Bob Curl to retire at Rice

Rice University chemistry professor and Nobel Laureate Robert Curl is retiring from the classroom today.

Robert Curl never sought the limelight that accompanied the Nobel Prize in Chemistry he won a dozen years ago.

In his quiet way, Curl simply went on teaching, thinking, experimenting and riding his bicycle to Rice University.

Now, after 50 years at Rice, Curl plans to retire Tuesday. With a hint of a smile, Curl, 74, says he doesn't want to turn into "one of these people who hangs on so long that they have become a blithering idiot."

Curl shared the 1996 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Rice's Rick Smalley and a British scientist, Harold Kroto. They discovered a unique form of carbon in which 60 atoms are clustered neatly into a tiny, soccer-shaped ball. They christened their finding a buckyball -- or fullerene -- after Buckminster Fuller, whose geodesic designs the molecules resemble.

The discovery heralded the dawn of nanotechnology, the science of building very small materials with unique properties.

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Like many leading scientists of his age, Curl's passion for research dates to a childhood Christmas, when his parents bought him a chemistry set. Soon, the 9-year-old was mixing chemicals, making gunpowder and blowing things up.

In one memorable event, some nitric acid boiled over onto his mother's porcelain stove, eating away the fine finish. His mother never forgave him, he said, but Curl was hooked on chemistry.

"It was not scientific at all," he said, "but it was sure fun."

In case you every wondered what the appeal of shows like "Mythbusters" is, that would be it in a nutshell.

Rice's current president, David Leebron, echoes the sentiment: "On top of all the achievement, Bob is one of the kindest and most generous people I know."

Those qualities made Curl a good mentor. He gave brilliant and not-as-brilliant graduate students the same attention and respect, colleagues said.

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Curl and Smalley believed they could approximate the conditions of dying stars, which are rich in carbon, by using lasers to blast a chunk of graphite. At the time, graphite and diamonds were the two known forms of carbon. The scientists hoped to create the long carbon chains seen in interstellar space.

Instead, when they pored over the collected data, they found a blip that turned out to be a spectacular, third form of carbon.

"Our buckyball discovery was a complete piece of serendipity and totally unexpected," Curl said.

"It's kind of embarrassing. Reporters asked us, 'Tell us how you made this great discovery.' Well, it was a stroke of luck. The only credit you can claim is not ignoring your stroke of luck."

I never had Curl as a professor, since I was only a grad student at Rice, in the math department, but I know him through the tournament bridge scene, where he's been a fixture for longer than I have. I figure this means he'll have more time to play the game, which will be good for everyone. Best of luck in retirement, Professor!

Posted by Charles Kuffner on July 01, 2008 to Technology, science, and math