Chemistry World Blog

In my editorial for the April issue I asked the question: who is the living chemist you admire most and why?

Before you reply let me tell you what I’m looking for. When most people answer this question they base their choice on what the scientist discovered or created and not so much on what they were like. Here I’m looking for the latter: what happens when you disassociate the scientist from his science? What makes you admire the scientist then? For me it’s all about presence and if you read my editorial you’ll learn why….

To start this off, here are some of the answers that readers have been sending in via our LinkedIn group:

-‘It’s not me.’ – Mannam Krishnamurthy

-‘My current Prof, Prof Robert Schlögl. A friendly, tough and fair man with a huge and infectious passion for what he does.’ – Neil Hamilton

-‘Dr Gene Hiegel, retired professor from CSUF, tops my list. “If you do what you have always done, you will get what you have always got” was heard every semester in every class he taught and whenever one of his students was lacking motivation in the lab. His true talent was developing future chemists, that and being a smart ass.’ – Tyrone Hogenauer

-‘I would say that Prof K C Nicolau, from The Scripps Research Institute/University of California, San Diego, USA is a key name in the chemistry world.’ – Rui Pinto

-‘Professor Kocienski, who is not just a great chemist and teacher but a real Renaissance man. Broad, broad knowledge on almost any subject. I remember he used to leave us Latin proverbs on the board in the office :-). He has a pretty good sense of humour as well and he loves good food!’ – Zofia Komsta

-‘Dr Ted Sorensen, Professor Emeritus, Chemistry Dept, University of Calgary(Alberta), is a 75 years young scientist, a perfect researcher and above all a down to earth personality, always extending a helping hand to students.’ – Bhagat Singh Atwal

Send us yours!

Bibiana Campos Seijo