“I told them that it doesn’t take a
rocket scientist to do rocket science,”
says Herschbach. “Science offers a
great and congenial advantage over
most human enterprises. What you
seek waits patiently for you to find
it. So even if you miss it again and
again, with persistence you will
ultimately succeed.”
No matter if it’s fourth graders
getting their first peek at a real
scientist, college freshmen in a general
chemistry course or graduate students
working in his lab, Herschbach is
unabashedly evangelical about his
profession. Each day is another chance
to excite students, improve science
education, and develop the next
generation of scientific talent.
His efforts include support for the
ACS Project SEED 40th Anniversary
Appeal. As a volunteer leader of this
effort to raise funds for an important
Society program — which provides
economically disadvantaged high
school students a summer of paid
laboratory research — he not only
made one of the first donations, he
persuaded a number of other Nobel
Laureates to endorse the program
and participate in the appeal.
“In so many ways, Dudley
Herschbach is the quintessential
ACS member,” says ACS Executive
Director & CEO Madeleine Jacobs.
“He backs up his words with action.
He truly is a transforming force, both
in the lab and in the classroom. No
wonder students love him!”
Another day, another “classroom.”
This time, Herschbach is speaking at
a Silver Circle and Retiree Breakfast
during the 234th ACS National Meeting
in Boston. Although this audience is
quite a bit older and far more scien-
tifically savvy than the fourth graders
he spoke to earlier in the year, they
are just as rapt. And the message that
he delivers — with a little help from
a Cole Porter tune that he learned via
Jacobs — resonates just as well:
Experiment. Be curious
Though interfering friends may frown Get furious at each attempt to hold you down
If this advice you always employ The future can offer you infinite joy
And merriment Experiment
And you’ll see!*
The words may be Porter’s, but
as the recording plays, it’s clear
Herschbach believes them, lives
them and wants the audience to
embrace them. The speech ends,
the applause fades, but the fire
still burns.
ACS Scholar Melissa Quino McCreery and her
References:
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