In 1954, Linus Carl Pauling (B.Sc., Chemical Engineering, Oregon State University, 1922) was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for his research into the nature of the chemical bond and its application to the elucidation of the structure of complex substances.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences cited his seminal work on the nature of the chemical bond and the structure of molecules and crystals and also acknowledged his application of the resulting concepts to elucidating the structure of proteins, specifically the alpha helix.