Outside the door of his office in the Molecular Sciences
building, J. Fraser Stoddart’s name plaque is now accompanied
by a pink post-it in front of the name. On it is scribbled the word
“Sir.”
Stoddart, who is also the director of the California NanoSystems
Institute, was recently named knight bachelor by Queen Elizabeth II
of Great Britain for his research and service to the field of
chemistry and molecular nanotechnology. The professor, who is from
Edinburgh, Scotland, is the first UCLA faculty member to be
knighted.
The title on the post-it is not only an opportunity for his
students and colleagues to poke fun at his newfound knighthood. It
is also a reflection of the professor’s advancements in his
field and what many close to Stoddart believe is proper recognition
for his pivotal research.
“Dr. Fraser Stoddart is one of the most eminent scientists
in the world today, a towering figure in chemistry and nanoscience
both here in California and in his native Britain,” said Bob
Pierce, the British consul general for the L.A. region, in a
statement.
“I am delighted that he is now going to be knighted by Her
Majesty the queen for his outstanding work.”
But because of cultural delineations and differences, Stoddart
said he does not plan on using the title in the U.S.
“This is a British type of recognition, and I will be
quite happy to use it in the context of the U.K., but I’m not
going to use it in the U.S. I just don’t think it would be
appropriate here,” Stoddart said.
What is ironic, he said, is his American students and colleagues
seem more humorously and endearingly interested in using the term
“sir.”
One of his students sketched images playing off the word
“knight.” Under the word “(k)nightgown,”
there was a sketch of a stick figure wearing the garment, and the
word “ig(k)nite” was accompanied by a picture of a
lighter.
And under the words “Sir Fraser, Knight Bachelor,”
was a sketch of a round face with glasses that resembled
Fraser’s face.
Ranked by Thomson Scientific as the third most-cited researcher
in chemistry from 1996 to 2006, Stoddart has published more than
770 papers and reviews and has given more than 700 invited lectures
around the globe, according to a UCLA press release.
He has also been a pioneer in the field of nanotechnology, a
field which does research at the atomic level in hopes of
developing smaller, more powerful, devices and systems.
He and his research groups have also studied interlocked
molecules, which became a new subsection of organic chemistry. By
discovering the mechanical bond, which is a chemical bond found in
these molecules, he became one of few chemists in the past 25 years
to create a new field.
William Dichtel, a researcher of the Stoddart Supramolecular
Chemistry Group, said these molecules have the ability to be
controlled using electric pulses that allow them to act as memory
devices and storage.
“These devices can be scaled down smaller than those
commercially available,” Dichtel said.
Stoddart’s research in nanotechnology also includes his
designs and constructions of nanovalves, which are smaller than
living cells and have the ability to cross cell membranes. These
devices have been adapted to be used as drug-delivery systems for
cancer cells.
Though his work combining and manipulating tiny particles may
appear solely scientific, Stoddart maintains that it contains an
element of art as well.
He said what initially attracted him to chemistry was its
artistic aspects ““ the creative intuitions that enable
chemists to not only be scientists, but artists as well.
“Chemistry is unique amongst the sciences insofar as the
big component is that you are the artist, you are the designer, you
are the creator,” Stoddart said.
“You’d have this opportunity to explore your
imagination to limitless bounds to achieve an objective. And it
could just be the objective of making something beautiful,
something exotic, something that nature makes.”
The colorful molecular structures decorating his office, in the
form of drawings and sculptures, illustrate Stoddart’s notion
of the fluidity between science and art.
He insists that if he were to compare the type of structures he
has discovered and researched to a painter, he would have not been
focused on portraits or landscapes, but rather bizarre abstracts
that allow him the “opportunity to be creative in that
mode.”
When he received the call in mid-November from the British
Consul that he would be knighted, Stoddart said it came as an
unexpected surprise to him, as well to his two daughters, who are
also chemists.
Knight bachelor is one of the highest civil honors in Great
Britain, and for an individual to be chosen who does not currently
live in the country is rare, Stoddart said.
He is now included in a prominent category of scientists such as
Alexander Fleming, who discovered penicillin, and Alexander Todd,
the discoverer of the building blocks of DNA.
He is also in the company of popular culture figures who have
been knighted, such as Paul McCartney and Elton John, and dames,
the female equivalent of knights, such as Julie Andrews and
Elizabeth Taylor.
“You suddenly realize you’re in a category that you
never thought you would join,” Stoddart said.
And while he said the achievement brings pleasure and honor to
himself and his research, it is also tinged with a sadness that his
wife, a chemist who had played a significant part in his
professional career, was not there with him.
Three years ago, his wife Norma, died due to breast cancer.
“If I could bring all my (awards) in, lay them on the
table and say to someone, “˜Take them away and put my wife in
that chair,’ I would be happier,” he said.