Richard Robert Ernst (14 August 1933 – 4 June 2021) was a Swiss physical chemist and Nobel laureate. Ernst was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1991 for his contributions towards the development of Fourier transform nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy while at Varian Associates and ETH Zurich. These underpin applications to both to chemistry with NMR spectroscopy and to medicine with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). He humbly referred to himself as a "tool-maker" rather than a scientist. Early life Ernst was born in Winterthur, Switzerland on 14 August 1933 to Robert Ernst and Irma Ernst-Brunner. He was the oldest of three children of Irma Brunner and Robert Ernst. He grew up in a house built in 1898 by his grandfather, who was a merchant. During his childhood, he was interested in music, playing the violoncello and even considering a career as a musical composer. At 13-years old, Ernst stumbled upon a box of chemicals belonging to his late uncle, a metallurgical engineer. Young Ernst was excited by what he found, and set about trying all conceivable reactions, some of which resulted in explosions that terrified his parents. Education He enrolled in the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (ETH) in Zurich to study chemistry and received his diploma in 1957 as a “Diplomierter Ingenieur Chemiker''. He was disappointed in the course content, so conducted further research and taught himself quantum mechanics and thermodynamics in his spare time. After a break to complete his military service, Ernst earned his Ph.D. in physical chemistry in 1962 from ETH Zurich. His dissertation was on nuclear magnetic resonance in the field of physical chemistry. Career Ernst entered Varian Associates as a scientist in 1963 and invented Fourier transform NMR, noise decoupling, and a number of other methods. He returned to ETH Zurich in 1968 and became a lecturer. His career developed to assistant professor in 1970 and associate professor in 1972. Since 1976, Richard R. Ernst was Full Professor of Physical Chemistry. Ernst led a research group dedicated to magnetic resonance spectroscopy, was the director of the Physical Chemistry Laboratory at the ETH Zurich. He developed two-dimensional NMR and several novel pulse techniques. He retired in 1998. He participated in the development of medical magnetic resonance tomography, as well as the NMR structure determination of biopolymers in solution collaborating with Professor Kurt Wüthrich. He also participated in the study of intra-molecular dynamics. Awards and honours