Roald Hoffmann
Nobel Laureate, Chemist, Playwright, Poet
Roald Hoffmann is a professor of chemistry and the Frank H.T. Rhodes Professor of Humane Letters Emeritus at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. An internationally respected researcher, he is also a committed teacher and proud to have taught the first-year chemistry course almost without interruption for his entire academic career. He is a graduate of both Columbia and Harvard Universities.
The chemical properties of a substance follow from the properties of its atoms, and can be calculated. But it takes ingenuity and a commitment to understanding (rather than simulation) to translate those numbers into explanations. This is what Hoffmann has consistently done; for his theoretical contributions to the molecular science, Hoffmann was awarded the 1981 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
As a writer, Hoffmann has carved out a land between poetry, science, and philosophy, through many essays, four nonfiction books, five volumes of poems and three plays. He was the host of the PBS series The World of Chemistry and is the founder of the Entertaining Science program at Cornelia Street Café in New York City, which brings the wonder (and, yes, playfulness) of science to an intellectually curious public. Among his many honors and awards, he is unique in holding American Chemical Society Awards in three different subfields: organic (1969) and inorganic chemistry (1982) as well as chemical education (1996).
Photo credit - Michael Grace-Martin
Past Events
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Chemistry On Canvas:
When Antoine Lavoisier, the father of modern chemistry, was beheaded during the French Revolution, he left behind a widow whom history has overlooked. Two Nobel prize-winning scientists and an art historian share a passion for a beguiling portrait of the Lavoisiers by Jacques-Louis David, painted just 6 years before the famed chemist was led to the guillotine. They’re not alone in this passion; the work now presides over a gallery at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. What is it about this depiction of the Lavoisiers that captures the imagination of both scientists and art lovers? A conversation among two esteemed scientists, both savvy politicians, and an art historian from the Met. The three explored their infatuation with this portrait and revealed all that is hinted at on the canvas—and all that is not.
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The Moth -
Presented with New York’s innovative storytelling collective, The Moth, esteemed scientists, writers and artists tell on-stage stories about their personal relationship with science. In keeping with Moth tradition, each story must be true and told within ten minutes, without notes. The result is a poignant, hilarious, and enjoyably unpredictable evening that’s sure to intrigue and surely hard to forget.
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