The winner of the Russell Varian Prize 2008 is:

Alexander Pines Glenn T. Seaborg Professor of Chemistry, UC Berkeley, and Senior Scientist, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

The awarded contribution is:

The leading role played by Alexander Pines in the work published in A. Pines, M. G. Gibby, and J. S. Waugh, Proton-Enhanced Nuclear Induction Spectroscopy. A Method for High Resolution NMR of Dilute Spins in Solids, J. Chem. Phys. 56, 1776-1777 (1972). The technique announced in this short note is explained in detail in A. Pines, M. G. Gibby, and J. S. Waugh, Proton-Enhanced NMR of Dilute Spins in Solids, J. Chem. Phys. 59, 569-590 (1973).

The awarded technology is:

The proposal of a new method for sensitive, high-resolution observation of rare spins (e.g. 13C in natural abundance) in solids, in the presence of abundant spins (e.g. protons). Relaxation is first used to polarize the abundant spins, part of this polarization is then transferred to the rare spins by cross-polarization "in the rotating frame", and the free induction response of the rare spins is finally observed under CW irradiation of the abundant spins. This simple method, often called just "cross polarization", helped launch the modern era of solid-state NMR in chemistry, materials, and biology, and inspired a wealth of useful variations, many of which are still among the popular tools of practical solid state NMR.