Donald J Cram

Two American chemists, including UCLA's Donald J. Cram, and a Frenchman have won the 1987 Nobel Prize in chemistry, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced Wednesday. The chemists were honored for their work over the last two decades in making relatively uncomplicated compounds that perform the same biological functions as natural proteins.

What becomes a Nobel laureate most? A new Porsche? A sailing yacht? How about a trip around the world? Not quite. A more modest and unusual legacy has awaited Southern California's Nobel Prize winners--a small fraternity that gained one member this week when USC chemistry professor George A. Olah claimed the world's top intellectual honor.

What becomes a Nobel laureate most? A new Porsche? A sailing yacht? How about a trip around the world? Not quite. A more modest and unusual legacy has awaited Southern California's Nobel Prize winners--a small fraternity that gained one member this week when USC chemistry professor George A. Olah claimed the world's top intellectual honor.

Two American chemists, including UCLA's Donald J. Cram, and a Frenchman have won the 1987 Nobel Prize in chemistry, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced Wednesday. The chemists were honored for their work over the last two decades in making relatively uncomplicated compounds that perform the same biological functions as natural proteins.

UCLA's Molecular Sciences Building was mostly closed for the holidays on Dec. 29 as research assistant Sheri Sangji worked on an organic chemistry experiment. Only three months into her job in the lab, the 23-year-old Pomona College graduate was using a plastic syringe to extract from a sealed container a small quantity of t-butyl lithium -- a chemical compound that ignites instantly when exposed to air.

Donald J. Cram has been appointed to the Saul Winstein organic chemistry chair at UCLA. Cram, the university said, has pioneered a new type of chemistry and had produced 500 different molecules. Cram has been a member of the ULCA faculty since 1947, holds three major awards. The chair to which he was appointed is financed by gifts by donors. Winstein died in 1969.

Caltech: Robert A. Millikan, Physics, 1923; Thomas Hunt Morgan, Medicine, 1933; Carl D. Anderson, Physics, 1936; Linus Pauling, Chemistry, 1954, and Peace, 1962; George W. Beadle, Medicine, 1958; Rudolf Mossbauer, Physics, 1961; Richard Feynman, Physics, 1965; Murray Gell-Mann, Physics, 1969; Max Delbruck, Medicine, 1969; Renato Dulbecco, Medicine, 1975; Roger W. Sperry, Medicine, 1981; William A. Fowler, Physics, 1983; Rudolph A. Marcus, Chemistry, 1992; Edward B. Lewis, Medicine, 1995.

The University of California has been home to 43 Nobel Prize winners. Last week, three UC professors won prizes for chemistry, physics and economics. Here is a list of Nobel laureates. Berkeley *--* Laureate Year Field Ernest O. Lawrence 1939 Physics John H. Northrop 1946 Chemistry Wendell M. Stanley 1946 Chemistry William F. Giauque 1949 Chemistry Edwin M. McMillan 1951 Chemistry Glenn T. Seaborg 1951 Chemistry Emilio G. Segre 1959 Physics Owen Chamberlain* 1959 Physics Donald A.

Charles J. Pedersen, co-winner of the 1987 Nobel Prize in chemistry for his discovery of molecules that enable scientists to create complex organic compounds, died Thursday after a lengthy illness. He was 85. Pedersen, a widower who lived alone, died in his Salem home, said Justin Carisio, a spokesman for Pedersen's former employer, E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. He had suffered from a form of blood cancer and Parkinson's disease, Carisio said.

President Oscar Arias Sanchez of Costa Rica accepted the 1987 Nobel Peace Prize on Thursday, urging the superpowers to stop meddling in Central America and let the region solve its own problems. "If they cannot refrain from amassing weapons of war, then in the name of God, at least they should leave us in peace," Arias said in his speech accepting the prize, which includes a 23-carat Nobel medallion and a monetary award valued at about $350,000.

Donald Cram's work with chemicals tends mostly to mixing and applying rug shampoos for customers of his carpet cleaning business. On Wednesday morning, the Altadena man picked up his telephone to learn that his work had won him the 1987 Nobel Prize in chemistry. "Now, I do a good job on carpets, but this seemed a little excessive," Cram said. The transatlantic call from Stockholm at 6:10 a.m.

American Robert M. Solow, the Nobel laureate for economics, said Monday that the U.S. dollar is still searching for its proper value and is likely to continue falling. Solow, honored for his theories of economic growth, also said America's trading partners should expand their economies to help the United States resolve its trade imbalance.