Richard Smalley (PhD, Nobel)

Dr. Richard Smalley, a professor of chemistry, was awarded the 1996 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the discovery of a new carbon known as "Buckyballs", a molecule resembling a soccer ball composed of 60 carbon atoms. He grew up in Kansas City, Missouri where his early interest in chemistry was sparked by his maternal aunt, Sara Jane Rhoads, a pioneering female chemist, who allowed young Smalley to experiment in her lab. After earning his PhD from Princeton, Smalley went on to found the Rice Quantum Institute in 1979 and became a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 1990. Although Dr. Smalley was married four times and a religious skeptic at first, he rediscovered his Christianity later in life during his final years battling cancer. He later stated: "Although I suspect I will never fully understand, I now think the answer is very simple: it's true. God did create the universe about 13.7 billion years ago, . . . it is increasingly clear to modern science that the universe was exquisitely fine-tuned to enable human life. We are somehow critically involved in His purpose." Dr. Richard Smalley died on October 28, 2005. Could his battle with cancer have been a catalyst in reconnecting him with his Creator?