Meeting Barry Sharpless （见到 Mr. Sharpless）

Today the Nobel Committee announced that the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded jointly to Carolyn. R. Bertozzi, Morten Meldal, and K. Barry Sharpless “for the development of click chemistry and bio-orthogonal chemistry.” It is an exciting day not just for chemistry but for all fields of science. Notably, this is Prof. Sharpless’s second win for the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, and now he has joined the exclusive club of only five people ever to win a second Nobel Prize, since the Nobel prize was created in 1901.

I had the privilege of meeting Prof. Sharpless and his wife Jan once in Beijing in 1990. At that time, Prof. Sharpless already had a big name in the field of organic chemistry. My professor told us that he would be very likely to win the Nobel Prize someday. He was invited by the head of the chemistry department for a lecture. The invitation of Prof. Sharpless, who was accompanied by his wife Jan, included some sightseeing tours in Beijing City.

Naturally, his lecture about chiral oxidation reactions was hugely eye-opening and awe-inspiring to all the faculty and students alike.

Day after his talk, two grad students, me and another friend Zhigang, were assigned by the department head to help drive Prof. Sharpless and Jan between hotel and airport, as well be their guides for touring Beijing City. My husband Yuanjin would come along whenever he could get away from his work. For three days, together we toured places like Forbidden City and the Great Wall. During the car rides, we would chat about families and work. They said that they have three children, including their beautiful 16-year-old daughter. Then Jan showed us her daughter’s picture.

One of the most impressive things about them was that they did not dress like the big shots they already were. Rather, they looked like ordinary American tourists wearing comfortable clothes.

That was my first chance ever to converse in full English with native speakers. I remember that conversing with them in complete English was a bit of a challenge for us. We hung on by a thread by helping each other with broken English and through Barry and Jan’s patient clarifications. The first day at greetings, they tried to address our names, but found it was hard to pronounce them. So, together, they helped Yuanjin and me come up with English names: Lucy and Eugene. Lucy was from an English song I had heard. They simultaneously (and independently) came up with Eugene for Yuanjin because of their similar pronunciation. Lucy and Eugene would become our new first names when we moved to the U.S., and became our legal first names in 2004.

Great fond memories for Dr. Sharpless and his wife. What is even more amazing is that we lived in the same city as them for 20 years! A few years ago, I went to his lecture in person.

Small world indeed.

Congratulations to all three extraordinary chemists, and especially to Dr. Sharpless and his family!