Our Sir Fraser (Stoddart) has had an eventful year!

 Sir James Fraser Stoddart was born 24 May 1942 in Edinburgh Scotland. On June 6-10 a symposium titled "The Young(ish) Giants of Chemistry - A Symposium to Celebrate Fraser's 65th birthday was held in Edinburgh, Scotland. Featured speakers included UCLA's own Omar Yaghi speaking on "Reticular Chemistry" and Miguel Garcia-Garibay discussing "Amphidynamic materials and molecular machines - a new frontier in molecular and crystal engineering." Amar Flood, Ph.D. UCLA now at Indiana University, Al Nelson, Ph.D. UCLA now at IBM Almaden, and Scott VIgnon, UCLA, also gave talks. Sir Fraser gave t he last speech of the day on July 9th, titled "Walking in the footsteps of young-ish giants."

 

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Portrait of Sir Fraser by Chad Mirkin of Northwestern University

To read more about Sir Fraser's 65th birthday conference, go to: news@nature.com

The full program can be seen by going to: stoddart65.GooglePages.com/programme.pdf

 Image restricted to UCLA networks

  He was appointed a Knight Bachelor in the New Year's Honours. December 2006, by England's Queen Elizabeth II. Below is an utterly fascinating conversation that took place between Sir Fraser and Her Majesty, as told by Sir Fraser himself.

 

"Here is the picture of me and HM you have all been waiting for in the group with bated breath. Please give it the rounds of the group (present and past), along with my recollection of the words that preceded the dubbing and the conversation that followed it.

Lord Chamberlain: "May I present to Your Majesty, Professor Sir Fraser Stoddart, for Services to Chemistry and Nanotology" (No, I did not misspell the last word!)

THE CEREMONY (See the still below)

Her Majesty: "He got that wrong, didn't he?"

Sir Fraser: "He certainly did, Your Majesty."

Her Majesty: "What should it be then, nanotechnology?"

Sir Fraser: "You've got it right, Ma'am"

Her Majesty: "It's about very small things, isn't it?

Sir Fraser: "Indeed, it's about tiny things that are 100,000 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair, Ma'am"

Her Majesty: "That's exceedingly small. You work in America now, I'm told."

Sir Fraser: "That's so, Ma'am"

At this point, she extends her right hand, and I mine for she leaves me with no choice. A strong handshake is followed by a big approving smile from Her Majesty, and I am on my merry way.

Recovering in the Ritz in London and looking forward to a day of dealing with manuscripts, interrupted only by sleep and a little food and water for the next 24 hours!

Fraser"