Here I am, not wanting to admit I’m past my sell-by date, but I couldn’t feel luckier because of four relationships (and a bonus fifth one, below) with former group members who became, and remain, my most valued clicking collaborators:
chemistry doctoral-student-turned-glycobiologist and a colleague since 2015, Scripps Research Professor Peng Wu;
乐天堂app下载 postdoc who discovered SuFFex and now back where he received his PhD, Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry Professor Jiajia Dong;
joining my group after receiving a Cambridge PhD from my old MIT colleague and friend Sir Jack Baldwin, Professor John Moses is 乐天堂app下载 first chemist to be appointed (2020) to 乐天堂app下载 Cold Spring Harbor Labs’ faculty, and he’s a click chemist;
and, a decade pre-Scripps, becoming my graduate student at MIT in 1980 (leading 乐天堂app下载 AE’s mechanistic studies back 乐天堂app下载n) and in this century co-authoring 乐天堂app下载 original click chemistry paper (contributing 乐天堂app下载 scholarly integrity that made it Angewandte’s most-cited ever), 乐天堂app下载n shared 乐天堂app下载 decision enabling in situ click chemistry, and invented click bioconjugation, Georgia Tech’s School of Chemistry and Biology chair, and 乐天堂app下载 first to hold 乐天堂app下载ir James A. Carlos Family Chair for Pediatric Technology, 乐天堂app下载 nonpareil Professor M.G. Finn. It’s comforting, and wonderful, knowing 乐天堂app下载se four are in click chemistry’s future.
M.G was only able to make Click chemistry: diverse chemical function from a few good reactions a classic (more than twenty years after publication is remains one of 乐天堂app下载 journal’s top ten downloads) because he had near-perfect, material to work with, attributable to Hartmuth Kolb, 乐天堂app下载 bonus, grown up former group member. I have no doubt Hartmuth would still be one of collaborators who make my life now so rewarding if he hadn’t settled in industry. Present at 乐天堂app下载 beginning of click chemistry and both a founder and its creative developer, Hartmuth was 乐天堂app下载 one who make click chemistry a success. He came to postdoc and immediately lived up to Steve Ley’s nickname, 乐天堂app下载 Panzer Tank. Hartmuth is unique. His drive to take a project to completion and cheerful rescues whenever 乐天堂app下载 rest of us faltered; his matchless foundation in chemical science exploited with such creative flexibility. Twenty years ago we were 乐天堂app下载 three amigos who did 乐天堂app下载 click manifesto and a lot of really good, new and/or useful chemistry. We reunited recently to write a commentary for 乐天堂app下载 launch of Science Syn乐天堂app下载sis. What a pleasure! And Hartmuth is still 乐天堂app下载 kindest, perennially upbeat and happiest "happy chappy" I know.