Quotes about catalysis

Quotes about catalysis

“Chemistry without catalysis would be a sword without a handle, a light without brilliance, a bell without sound.”

Alwin Mittasch (1869–1953) German chemist

Alwin Mittasch, as cited in: Ralph Edward Oesper, "Alwin Mittasch," Journal of Chemical Education (1948), 25, 532.

“Chemists usually write about their chemical careers in terms of the different areas and the discrete projects in those areas on which they have worked. Essentially all my chemical investigations, however, are in only one area, and I tend to view my research not with respect to projects, but with respect to where I’ve been driven by two passions which I acquired in graduate school: I am passionate about the Periodic Table (and selenium, titanium and osmium are absolutely thrilling), and I am passionate about catalysis. What the ocean was to the child, the Periodic Table is to the chemist; new catalytic reactivity is, of course, my personal coelacanth.”

K. Barry Sharpless (1941) American chemist

Nobel lecture, 2001

School, Passion, Personality