active nuclei (e.g. 1H, 13C, 15N etc.) to another via cross-relaxation. A phenomenological definition of the NOE in nuclear magnetic res ...

(NOE). *2010 Martin Karplus. Contribution:

Karplus equation The Karplus equation, named after Martin Karplus, describes the correlation between 3J-coupling constants and dihedral torsion angles in nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy: :J(\phi) = A \cos^2 \phi + B \cos\,\phi + C where ''J'' is the 3''J ...

. *2011 Gareth A. Morris. Contribution:

INEPT pulse sequence Insensitive nuclei enhancement by polarization transfer (INEPT) is a signal enhancement method used in NMR spectroscopy. It involves the transfer of nuclear spin polarization from spins with large Boltzmann population differences to nuclear spins o ...

. *2012 Ray Freeman and Weston A. Anderson. Contribution: Double resonance. *2013 Lucio Frydman. Contribution: Ultrafast NMR. *2014

Ad Bax Adriaan "Ad" Bax (born 1956) is a Dutch-American molecular biophysicist. He was born in the Netherlands and is the Chief of the Section on Biophysical NMR Spectroscopy at the National Institutes of Health. He is known for his work on the methodolo ...

. Contribution: Homonuclear broad band decoupled absorption spectra. *2015 Malcolm Levitt. Contribution: Composite pulses.

References

{{Reflist Science and technology awards Physics awards Nuclear magnetic resonance Awards established in 2002 Awards disestablished in 2016

Russell Varian Prize Awardees

See also

References