Laudatio 2006

Awarded Contribution:

J.S. Waugh, C.H. Wang, L.M. Huber, and R.L. Vold, “Multiple-Pulse NMR Experiments”, J. Chem. Phys. 48, 662-670 (1968). This paper announces further results that appeared a few weeks later in J. S. Waugh, L. M. Huber, and U. Haeberlen, "Approach to High-Resolution nmr in Solids", Phys. Rev. Lett. 20, 180-182 (1968).

The Prize Winner:

John S. Waugh, Professor emeritus, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA

The Technologys:

The awarded paper is the seed for multi-pulse line-narrowing, coherent averaging, and Average Hamiltonian Theory (AHT) in solid-state NMR spectroscopy.

The version of AHT proposed in the awarded contribution unlocked the whole field of multiple pulse line narrowing in solid-state NMR by providing an efficient systematic tool for the analysis, design, and optimization of such schemes.

Almost immediately, the first application of the new idea by Waugh was the WAHUHA sequence for homonuclear line narrowing in solids, which started the successful development of high-resolution NMR in solids for chemical and structural applications (beyond the preliminary results of broader and often unresolved lines obtained with MAS alone).

AHT is the method of choice to understand or design many solid-state pulse sequences like homo- and heteronuclear decoupling experiments, often in combination with magic-angle spinning, dipolar recoupling experiments, and advanced experiments for quadrupolar nuclei. In liquid-state NMR, AHT was essential for the breakthrough of designing the first coherent multi-pulse decoupling schemes and TOCSY-type elements.