Post Object

whileyouweresleeping:

I would like you to meet Professor John Prausnitz.

If I told you the kind of work Professor Prausnitz does, your head could explode (as mine did). Suffice it to say, we have his research to thank for minimal waste and increased safety in oil refineries. He strove to understand how molecules behave in great numbers and under intense stimulation. He pioneered the whole field. 

That alone is worthy of respect. But the reason I am telling you about him has little to do with all this. This man could have perfectly well remained a simple, run-of-the-mill award-winning chemical engineer. No one would’ve thought any less of him.

Except, of course, that was never enough for him. He’s a firm believer in expanding his horizons. He’s passionate about poetry (this is a reading of which he was a part in 2004, he is introduced at minute 11:10), philosophy, literature and theology. He has found so much joy in all of it that he’s been desperate for his students to experience it for themselves. Why? Because science, he says, “grows at the periphery.”

“I think our chemistry, all our science would be much advanced if we learned to speak to people who are not in science,” he told me. “Political scientists, literature people, artists and so on, because that gives us a much broader perspective.”

He’s a fierce proponent of bridging gaps between cultures. Not only because it would help scientists to find their place in the world and new avenues for their work, but also because it would make them happier.

I was very lucky to interview him for the Annual Reviews Conversations Series. Click through, listen to him: I hope you find as much delight in it as I did.

— From SF.