A generalist in science is a kind of intellectual ragpicker. I am one. It’s great fun, it’s easier than really working for a living, and it more than pays the bills. My professional life has been spent following my nose, and the path along which I have staggered has been more than erratic—from biologicals to chaos, and from organometallic compounds (chimeras of metals and organic matter) to the origin of life. Many of the best things that have happened to me have happened entirely by accident. Mix the science with teaching, with business, and with public policy, and add the more substantial and less peculiar joys and sorrows (e.g., marriage and children), and the result is mostly bewilderment. As I said, great fun.

Prof George Whitesides received his bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Harvard University in 1960 and then went on to the California Institute of Technology where he was awarded his Ph.D. in 1964 (with J.D. Roberts). He is currently a researcher at Harvard University where he joined the Department of Chemistry in 1982. He was Mallinckrodt Professor of Chemistry there from 1982-2004 and department chairman between 1986 and 1989. He is best known for his work in the areas of NMR spectroscopy, organometallic chemistry, self-assembly, soft lithography, microfabrication, microfluidics, and nanotechnology and has received numerous awards for his work, including the National Medal of Science in 1998 and the North American Kyoto Prize in 2003 for lifetime achievements in technology and science.

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