Arthur Lindo Patterson

Arthur Lindo Patterson (short: Lindo Patterson) (born July 23, 1902 in Nelson (New Zealand) , † November 6, 1966 in Philadelphia ) was an American crystallographer. In 1934 he discovered the Patterson Method . While the first crystal structures were determined by mere trial and error, the Patterson method made it possible for the first time to systematically solve the phase problem of X-ray diffraction .

Patterson was born a British citizen in New Zealand in 1902 , where his father was a businessman. Shortly after, the family moved to Montreal ( Canada ) and later to London . In 1920 Lindo Patterson returned to Canada and began studying at McGill University in Montreal. At first his focus was on mathematics, but this soon shifted to physics. He wrote his master's thesis on the generation of hard X-rays, and this is where his interest in the use of X-rays began.

1924–1926 Patterson had the opportunity to do a research stay in the laboratory of WH Bragg in London. There he learned crystal structure analysis .

In 1926 he went to the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Fiber Chemistry in Berlin-Dahlem . Here he dealt with X-ray diffraction on cellulose fibers . At the weekly physics colloquia in Berlin, he also had the opportunity to meet great scientists such as von Laue , Einstein , Planck , Nernst , Bethe , Hahn , Meitner , Pringsheim and Wigner .

In the fall of 1927 Patterson returned to McGill and earned a doctorate there. In 1933 he went to MIT , where he again worked in the X-ray laboratory. It was during this time that he published his first publication on the Patterson method in 1934, which he himself called the series. The method was then used for the first time with potassium dihydrogen phosphate . ${\displaystyle |F^{2}|}$

1936-1949 Patterson was assistant professor of physics at Bryn Mawr College ( Pennsylvania ). In 1945 he received US citizenship. In 1949 he went to Philadelphia (Fox Chase Institute for Cancer Research), where he studied the structure of natural substances . He stayed there until his death in 1966.

literature

• Jenny P. Glusker et al. a. (Eds.): Patterson and Pattersons. Fifty years of the Patterson Function . OUP, Oxford 1987, ISBN 0-19-855230-0 .
• Obituary in Acta Crystallographics (PDF; 631 kB)