RCSA

Nobel Laureates

One of the oldest philanthropies in the U.S., and the first devoted wholly to science, Research Corporation for Science Advancement (RCSA) has a 100-plus year tradition of supporting early career scientists and their innovative research. Through its peer-review process, RCSA recognizes top talent among young, academic-based scientists. Over the past century, 43 scientists who received RCSA support have also earned the Nobel Prize, and many others have received significant honors in the physical sciences and closely related fields. Nobel laureates include:

Harold C. Urey

Harold C. Urey
Nobel Prize in chemistry, 1934. Research Corporation grant in 1938 for research on isotopes.


Ernest O. Lawrence

Ernest O. Lawrence
Nobel Prize in physics, 1939. Research Corporation grants 1930-1932, 1934-1935 and 1937-1938 to secure magnet to build the first large cyclotron. Grants for research in nuclear physics 1939-1942.


Isidor Isaac Rabi

Isidor Isaac Rabi 
Nobel Prize in physics, 1944. Research Corporation grants in 1931 for molecular beam research; in 1937-1940 for research on magnetic moment of the atom.


Percy W. Bridgman

Percy W. Bridgman 
Nobel Prize in physics in 1946. Research Corporation grant in 1954 to investigate the properties of matter under pressure.


Edward C. Kendall

Edward C. Kendall 
Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine, 1950. Research Corporation grants in 1942-1944 for study of cortical hormones.


Flex Bloch

Felix Bloch
Nobel Prize in physics, 1952. Research Corporation grant in 1939 for low voltage generator; grants in 1946-1948 for nuclear induction and its application to polarized neutrons.


Edward M. Purcell

Edward M. Purcell
Nobel Prize in physics, 1952. Research Corporation grants in 1946 and 1948 for research on resonance absorption by nuclear magnetic moments.


George Beadle

George Beadle
Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine, 1958. Research Corporation grant in 1944 for research on the induction and detection of biochemical mutations in Neurospora Crassa.


Edward L. Tatum

Edward L. Tatum  
Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine, 1958. Research Corporation grants 1946-1947 for research on the uses of isotopes in the study of biosynthesis of amino acids and vitamins by mutant strains of neurospora and E. coli.


Severo Ochoa

Severo Ochoa  
Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine, 1959. RC grants: 1941 for research on the intermediary carbohydrate metabolism; 1944 for research on respiratory enzymes and the mechanism of the biological oxidation of pyruvic acid; 1951 to study enzyme systems involved in biological oxidations and syntheses.


Robert Hofstadter

Robert Hofstadter  
Nobel Prize in physics, 1961. Research Corporation grant in 1950 for study of nuclear electric charge distribution by experiments on the elastic scattering of electrons from nuclei.


Feodor Lynen

Feodor Lynen   
Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine, 1964. Research Corporation award in 1954 for research on the biosynthesis of the fatty acids and isoprene derivatives.


Robert B. Woodward

Robert B. Woodward  
Nobel Prize in chemistry, 1965. Research Corporation awards 1949-1953 for experiments on the synthesis of cortisone; grant in 1957 for the investigation of the structure and synthesis of chlorophyll.


Manfred Eigen

Manfred Eigen 
Nobel Prize in chemistry, 1967. Research Corporation award in 1954 for research concerning the velocity and mechanism of high speed ionic reactions.


Robert W. Holley

Robert W. Holley  
Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine, 1968. Research Corporation grant in 1958 for research concerning the chemistry of intermediates in protein synthesis.


Max Delbrück

Max Delbrück  
Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine, 1969. Research Corporation award in 1958 for the production, characterization and mapping of the phage T2L.


Ernst O. Fischer

Ernst O. Fischer  
Nobel Prize in chemistry, 1973. Research Corporation grant in 1961 as part of the Foundation?s West German Grants program.

 

William N. Lipscomb Jr.

William N. Lipscomb Jr.  
Nobel Prize in chemistry, 1976. Research Corporation grant in 1959 for determination of the molecular structure of an enzyme, a proteinase from Tetra-hymena pyriformis W, by x-ray diffraction methods.


Herbert C. Brown

Herbert C. Brown  
Nobel Prize in chemistry, 1979. Research Corporation awards in 1948 and 1949 for research on the effects of structure on the chemistry of addition compounds.


George Wald

George Wald 
Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine, 1979. Research Corporation grants in 1942 and 1943 for research on the physiological action of thiamin in neuromuscular systems; in 1949 for a) cozymase-destroying systems in the tissues of freshwater fishes, or b) the conversion of beta-carotene to vitamin A in vitro.


