The Conferring of Honorary Degrees
John B. Fenn

Citation Presented by Cindy Samet
Associate Professor of Chemistry

John B. Fenn, chemist, scholar, pioneer, and most recent Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, we honor you today for the unique accomplishments that led you to Stockholm this past December. It was there, on Dec.10—101 years after the very first Nobel prize was awarded in chemistry—that you received this tremendous prize, which is given to those who, in the words of Alfred Nobel, “shall have made the most important chemical discovery or benefit to mankind.” Those words are profound.

This is not your first visit to our campus, for, in addition to all of the above, you are a Dickinson Dad—father of Barbara Fenn Reif, Dickinson Class of 1965, who currently serves as Director of Alumni Affairs at the Yale University School of Nursing. But you return to us now, having achieved science’s highest honor. And so you become part of our rich history of Nobel Laureates who have set foot on this very campus. And two are worth special mention here—Linus Pauling and Francis Crick. These scientists, along with you, shared a common dream—to understand biological molecules, which are in fact the “machinery of life.” The discovery of the structure of DNA has made possible the recent completion of the Human Genome Project, which in turn has generated many questions about cells and the thousands of proteins in them. Linus Pauling’s lifelong commitment to the study of protein structure has also led us to this unique time in which the focus of chemistry is on the living cell. And now, as a result of your work, we have a new tool called “electrospray ionization mass spectrometry” which allows us to weigh large molecules including proteins. The remarkable thing about this is that, for such a technique to be successful, the molecules must be able to be put into the gas phase—something only you have achieved for large molecules. But, as the title of your Nobel Laureate address implies, you have indeed made “Elephants with Wings.”

For you, the road to Stockholm was an interesting one. You received a B.A. in chemistry from Berea College in 1937 and a Ph.D. from Yale University in 1940. You then worked in the chemical industry for a total of 19 years—at Monsanto Corporation and Sharpless Chemical in Michigan, and then at a small company in Richmond that specialized in combustion engines. In 1959, you were named director of Project SQUID, a U.S. Navy program of basic and applied research in jet propulsion administered by Princeton University. You then became a professor of aerospace and mechanical sciences. Perhaps then, without even realizing it, the seeds were planted for your prize-winning feat of making large molecules fly.

In 1967, you returned to Yale, first as a professor of applied science and chemistry, and later as a professor of chemical engineering. In 1987, you “retired,” and became a research scientist at Yale, a position which you held for 7 years, and then moved your research lab to Virginia Commonwealth University.

Your work on the electrospray mass spec technique for which you received the Nobel Prize began in 1988, at Yale University, just one year after you retired. After the first key paper was published that year, to quote a statement, or should I say understatement, from your Laureate address—“the field really took off.” Let me explain to the audience what this means: In the year 2000, 1800 papers were published that cited John Fenn’s new technique—that’s one every hour of the workday for about a full year! And that was just the year 2000.

John Fenn, you exemplify for us, not just by what you did, but by how you did it, the beauty of how science works. That you share your Nobel Prize with two others shows us that science itself is shared. It reflects the very best of human collaboration—with scientists past and present. That your work takes analytical chemistry (your toolbox) and applies it to biology, shows us that in reality there are no barriers between these fields.

Above all, we must remember that your work transcends not only chemistry, but the scientific process itself, because such gains in knowledge and achievements in technology are for the betterment of humanity. The techniques you pioneered have sped the development of unprecedented drugs and will no doubt lead to quicker diagnoses and more successful treatments for cancer and many other diseases currently incurable. So, above all, you are a humanitarian, for your accomplishments will build bridges between humans, between cultures, and even between nations.

Mr. President, I am honored to present to you Dr. John B. Fenn, 2002 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, for the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Arts and Sciences.

Conferring of the degree by William G. Durden
President

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