We can certainly stand to learn a lot by reading about the biographies of other scientists, and especially about their careers. For those of us working in the field of catalysis, there are precious few book-length biographies of the titans of our profession. It is easy to locate books about well-known chemists including Josef Haber, Walther Nernst, Michael Faraday, and Humphry Davy. However, it is challenging to find books, for example about the life and careers of Jons Jacob Berzelius, Wilhelm Ostwald, Paul Emmett, or Karl Ziegler. The majority of us are forced to refer to their sparse biographies found in Wikipedia.
However, if one looks deeply enough, you can find a reasonable number of autobiographical documents, presentations, and personal reflections by preeminent contributors to the field of catalysis. You simply need to know where to look.
For those catalysis stalwarts like Karl Ziegler, Giulio Natta, or Gerhart Ertl, who have been fortunate enough to win the Nobel Prize, we have their reflections preserved in the archives of their Nobel addresses. The Nobel Committee also maintains some useful biographical information regarding its laureates. In the United States, the Science History Institute (formerly the Chemical Heritage Foundation) has attempted to capture much of the biographical information of contemporary scientists. The Science History Institute's Oral History program (Website: https://oh.sciencehistory.org/search/oh/catalysis) contains transcripts and, in many cases, original recordings of interviews with catalysts luminaries including L. Louis Hegedus, J. Paul Hogan, John H. Sinfelt, Haldor F. A. Topsoe, Ralph Landau, and Paul Weisz.
Although its archives are incomplete, the National Academies attempts to publish brief (∼ 5 pages) biographies of a majority of its deceased members through its annual Memorial Tributes publication (Website: https://www.nae.edu/MemorialTributes.aspx). Oregon State University Libraries maintains the extensive record of correspondences and publications of Paul Emmett (Website: http://scarc.library.oregonstate.edu/coll/emmett/catalogue/full.html). Emmett was a central figure in the international catalysis community until his death in 2001.
The North American Catalysis Society (NACS), (Website: http://nacatsoc.org) through the initial efforts of Burtron Davis and more recently those of Stu Soled and Ushi Graham maintain videos, interviews, and other archival materials that capture much of the history and the significant figures in 20th and 21st-century catalysis. The NACS website contains biographies of 14 eminent contributors to the field of catalysis including Michel Boudart, W. Keith Hall, Vladimir Nikolaevich Ipatieff, Sir Eric Rideal, Robert Burwell, Jr., Almer McAfee, John Sinfelt, Herman Pines, Heinz Heinemann, Eugene Houdry, Eric Derouane, and Alex Mills.
The American Chemical Society's journal, ACS Catalysis, has recently begun to publish a series entitled “Careers in Catalysis” [ref 1]. This series features tributes to major figures in catalysis on the occasion of their retirement, 50th service anniversary, 70th birthday, or, in one case, in recognition of their receipt of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. There are ten published tributes thus far, with more to come. They all make for fascinating reading.
It is intriguing as well as instructive, and perhaps even inspirational to learn how other scientists decided to pursue a particular line of research or made a discovery which later proved transformative. Like the leadership of the Science History Institute or the editors of ACS Catalysis, we should devote more time to documenting the career experiences of others in the field of catalysis.
[1] C. Jones, “ACS Catalysis in the Time of COVID-19,” ACS Catalysis 2020, 10, 4385−4386 https://doi.org/10.1021/acscatal.0c01302, (c) American Chemical Society 2020.