Hauptman, Herbert Aaron

Hauptman, Herbert Aaron (houpt`män), 1917–, American chemist, b. New York City, grad. City College of New York (B.S., 1937) and Univ. of Maryland (Ph.D., 1955). In 1985, Hauptman and former undergraduate classmate Jerome Karle were awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the development of a mathematical model known as the "direct method." Devised in the 1950s and 60s while they were working in the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, the innovation greatly improved methods for analyzing three-dimensional molecular structures.