The best way to get an idea of what it’s like to interview K. Barry Sharpless is to play pinball. Once his mind winds up, you never know exactly where the conversation will bounce to. Topics of discussion can jump from fishing on the Jersey shore to acetylcholinesterase inhibitors to his beloved pet mutt, Batty, in a matter of just minutes. And Sharpless will be the first to admit that his train of thought isn’t necessarily linear. “I usually don’t answer questions,” he admits. “I don’t speak in full sentences, and I have a hell of a time writing.”
In brief
This year’s Priestley Medalist, K. Barry Sharpless, is a master at getting molecules to do his bidding. He’s pioneered two influential areas of chemistry: asymmetric catalysis and click chemistry. And he’s inspired legions of chemists. Read on to find out how this molecule maker went from fishing in Manasquan, New Jersey, to winning the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
Sharpless’s friends, former students, and colleagues all reach for words like “eccentric” and “unconventional” when asked to describe him. But the description they all eventually arrive at is that he “thinks like a molecule.” The phrase seems to have originated with Sharpless himself—he advised students during his time teaching undergraduate organic chemistry to do just that. Those who know Sharpless say it sums up his uncanny ability to know how molecules will behave and how he can get them to do his bidding.
