Gertrude Elion and John Bardeen: Stories of Someone I Admire

Transcription

1 Gertrude Elion and John Bardeen: Stories of Someone I Admire Sakamon Devahastin Department of Food Engineering King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi (KMUTT) Bangkok, Thailand April 24, 2014

2 One day in 1999 when I was a student at McGill University, I went to the Physical Sciences and Engineering library to do my favorite past-time hobby (reading journal articles). Suddenly I noticed something extraordinary. On the covers of many journals, I saw the phrase Dedicated to the memory of Gertrude B. Elion. I decided to find out who that lady was. I read a lot of books about her works and her stories and have regarded her as one of my role models ever since

3 Gertrude B. Elion A female industrial chemist (Wellcome Research Lab.)

4 Gertrude B. Elion A female industrial chemist Dropped off a Ph.D. program due to financial constraints

5 Gertrude B. Elion A female industrial chemist Dropped off a Ph.D. program due to financial constraints Discoverer or co-discoverer of a series of new drugs including 6-MP (6-mercaptopurine), azathioprine (Imuran), acyclovir (Zovirax) and azisothymidine (AZT)

6 Gertrude B. Elion Awarded 30 honorary doctorates (including one from Brown University and University of Michigan)

7 Gertrude B. Elion Awarded 30 honorary doctorates (including one from Brown University and University of Michigan) Won a Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1988 (extraordinary combination for a Nobel laureate: female, industrial researcher without a doctorate!)

8 Filed away in Gertrude Belle Elion s cluttered office are letters like this: Dear Ms. Elion: I opened my newspaper this morning and through many tears read of your great honor, the Nobel Prize. My daughter Tiffany was stricken with herpes encephalitis in September, A neurologist said the only hope for her was possibly the drug acyclovir. I have thanked the Lord so many times that he blessed you with the determination, stamina, love, and patience to work all of the long hours, days, months, and years it takes to invent a new drug. Tiffany is a senior in high school this year and doing great. May the Lord bless you beyond your wildest dreams. Tiffany s mother

9 Filed away in Gertrude Belle Elion s cluttered office are letters like this: Our son is a healthy teenager now, wearing size 12 shoes. His waist is thinner than mine but his hair is thicker. All it took was $750,000, two and a half years, 150 intelligent, highly-trained, incredibly competent people at Lucile Salter Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford, the support of our family, friends, co-workers and church members, a dozen people who gave blood and Dr. Gertrude Elion, who devoted her life to research. She invented the drugs that they used.

10 Lessons learned Follow your dream and do what you love Also, love what you do! Success cannot be achieved without determination, stamina, love and patience to work all of the long hours, days, months and years

11 Lessons learned Never give up Learn from your mistake and always seek improvement Find a good partner and treat him/her fairly!

12 One of my past-time favorites is to visit On that very informative website, there is a story of one not so well known man who helped change the way people live forever.

13 John Bardeen grew up in a middle-class family with 4 siblings. He worked hard, cared deeply about his family, loved sports, was a nice friend and devoted himself to graduate students. There is simply nothing extraordinary about Dr. John Bardeen, except

14 John Bardeen grew up in a middle-class family with 4 siblings. He worked hard, cared deeply about his family, loved sports, was a nice friend and devoted himself to graduate students. John Bardeen There is simply nothing extraordinary about Dr. John Bardeen, except that he is the only person who had won 2 Nobel Prizes in Physics

15 What had he done to deserve the Prizes? Together with Brattain and Shockley, Bardeen (all of them were then at AT&T Bell Labs) invented the transistor Story went on like he came home to his wife, who was cooking dinner, and said to her, We discovered something today. Wife Jane said, Could you wait a bit later and tell me? I have to get the dinner ready. This led to his first Nobel Prize in 1956

16 What had he done to deserve the Prizes? Transistor revolutionized electronics, allowing the Information Age to occur, and made possible development of almost every modern electronic device, from telephones to computers to missiles Imagine the world with no cell phones, CD/DVD players, computers and the Internet and you would appreciate the importance of his invention!

17 About his first Nobel Prize Bardeen brought only one of his three children to the first Nobel Prize ceremony His two sons were studying and Bardeen did not want to disrupt their studies

18 About his first Nobel Prize King Gustav VI Adolf scolded Bardeen because of this and Bardeen assured the King that the next time he would bring all his children to the ceremony He kept his promise!

19 What had he done to deserve the Prizes? Later with Cooper and Schrieffer, Bardeen developed a fundamental theory of conventional superconductivity known as the BCS theory After unraveling one of the greatest puzzles in physics, Bardeen only said very simply to his colleague Well, I think we've figured out superconductivity. This led to his second Nobel Prize in 1972

20 More on John Bardeen Bardeen used to apply to Cambridge for doctoral study but was denied He then attended Princeton and studied under Eugene Wigner His first PhD student was the inventor of LED in 1962

21 More on John Bardeen Bardeen was a man with very unassuming personality He was best remembered by neighbors for hosting cookouts where he would cook for his friends, many of whom were unaware of his accomplishments None of his golf buddies knew he had won 2 Nobel Prizes

22 More on John Bardeen In honor of Bardeen, Sony Corporation endowed a $3 million John Bardeen Chair at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, beginning in The first John Bardeen Professor is Nick Holonyak, Bardeen's first doctoral student

23 More on John Bardeen Chicogo Tribune published the following Editorial on Feb. 3, 1991: Near the end of this decade, when they begin enumerating the names of the people who had the greatest impact on the 20 th century, the name of John Bardeen, who died last week, has to be near, or perhaps even arguably at, the top of the list... Mr. Bardeen shared two Nobel Prizes and won numerous other honors. But what greater honor can there be when each of us can look all around us and everywhere see the reminders of a man whose genius has made our lives longer, healthier and better.

24 More on John Bardeen US postage stamp was unveiled in a ceremony at the University of Illinois with the following citation: Theoretical physicist John Bardeen shared the Nobel Prize in Physics twice in 1956 as coinventor of the transistor and in 1972 for the explanation of superconductivity. The transistor paved the way for all modern electronics, from computers to microchips. Diverse applications of superconductivity include infrared sensors and medical imaging systems.

25 Bardeen s tips on research Focus first on the experimental results via reading and personal contact Develop a phenomenological description that ties different experimental results together Explore alternative physical pictures and mathematical descriptions without becoming wedded to any particular one

26 Bardeen s tips on research Thermodynamic and other macroscopic arguments have precedence over microscopic calculations Focus on physical understanding, not mathematical elegance, and use the simplest possible mathematical description of system behavior Keep up with new developments in theoretical techniques for one of these may prove useful

27 Bardeen s tips on research Decide on a specific model as the penultimate, not the first, step toward a solution Choose the right collaborators Don t give up! Stay with the problem until it is solved

28 Lessons learned We do not have to be different to make a difference! Seek good mentors and deliver the best to our mentees if our students are not better than us, we fail We cannot work alone get good colleagues and treat them nicely and fairly

29 Lessons learned Always have time for family and friends Never under (or over) rate your achievement! Awards and recognitions should not slow us down from work it should be the opposite way

30 Lessons learned Bardeen had a try-and-try and practice-andpractice philosophy that we should learn from Obstacles and bad lucks are something more common than success deal with them gracefully

31 Lessons learned Keep your promise!

32 Enjoy your work and good luck! Thank you