Georg Wittig

Georg Wittig  
Nobel Prize in chemistry, 1979. Research Corporation award in 1955 for research on organic anion chemistry.


Dudley Herschbach

Dudley Herschbach  
Nobel Prize in chemistry, 1986. Research Corporation award in 1998 for research on a mechanical means to decelerate gaseous molecules.


Donald J. Cram

Donald J. Cram  
Nobel Prize in chemistry, 1987. Research Corporation grant in 1951 for research on macro-ring compounds containing aromatic nuclei as part of the ring system.


Thomas R. Cech

Thomas R. Cech  
Nobel Prize for chemistry, 1989. Research Corporation grants in 1977 and 1978 for photochemical crosslinking of DNA with psoralens.


Elias J. Corey

Elias J. Corey  
Nobel Prize in chemistry, 1990. Research Corporation grants in 1958 and 1959 for the synthesis of electronically unstable organic structures protected by large substituents.


Ruldolph A. Marcus

Rudolph A. Marcus 
Nobel Prize in chemistry, 1992. Research Corporation grants in 1954 and 1956 for studies of the behavior of the dicarboxylate ions.


Edwin G. Krebs

Edwin G. Krebs  
Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine, 1992. Research Corporation grants in 1958 and 1959 for immunochemical studies on glycolytic enzymes.


Joseph H. Taylor Jr.

Joseph H. Taylor Jr.  
Nobel Prize in physics, 1993. Research Corporation grant in 1970 for observations of the temporal variation of pulsars.


Frederick Reines

Frederick Reines 
Nobel Prize in physics, 1995. Research Corporation grants in 1959 and 1961 to search for neutrons and gamma-rays of extra-terrestrial origin.


Robert F. Curl Jr.

Robert F. Curl Jr.  
Nobel Prize in chemistry, 1996. Research Corporation grant in 1958 to investigate the microwave spectra of radicals and molecules.


Richard E. Smalley

Richard E. Smalley 
Nobel Prize in chemistry, 1996. Research Corporation grants in 1976 and 1977 to investigate supersonic molecular beam laser spectroscopy of photoactive molecules.


Robert C. Richardson

Robert C. Richardson  
Nobel Prize in physics, 1996. Research Corporation grants in 1972 and 1973 for investigation of possible superfluid properties of liquid 3He.


Ahmed H. Zewail

Ahmed H. Zewail  
Nobel Prize in chemistry, 1999. Research Corporation grant in 1976 for an investigation of energy transport in high-dimensional solids.


Alan G. MacDiarmid

Alan G. MacDiarmid  
Nobel Prize in chemistry, 2000. Research Corporation grants 1956-1957 and 1959 for an investigation of silico-ethyl (SiH3SiH2) compounds.


Carl E. Wieman

Carl E. Wieman  
Nobel Prize in physics, 2001. Research Corporation grant in 1981 for a precision test of the Weinberg-Salaam theory of weak and electromagnetic interactions.


Karl B. Sharpless

Karl B. Sharpless  
Nobel Prize in chemistry, 2001 and 2022.
 Research Corporation grant in 1971 to study the chemistry of cis-dioxotransition metal species and its relevance to the action of mixed function oxygenases.


Raymond Davis Jr.

Raymond Davis Jr. 
Nobel Prize in physics, 2002. Research Corporation grant in 1948 for studies in the adsorption of gases by solids.


Robert H. Grubbs

Robert H. Grubbs  
Nobel Prize in chemistry, 2005. RCSA awards in 1969 for studies in multisite organometallic reactions; 1988-1990 to study computational approaches to polymer structures.


Richard R. Schrock

Richard R. Schrock 
Nobel Prize in chemistry, 2005. Research Corporation grant in 1975 for the study of reactions of transition metal complexes with ylides.


Ei-ichi Negishi

Ei-ichi Negishi
Nobel Prize in chemistry, 2010. Research Corporation grant in 1973 for the study of Chemistry of small ring organoboron compounds.


Donna Strickland

Donna Strickland
Nobel Prize in Physics, 2018. Cottrell Scholar Award in 2000 for the study of chirped optical dissociation of molecules.


Reinhard Genzel

Reinhard Genzel
Nobel Prize in physics, 2020. Research Corporation grant for a far-infrared and submillimeter laser for astronomical spectroscopy.


David MacMillan

David MacMillan
Nobel prize in chemistry, 2021. Cottrell Scholar Award in 2001 for research into enantioselective organocatalysis, a new strategy for asymmetric synthesis using organic catalysts.


Carolyn Bertozzi

Carolyn Bertozzi
Nobel Prize in chemistry, 2022. RCSA Research in Innovation Award in 1997 to develop new strategies for anti-tumor therapy and diagnosis.