Nobel Laureate Lecture Reflects on Science and Life

Nobel Prize-winning chemist John C. Polanyi gave a public lecture titled “A Life in Science” on April 19 in the Rotunda’s Dome Room as a part of the University of Virginia Nobel Laureate Science Lecture Series.

The Nobel Laureate spoke to the audience in a “philosophical vein” rather than a scientific one.  He expressed ideas on a wide number of pertinent topics, from scientific funding to anti-nuclear proliferation and scientific responsibility. 

Polanyi made connections between science and the recent Virginia Tech tragedy.  “Science, through its child—technology—provides ready instruments for both life and death,” he said.  Polanyi emphasized the importance of preventing such tragedies by not only cultivating independent thought but also teaching respect for the humanity of others.

Polanyi attributed the liberation of the human mind to Thomas Jefferson and his contemporaries.  “The whole existence of science really depends on the freedom that Jefferson and other prophets of the enlightenment gave us,” said Polanyi.  “The great events in science often—if not usually—are a change in perspective, an enlightenment, a shedding of light from a new direction.”

The lecture also stressed the importance of both play and determination in scientific discovery and referenced the frequency at which scientific journals reject novel discoveries that lay beyond the realm of accepted scientific thought.  “New ideas are not easily assimilated—and of course that is what makes science hard,” said Polanyi.

Polanyi was awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize in Chemistry along with Dudley R. Herschbach and Yuan T. Lee for their contributions to the dynamics of elementary chemical processes.  The Nobel Foundation cited Polanyi specifically for developing "the method of infrared chemiluminescence, in which the extremely weak infrared emission from a newly formed molecule is measured and analysed." Polanyi's ground-breaking research of the infrared radiation generated by chemical reactions and the subsequent theories he enabled laid the foundation for the eventual development of chemical lasers.

Polanyi is currently a University Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Toronto.  He previously served as a mentor to U.Va.’s current Department of Chemistry Chair, Ian Harrison. In addition to his public lecture, Polanyi met with chemistry faculty and graduate students during his visit, attended a dinner with U.Va. faculty, and gave the Jefferson Lecture in Chemistry, “Toward a Molecular Printing Press: Xeroxing a Snowflake.”

The University of Virginia Nobel Laureate Science Lecture Series was established in 2004.  “The Nobel Laureate Science Lecture Series is our most distinguished public program in the sciences,” said R. Ariel Gomez, vice president for research and graduate studies.  “It enables the University to give the highest visibility to excellence in scientific research, and it provides our students the opportunity to learn more about the personal lives and values of the most successful scientists.” 

 Click here to listen to the lecture