NEWS

FSU's Nobel-winning chemistry professor Kroto dies

Mark Hinson
Democrat senior writer

Tallahassee has lost one of its brightest and most brilliant thinkers.

Florida State’s Nobel Prize-winning chemistry professor Sir Harold "Harry" Kroto died Saturday. He was 76 and had been battling a neuro-degenerative disease.

The world famous Kroto, who was born in England, earned the Nobel Prize in 1996 for his co-discovery of "buckyballs," a short term for a new form of carbon molecule called Buckminster-fullerenes. The molecule’s soccer ball-like shape resembled one of Buckminster Fuller’s geodesic domes, thus the name buckyball.

The bio-chemist was recruited from England in 2004 to join the faculty at FSU as a high-profile Francis Eppes professor. The university gave him a $200,000 annual salary and hundreds of thousands of dollars to start a laboratory in the campus's then-new chemistry building. The Eppes professorship provided him $40,000 in extra money each year for research purposes in the field of bionanotechnology.

“Florida State University has lost a beloved member of its family with the passing of Sir Harry Kroto,” FSU President John Thrasher said in a written statement from the university. “Sir Harry was a brilliant scholar and an even better man who was generous with his time and expertise in mentoring our students, collaborating with faculty and elevating the stature of this university. Our hearts are heavy, but we are forever richer because of his contributions to Florida State, the scientific community and the world.”

During his days at FSU, Kroto was also a draw for attracting celebrities to the campus to help promote the arts and sciences. In 2009, his old classmate and friend Sir Ian McKellen, who played Magneto in “The X-Men” movies, paid a visit to talk with FSU acting students and tour the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory in Innovation Park.

"It's a lot cheaper (to pay $3,000 an hour to run the magnet) than to get Ian to do it," the sharp-witted Kroto quipped during McKellen’s tour of the Mag Lab. "Of course, Ian could just put his finger in there to get it to work. You don't need all this when you're Magneto."

"Yes, all of this is redundant," McKellen said before he stopped briefly to hold up his hands as if putting a Magneto-style whammy on one of the magnet operators.

In 2014, Kroto gave Bill Nye (“The Science Guy”) a tour of the Global Educational Outreach for Science Engineering and Technology studio at FSU. It was a rain-soaked afternoon that turned parking on campus into a soggy nightmare. Kroto was unperturbed by the nasty weather.

"One of the perks of winning a Nobel Prize is that you always get a good parking space," Kroto said wryly in his elegant English accent.

During a lecture at The Skolkovo Institute of Science in Russia in 2014, a member of the audience wanted to know why Kroto used humor so often in his lectures around the world.

“I have three religions,” Kroto said. “Amnesty International, atheism and humor. Does that answer your question?”

His lectures about the intricacies of bio-chemistry were scholarly but highly accessible.

“Harry had a presentation style that matched no other,” GEOSET Director Steve Acquah wrote on his Facebook page on Sunday. “His hyperlinked cache of PowerPoint presentations left everyone astonished and certainly impressed, and his signature slides with the Nitrosoethane molecule demonstrating rotation as a dog by a lamp post was a clear audience favorite. Beyond the presentations was his desire to make people really think about the world we live in, and learn something new about ourselves.”

In 1995, Kroto created the Vega Science Trust, a British educational charity that provided science programming for teachers and students that featured interviews with other Nobel laureates on TV and the Internet.

“I think he’s the greatest human being I’ve ever known,” said Mark Riley, the Robert O. Lawton distinguished professor of physics at FSU and a close friend of Kroto. “His never-ending desire to educate the whole world was just amazing. He knew that education is the answer, and that’s why he built GEOSET and the Vega websites. He wanted to educate the world.”

While he was well known for his wit, Kroto was deadly serious when it came to science education. In 2008, when Florida lawmakers wanted to force the state Board of Education to emphasize that evolution was a “theory” and not a fact, Kroto composed an opinion piece for the Tallahassee Democrat.

Kroto wrote: “It is disgracefully unethical for individuals who rail against the teaching of evolution to young people as a proven ‘fact’ to accept, either for themselves or their families, the humanitarian benefits accruing from medical scientific research underpinned by the theory. Evolution is the backbone of biology, in particular molecular biology, and such people should be asked to forgo all medical treatments - including almost all drugs - that could not have been developed if previous generations of young biology and medical students had not been taught evolutionary concepts to aid the development of medical advances.”

He continued: “The people of Florida must have no illusions about the consequences of the success of this movement. It is truly criminal to interfere with the scientific education of the next generation of young scientists, and if these people get their way they will seriously impede scientific progress and in particular the ability of the next cohort of young scientists to create the defenses we shall need in the fight against debilitating diseases over the next century. If such people had had their way in the last century we would have no antibiotics, and blood poisoning still would cause death or lead to amputation as it did before 1940. I hope the people of Florida are intelligent enough to recognize that the present campaign is as detrimental to their interests as it is misguided, and as fundamentally anti-humanitarian as it is intellectually dishonest.”

“The Nobel Prize is not very useful for science, particularly,” Kroto said in an interview in 2015 with the Across the Spectrum publication at FSU. “But it is useful to be able to be listened to, at least, on issues.”

Besides being a Nobel laureate, Kroto was a Fellow of the Royal Society of London and served as president of the Royal Society of Chemistry from 2002 to 2004. He received numerous awards, including the Packard Europhysics Prize (shared 1994), the Copley Medal (2004) and the Faraday Award (2001). He held more than 40 honorary degrees from academic institutions around the globe.

Kroto is survived by his wife, Margaret, whom he met while studying at the University of Sheffield in England during the early ‘60s.They were married for more than 50 years and had two sons.

Contact Mark Hinson at mhinson@tallahassee.com

Colleagues mourn the loss of Kroto

Mark Riley, professor of Physics: “When I met him, I could tell after one minute here was somebody very special, and we would be close friends forever. Harry grew up about 13 miles from where I grew up. So, I shook his hand and said, ‘Harry, I’m from Manchester, are you a Manchester United fan?’ He told me in no uncertain terms that he was not.” 

Tim Logan, chair of Chemistry and Biochemistry: “What always brought out the best in Harry was his wife, Margaret. Margaret and Harry were always together, until the end of Harry’s life. She served as his business manager, scheduling his many speaking engagements around the world, organizing the travel, and supporting him in many, many ways. What I found so remarkable is that even after 57 years together, they were so obviously in love. Harry would include photos and sketches he made of her in his lectures, and he always acknowledged her as his moral compass.” 

Gary Ostrander, vice president for research: “Even though it is cliché, we are all better for having known him. Harry had a passion for science and educating others that was inspiring. His legacy goes far beyond his scientific contributions. He inspired dozens of students to pursue science and learn all they could about the world.”

Kirby Kemper, professor emeritus: "We were lucky to have Harry Kroto as a colleague for 10 years. His intense intellectual interest in everything was a wonderful example for all of us to aspire to. He brought excitement to everything he did in life. He will be sorely missed. He and his wife Margaret were a tremendous team and we will miss her at FSU also. Our chemistry colleagues worked hard to get him to FSU, and we all benefited from their tremendous efforts."