The Linus Pauling Legacy Award

About the Legacy Award

First granted in 2001, the Linus Pauling Legacy Award is presented biennially to an individual who has achieved in an area once of interest to Dr. Linus Pauling (1901-1994). The award is sponsored by the Oregon State University Libraries and Press.

Recipients are honored at an award ceremony with a framed certificate, an engraved medallion and an honorarium of $2,000. A public talk by the awardee concludes the ceremony; past presentations have been delivered in Corvallis and in Portland.

Nominations for the Pauling Legacy Award are solicited and reviewed by a select advisory committee. Of the past award-winners to date, four have been Nobel laureates.

Past Recipients

• 2019:Geraldine Richmond, University of Oregon (Presentation: "The Importance of Global Scientific Engagement")

• 2016:Jane Lubchenco, Oregon State University (Presentation: "Scientists Making Waves and Bringing Hope")

• 2014:Zia Mian, Princeton University (Presentation: "Out of the Nuclear Shadow: Scientists and the Struggle Against the Bomb")

• 2012:Roald Hoffmann, Cornell University (Presentation: "Indigo - A Story of Craft, Religion, History, Science and Culture")

• 2010:Roger Kornberg, Stanford University (Presentation: "The Molecular Basis of Eukaryotic Transcription")

• 2008:Roderick MacKinnon, Rockefeller University (Presentation: "Ion Channel Chemistry: The Electrical System of Life")

• 2006:John D. Roberts, California Institute of Technology (Presentation: "Useful Knowledge about Magnetic Resonance Imaging")

• 2004:Matthew Meselson, Harvard University (Presentation: "Averting the Hostile Exploitation of Biology")

• 2003:Sir Joseph Rotblat, University of London

• 2001:Daisaku Ikeda, Soka Gakkai

The Pauling Legacy Award is just one of many ways in which Linus Pauling's life and work are celebrated at Oregon State University. The Ava Helen and Linus Pauling Papers form the cornerstone of the extensive history of science and technology holdings in the Special Collections & Archives Research Center, a division of OSU Libraries & Press. The Linus Pauling Institute, also located on the OSU campus, likewise continues to conduct groundbreaking research on diet and optimum health. Two Pauling-related endowed chairs - one in chemical engineering and another honoring Ava Helen Pauling - have been created at OSU, and the annual Ava Helen and Linus Pauling Memorial Lecture for World Peace has been sponsored by the OSU College of Liberal Arts since 1982.