Last night Currier House toasted its former co-master, Nobel Chemistry Prize winner Dudley R. Herschbach, who recalled that just hours before his distinction was announced, he had been telling Currier students all about pineapples.
More than 50 Currier tutors, residents and other guests gathered in the Senior Common Room to surprise Herschbach, who expected a routine tutors' meeting.
After entering the room at 6 p.m., the Baird Professor of Science received a prolonged round of applause from what he calls his "Currier family."
"I'm so pleased about what happened on Wednesday after I held a Science Table at Currier," said Herschbach to the party-throwers, adding he felt pleased about the "opportunity to send Currier a suitable momento" for supporting him during his five-year tenure as Currier co-master.
Herschbach stepped down from that post last June.
Tuesday night the Nobel winner opened Currier's 1986-87 dinner table lecture series with a presentation called "The Golden Pineapple." Herschbach said he told students, "If you look at a pineapple you see there are a lot of little hexagons arranged in a curious way."
Herschbach noted that suddenly several other lecturers have volunteered to take part in the Tuesday night series. "Now we have a long list of professors who want to give science tables," Herschbach said.
At his chemistry lecture for graduate students on Wednesday morning at 10 a.m., the professor noticed "lots of extra people" arriving to hear him speak. He and his wife Georgene had only been notified of the honor at 9:20 a.m.
The chemistry professor joked about the new popularity that has brought him together with long-lost acquaintances and kept the phones of the new Currier co-masters ringing steadily with mistakenly-placed congratulatory calls.
Herschbach said the New York Times coverage "looked very good." He felt that the publicity about his prize will teach people about how professors spend their time. "A lot of papers did emphasize my connection to Currier House and teaching. There's a need for people to understand that that's what professors do."
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