Roald Hoffmann The Nobel Prize Winner at The Kosciuszko Foundation in NY

"Applied theoretical chemistry" is the way Roald Hoffmann likes to characterize the particular blend of computations stimulated by experiment and the construction of generalized models, of frameworks for understanding, that is his contribution to chemistry. The pedagogical perspective is very strong in his work.

"People did chemistry, darn good chemistry too, before there were ever chemists.  For transformations of matter are inherent in the human condition. In winning metals from their ores, using them in weapons and decorative objects, in preparing and preserving food, in cosmetics, medicines, ceramics, in tanning leather, in dyes, in cleansing and mummification, craftsmen and women in every culture came up with some superb experimental chemistry. These stories of protochemistry, some of which I will relate, to this day form a natural bridge between chemists and nonchemists , between chemistry and culture. They stress the essential importance of experiment, and… of the underlying economics that governs much human activity. Much more than local color, these stories tender homage to the past, to the ingenuity of human beings. Protochemistries  also connect our world, in time and in substance; their stories normalize science. And they plant science firmly in the context of world culture – chemistry in culture, culture in chemistry."  Roald Hoffmann

Notable at the same time is his reaching out to the general public; he participated, for example, in the production of a television course in introductory chemistry titled "The World of Chemistry," shown widely since 1990. And, as a writer, Hoffmann has carved out a land between science, poetry, and philosophy, through many essays and three books, "Chemistry Imagined" with artist Vivian Torrence, "The Same and Not the Same and Old Wine" (translated into six languages), "New Flasks: Reflections on Science and Jewish Tradition," with Shira Leibowitz Schmidt.

Hoffmann is also an accomplished poet and playwright. He began writing poetry in the mid-1970s, eventually publishing the first of a number of collections, "The Metamict State," in 1987, followed three years later by "Gaps and Verges," then "Memory Effects" (1999), "Soliton" (2002). A bilingual selection of his poems has appeared in Spanish. He has also co-written a play with fellow chemist Carl Djerassi, entitled "Oxygen," which has been performed worldwide, translated into ten languages. A second play by Roald Hoffmann, "Should've," has had several workshop productions since 2006; a new play, "We Have Something That Belongs to You," had its first workshop production in 2009.

Unadvertised, a monthly cabaret Roald runs at the Cornelia Street Café in Greenwich Vilage, "Entertaining Science," has become the hot cheap ticket in NYC.

First Collegium of Eminent Scientists' Lecture

Saturday, November 19, 2016, at 3:00pm

Free and open to the public.

Please RSVP. Space limited.