You can't miss the Porsche.

Parked outside of the chemistry labs in Conant Hall, Professor of Chemistry Stuart L. Schreiber's car stands out among the other faculty vehicles.

"That very expensive car causes much jealousy among the other professor," says Associate Professor of Chemistry Andrew R. Barron.

Schreiber himself tends to stand out a bit in his Harvard department. What with the car, the tan, the stubble, the J. Crew style clothes and a house which has been featured on the cover of Boston Magazine, Schreiber may well be the Don Johnson of the chemistry scene.

But colleagues say his research merits the clothes, the house and just about anything else Schreiber may want.

The Harvard professor was the fourth "hottest" scientist in the world last year, according to Science Watch magazine. The ranking is based on how many times a scientist's work is cited by other researchers.

And thanks to groundbreaking work in chemical biology Schreiber is "one of the leaders in modern organic chemistry in the U.S., if not the world,:" Barron says.

Even Schreibers' office is undoubtedly trendy, with abstract paintings a black leather couch and his own purple leather chair.

The fashion here, as well as the house, may have more to do with Schreiber's wife Mimi packman, than himself.

Schreiber and packman met in 1978 when he walked into the punk clothing store she then owned.

Amidst the store's usual Gene Simmons-lookalike clientele, the then Harvard doctoral student stood out, she says. Not too much, however, since the chemistry professor has a taste for heavy metal music--Metallica and motorhead--and horror movies.

"I remember he was seemed very quiet and restrained quite different from the people I was used to seeing come to my store," Packman says. "Even though I had a boyfriend who I was living with at the time, Stuart still caught my eye."

It was the Newbury Street clothing store that packman now owns that put the Schreibers' Back Bay brownstone on the cover of Boston Magazine.

A customer in the store complimented Packman on its decor, and another customer in the shop said, "if you like her shop you should see her home," Schreiber says.

The first customer was a journalist, and the Schreiber home was soon on the newsstands.