The Nobel prize medal awarded to the US physical chemist Robert Mulliken will be auctioned off at the end of July.
Mulliken, who died in 1986, was awarded the Nobel prize in chemistry in 1966 for his work on molecular orbital theory – a method for describing the electronic structure of molecules using quantum mechanics. Mulliken’s key insights into the theory were first published in the 1920s, and he is also credited with introducing several terms to the chemistry vocabulary, including ‘orbital’, ‘σ-electron’ and ‘π-electron’.
Nicknamed ‘Mr Molecule’, Mulliken was elected as the youngest member of the US National Academy of Sciences in 1928, at the age of 32. During the 1940s, he worked on the Manhattan project at the University of Chicago’s Metallurgical Laboratory and, concerned about the future consequences of nuclear weapons, was one of the first to call for international nuclear arms control.
Mulliken’s Nobel prize medal, which is crafted from 23-carat gold and engraved with his name, will be auctioned by Nate Sanders on 25 July.
Several Nobel prize medals have been auctioned off in recent years. In April, Robert ‘Bob’ Curl’s 1996 medal, awarded for the joint discovery of fullerenes, was sold at auction for over $440,000 (£352,000). The minimum guide price for the medal was $200,000.
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