Awards & Honors
UCLA Faculty Honored as Nobel Laureates
Louis J. Ignarro, Physiology or Medicine, 1998
For "discoveries concerning nitric oxide as a signalling molecule in the cardiovascular system" [Nobel Prize Citation]
Louis Ignarro joined the faculty of the UCLA School of Medicine in 1985. A professor in molecular and medical pharmacology, he is the winner of multiple "Golden Apple" awards for his teaching.
Louis Ignarro was born May 31, 1941.
Paul Boyer, Chemistry, 1997
For "elucidation of the enzymatic mechanism underlying the synthesis of adenosine triphosphate (ATP)" [Nobel Prize Citation]
Paul Boyer joined the UCLA faculty as a professor in chemistry and biochemistry in 1963. In 1965 he became the founding director of the Molecular Biology Institute. Boyer is currently a professor emeritus; Boyer Hall was named in his honor.
Paul Boyer was born in 1918.
Donald Cram, Chemistry, 1987
For "development and use of molecules with structure-specific interactions of high selectivity" [Nobel Prize Citation]
Donald Cram joined the UCLA faculty in 1947. It's estimated that he taught introductory chemistry to more than 12,000 undergraduate students. Cram pioneered a field of organic chemistry known as host-guest chemistry.
When he died, Cram endowed the D.J. and J.M. Cram Chair of Organic Chemistry.
Donald Cram was born in 1919, the year of UCLA's founding. He died June 27, 2001.
UCLA Magazine story and 2002, University of California In Memoriam
Julian S. Schwinger, Physics, 1965
For "fundamental work in quantum electrodynamics, with deep-ploughing consequences for the physics of elementary particles" [Nobel Prize Citation]
Julian Schwinger was a professor in UCLA's department of physics from 1972 until his death in 1994. He was known as a valued colleague and an outstanding mentor to graduate students.
Julian Schwinger was born Feb. 12, 1918 and died July 16, 1994.
Based on an entry 1994, University of California: In Memoriam.
Willard F. Libby, Chemistry, 1960
Willard Libby was educated at the University of California, Berkeley, where he also worked as an instructor, assistant and then associate professor. During World War II he worked on the Manhattan District Project. At the end of the war he joined the faculty of the University of Chicago, but he left academia to become a member of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission from 1954 to 1959.
Libby became Professor of Chemistry at UCLA in 1959. In 1962 he became the founding director of UCLA's Space Physics Center. In 1973 he founded the Environmental Science and Engineering program.
Willard Libby was born Dec. 17, 1908 and died in 1980.
Based on an entry in 1980, University of California: In Memoriam.
Bertrand Russell, Nobel Laureate in Literature (1950), was appointed to the UCLA faculty in March 1939, and taught philosophy during the 1939-40 academic year. However, he resigned in February 1940. Because his tenure at UCLA was so brief, he is not counted among the UCLA Faculty Nobel Laureates.
Looking for another UCLA Nobel Laureate?
Six UCLA alumni have been awarded the Nobel Prize: Richard Heck, Elinor Ostrom, William Sharpe, Bruce Merrifield, Glenn Seaborg and Ralph Bunche.
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