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CORVALLIS, Ore. - A traveling exhibit featuring the life and work of Linus Pauling, the only individual to win two unshared Nobel Prizes, will open Sept. 20 in San Francisco - the first in a series of stops that eventually will culminate at Oregon State University in the year 2001 for the late scientist's 100th birthday.

Pauling, who died in 1994, is a graduate of OSU. The university, along with the Pauling family and a peace organization called Soka Gakkai International are sponsoring the traveling exhibit, which is called "Linus Pauling and the 20th Century: Quest for Humanity."

Many of the materials for the exhibit have been borrowed from OSU's Special Collections at The Valley Library. The OSU library houses the Pauling Collection which, with nearly 500,000 items, is one of the most complete collections of an individual scientist in the world.

The exhibit will include text, photographs, drawings, diaries, letters, awards and molecular models from the collection. A multimedia display and individual stations will allow spectators an in-depth glimpse into the man regarded as one of the most important scientists in the 20th century.

"Linus Pauling was one of the premier scientists in the 20th century and he was also one of the most prominent humanitarians and crusaders for world peace," said Ramesh Krishnamurthy, project director for OSU's Special Collections. "The exhibit will give people an opportunity to look at the person behind the achievements - his personal motivation and the way he approached problems."

Pauling won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1954, and the Nobel Peace Prize in 1962. During his long and varied career, he described the nature of the chemical bond, discovered the structure of proteins, helped determine the cause of sickle-cell anemia, popularized the benefits of vitamin C, and helped achieve a partial ban on the testing of nuclear weapons.

The tour will open at the Herbst International Exhibition Hall in San Francisco, where it will remain through November. The exhibit is designed for a wide audience, especially school children in grades 6-12, organizers say. Following the San Francisco opening, the exhibit will move to Orange County in California, then to Boston, Mass. Other possible stops include the United Nations in New York; New Delhi, India; and Tokyo, Japan, before its return to Corvallis.

Sponsors of the exhibit have created a web site offering information on the exhibit, Pauling, and the sponsors. The address: http://www.paulingexhibit.org.