Linus Carl Pauling (February 28, 1901–August 19, 1994) was an
American physical chemist. He was one of the first quantum
chemists, and was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1954
for his work describing the nature of chemical bonds. He
received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1962 for his campaign against
above-ground nuclear testing, becoming one of only two people to
receive the Nobel Prize in more than one field. Later in life,
he became an advocate for regular consumption of massive doses
of vitamin C (now regarded as medically unorthodox). Pauling was
born in Portland, Oregon. His father, an unsuccessful druggist,
moved his family to a number of different cities in Oregon from
1903 to 1909, finally returning to Portland that year. When the
elder Pauling died in 1910 of a perforated ulcer, Linus' mother
was left to care for him and two younger siblings. Pauling was a
voracious reader as a child, and at one point his father wrote a
letter to a local paper inviting suggestions of additional books
that would o