Dear NMR Colleagues,
It is with deepest sorrow that I inform you of the passing away of
Carnegie Mellon Emeritus Professor Aksel Bothner-By (April 29, 1921 -
February 13, 2017).
Our colleague, Prof. Paterson remembers Aksel as: "one-of-a-kind".
"He celebrated his last day of teaching with champagne at the lectern.
He served sherry at faculty meetings"
Aksel had a beautiful mind. He was an Organic Chemist who dedicated
his life to NMR with a lot of passion. He got the PhD from Harvard
with Robert B. Woodward in 1949.
For most of us, Aksel does not need introduction and was mostly known
for being the creator of the CAMELSPIN experiment, later renamed to
ROESY. But his contributions to NMR go beyond that. He wrote the first
program to perform spin simulations. He built the first 600 MHz
instrument when the highest commercially available magnet was 350 MHz.
He reported the first negative NOE and he measured the first RDCs in a
small molecule partially oriented using a paramagnetic atom.
I was very fortunate to know him personally and to be able to organize
a symposium honoring him together with Prof. Joe Dadok in 2009. It was
by the time of the 50th ENC that Aksel was not able to attend due to
his health problems.
Amy Pavlak, wrote a CMU press release in 2009 about the event and
about Aksel; where you can read about his achievements:
https://www.cmu.edu/mcs/news/pressreleases/2009/0317-bothnerby-NMR-symposium.html
Roberto
--
“The tragedy of life doesn't lie in not reaching your goal. The
tragedy lies in having no goal to reach. It isn't a calamity to die
with dreams unfilled, but it is a calamity not to dream. It is not
disgrace not to reach the stars, but it is a disgrace to have no stars
to reach for.”
-Benjamin E. Mays (American educator, Clergyman, 1895-1984)-
Roberto R. Gil, Ph.D.
Research Professor and
Director, NMR Facility
Department of Chemistry
Carnegie Mellon University
4400 Fifth Ave
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
412-268-4313
412-268-1061 FAX
rgil_at_andrew.cmu.edu
Public Scientific Profile at https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8810-5047
Received on Wed Feb 15 2017 - 09:03:54 MST