The Papers of a Remarkably Orderly Nobel Laureate

Anyone who has heard about Richard R. Ernst’s meticulous handwriting and his carefully structured lectures at ETH Zurich will hardly be surprised that this sense of order also permeated the management of his personal papers. The former Professor of Physical Chemistry at ETH Zurich made a name for himself primarily through his groundbreaking discoveries in nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR), which remain the foundations of today’s MRI technology. In 1991, his application of the Fourier transform – allowing molecular structures to be determined far more efficiently – was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

The Generous Donation of Nobel Laureate Richard R. Ernst

Richard Ernst’s documents reached the ETH Zurich University Archives in stages through his lifetime and after his death in June 2021. Throughout his involvement in academic policy, Richard R. Ernst repeatedly emphasized the importance of science that serves and actively communicates with our society. Regarding his personal documents, he also remained faithful to these values. He expressed the wish that his documents be made accessible to researchers and to the wider public as soon as possible.

Richard R. Ernst’s filing cabinet containing documents from the “blue series”, including lecture manuscripts and administrative records related to the numerous events he attended. (Photo: ETH Library, ETH Zurich University Archives)

How the Extant Filing System Shaped the Archival Process

A large part of Professor Ernst’s files reached the university archives in standardized, labeled, and color-coded binders and hanging folders stored in filing cabinets. Other materials – such as spectra, or the numerous awards and medals that Richard R. Ernst had received during his career – were transferred in separate boxes due to their non-uniform physical format. At first glance it was already undeniable that Richard R. Ernst and his secretariat had organized the records according to a consistent system.

Nevertheless, given the sheer quantity of material, appraising the records – i.e., determining the archival value of all documents – required considerable time. The contents of more than 250 moving boxes, transported from Richard R. Ernst’s office at ETH Hönggerberg and from his home in Winterthur to the ETH main building, were spread out across tables and shelves to be later arranged according to different criteria such as chronology, materiality, subject matter, and purpose of use. This structure is ultimately reflected in the collection’s digitally accessible archival plan.

In this process, the archival “respect des fonds” principle, which seeks to preserve the original context and origin of records rather than disrupt them through extensive restructuring, served as the guiding principle.

Project manager Philipp Klostermann appraising the spectra preserved in the Richard R. Ernst Estate. Ernst had preserved both his own spectra and those of his team members. (Photo: ETH Library, ETH Zurich University Archives)

Of the 115 linear meters of documents donated to the archives, 85 linear meters were re-packaged into acid-free folders and boxes and catalogued, both in terms of their content and their formal characteristics. In addition to the size of the collection, the material heterogeneity of the donated objects posed particular challenges for preservation.

Numerous individual solutions had to be developed to ensure a sustainable preservation of the wide variety of materials: oversized spectra, overhead transparency collections, photographs, negatives, slides, floppy disks, circuits, and more. This diversity reflects both Richard Ernst’s research activities as well as his personal enthusiasm for the latest media and stationery trends from the 1950s onward.

Despite the project’s two-year time limit, the cataloguing of several tens of thousands of archival units could be carried out with remarkable depth of description. This was only possible due to the exceptionally thorough administrative lists preserved in the Ernst estate. Without these lists, cataloguing the extensive series of publications and lectures alone would have likely taken up the entire two years.

An Invitation for New and Exciting Research Endeavours

Thanks to the accessibility of the catalogue information on the Richard R. Ernst Estate in the virtual reading room of the ETH Zurich University Archives, it is now finally possible to research following questions:

• How did Richard R. Ernst pass on his knowledge to academic peers and future generations? – Digitized slide collections, original lecture manuscripts, doctoral student files, and scholarly correspondence provide valuable insights.
• How did Richard R. Ernst combine his love of chemistry with his fascination for Tibetan thangkas? – His private collection of materials on Tibetan painting, combined with related Raman spectroscopic research, offers a clearer picture.
• What did everyday life look like for a Nobel laureate, and how did Richard R. Ernst use his position in academic policy? – Newspaper articles about his Nobel Prize, his speeches, his essays preserved in the scientific consulting section of the collection, as well as his personal agendas and diaries provide insights.

These aspects – and many more – can now finally be explored. Just as Richard R. Ernst requested: As soon as possible!

References

Klostermann, Philipp: Durchbruch in der Kernresonanz-Spektroskopie – Das Laborjournal «Experiments I», ETHeritage, ETH Zürich, 03.10.2025, <https://etheritage.ethz.ch/2025/10/03/durchbruch-in-der-kernspinresonanz-spektroskopie-das-laborjournal-experiments-i/>, Stand: 05.03.2026.

Klostermann, Philipp: Nuclear Magnetic Resonance of Tramways, ETHeritage, ETH Zürich, 19.04.2024, <https://etheritage.ethz.ch/2024/04/19/nuclear-magnetic-resonance-of-tramways/>, Stand: 05.03.2026.

Wokaun, Alexander: Richard Ernst – ein persönlicher Nachruf, Departement Angewandte Chemie und Biowissenschaften, ETH Zürich, 14.06.2021, <https://chab.ethz.ch/news-und-veranstaltungen/d-chab-news/2021/06/richard-ernst-a-personal-obituary.html>, Stand: 05.03.2026.

Cover Picture: Richard R. Ernst’s Nobel Prize certificate. ETH Library, ETH Zurich University Archives, Hs 1564:1.