SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
RECOGNITION Zare (left) receives the Charles Lathrop Parsons Award from ACS Past-President Daryle Busch.
RICHARD ZARE'S PARSONS AWARD ADDRESS In which he considers the question, "What are the elements of a successful career in chemistry?"
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award address presentation should consider ourselves successful. I must say, I had no idea when Ifirstthought of a career in chemistry that it would receive the recognition and praise as that conferred by receiving the Charles Lathrop Parsons Award from the American Chemical Society I still need to pinch myself to make sure I am not dreaming; it seems that people are willing to pay me to do the things I find to be such fun. My first interests in chemistry date back to growing up in Cleveland at theendofWorldWarll. I would find new issues of Chemical & Engineering News along with college chemistry texts lying around our home. My father dropped out of graduate school in chemistry at Ohio State University in Columbus to marry my mother during the Depression. He always wanted to be a practicing chemist, and he maintained his sub-
scription to C&EN and his membership in the ACS throughout his life. It was only natural for me to become curious about this interest of his. But when I went to look at these chemistry texts, both my mother and my father discouraged me, saying that chemistry leads to nothing but troubles! Indeed, my repeated requests to purchase a chemistry set were sternly denied, and I had to make friends with a local pharmacist, who would sell me potassium nitrate, sulfur, carbon, alcohol, and finely divided metal powders— all the ingredients I wanted for some colorful pyrotechnics. Like so many others, my first interests in chemistry revolved about flames, explosions, and color changes. I think it is important not to lose sight ofthis original impetus for going into chemistry I have yet to meet someone who chose a career in chemistry because of an excellent homework problem. Instead; it is the thrill you get when you can do something with your own hands
The true reward is not in the result, it is in the process, not in the achievement but in the achieving.
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and understand something with your own mind that inspires would-be chemists. {Zare still takes obvious delight in colorful and otherwise entertaining demonstrations, several of which he conducted for those attending the award address presentation.} I owe what success I have had in chemistry to so many others—to my teachers, to my friends, and especially to my wife, Susan, who is here with me tonight. Our marriage is an old-fashioned one in which Susan as my partner has supported and aided me over the years, making it possible for me to be here before you. I cannot thank her enough. Suppose you were challenged by a group ofyoung people about pursuing a career in chemistry They wanted to know from you how to be successful. What would you tell them? I think you wouldfindthis question more difficult to answer than it first seems. I know I would first emphasize that success is a relative thing that is not easily measured, certainly not simply measured by awards and prizes. Moreover, it is intensely personal. Inspired by Raymond LWenderlich's article, "Tips for a Successful Career" (ne Business Monthly, March), here is what I think I would tell them. Successful careers don't just happen. They involve planning. They also involve the consistent application of some key principles. With apologies to David Letterman, here is my top 10 list:
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Take responsibility for managing your own career. No one else will! Avoid the trap of getting caught up in the expectations of others. Polonius said it best—to thine own self be true.
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Plan your career. As Casey Stengel said, "If you don't know where you're going, you might end up someplace else." But life is more a stochastic process than is first imagined. One crazy thing after another keeps happening to you. Consequently longterm planning is less useful than it might seem. When opportunity knocks, open the door. Always make plans, but be flexible and be willing to reassess your plans.
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Practice persistence. You may or you may not need a Ph.D., but you do need dogged persistence in solving problems. Good things never come easily
/ Don't grow up! Peter Pan was right. ^T A childlike sense of wonder allows great creativity and invites discovery %u were born with this sense ofwonder; don't lose it because it is not regarded as adult behavior. Serendipity can be made to hapHTTP://PUBS.ACS.ORG/CEN
pen. Unlike lightning, once it strikes, it can be made to strike again and again.
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Become a happy, contented schizo phrenic, believing and not believing at the same time. Ifyou believe too easily, then you will delude yourself; ifyou are too critical, you will never try the outlandish. Become your own worst critic but simul taneously dare to try something different.
Embark on a program of continu ous self-improvement. Remember that a dull ax requires great strength to chop wood. Be wise and sharpen the blade.
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you do love. Be aware that no perfect job exists. Every task has its drudgery and its frustrations. No situation is free ofpolitics. What is important is to be able to pass through the negative so that you can dwell happily in the land of the positive. Blessed are those who achieve equanimity in this age of angst, stress, and false gods. Λ f\ Have a dream and do something I U that you love. Build sandcastles in the sky Their foundations will follow. Select something that you love—some thing that you value. Study it. Live it. W)rk at it. Work harder at it than you have ever
I am sure my top 10 list is quite incom plete. I know I need to add something about the value of communication skills, the need for individual assertiveness, as well as the need for teamwork. But I do hope it has captured some of what is needed in a successful career in chem istry—and for that matter in many other occupations. In summing up, let me admit that the word "success" has many meanings. By a successful career, I am thinking of a career that is truly fulfilling. Therefore, let me close with a few thoughts about the more tradi tional meanings of success and failure,
EYE-CATCHING During his award address, Zare completed several demonstrations to show how inspiring chemistry can be, including (from left) setting an ordinary pickle aglow, employing friend Billie Press to aid him in a chemiluminescence experiment, and cooling things down with a liquid nitrogen finale.
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Seek challenges. A little-known secret is that it takes about as much effort to solve a hard problem as an easy one. Don't wait for your ship to come in. Row out to meet it.
worked before. Immerse yourself totally in it. In that immersion you willfindhap piness and contentment in a life truly well lived.
and—I stress—their relative unimpor tance. I have experienced the giddy heights of great success. I have also experienced the black depths of abject failure. I have found that what matters most is to have a I would tell this group ofyoung people: dream, to do something that you believe Go to people you trust and respect Chemistry is an excellent springboard to in, and to love it passionately Do not fear for career advice. Recruit mentors many careers, traditional and nontradi- failure. Do not crave success. Ifyou ask for and make friends. I cannot emphasize tional. %ur interests and your imagination financial reward for what you do, for peer enough the importance of the value of crit provide the only limits to your opportuni approval, or even for thanks from others, then you are asking to be paid for what you ical friends, folks who will not simply tell ties for a career in chemistry! should be giving freely as an act you what you want to hear, but of love. The true reward is not in who will speak the plain unvar CHARLES LATHROP PARSONS AWARD the result, it is in the process, not nished truth, even if it hurts. in the achievement but in the Critical friends are priceless. Of ublished here is the full address given by Richard N. Zare achieving. With the power of course, when you ask this of at the Charles Lathrop Parsons Award dinner held at the love, transform your dreams others, you must be willing to National Press Club in Washington, D.C., on May 3. Zare is into action. If you do what you offer the same quality of friend the Marguerite Blake Wilbur Professor of Natural Science in the love—professionally and in ship in return. department of chemistry at Stanford University. He is one of the every otherway—happiness and world's foremost physical/analytical chemists, whose cuttingsuccess will follow Keep your life in balance. edge research in laser chemistry and analytical spectroscopy is well known. The American Chemical Society's Parsons Award, No job should serve as a I thank you this evening for however, recognizes Zare's outstanding public service as an substitute for your family or for giving me this opportunity to ACS member. Zare has had a longstanding involvement with the a rich personal life. Make your share some very personal public sector at the national level, most prominently as a mem work something you love. Life thoughts on success and what ber of the National Science Board, the governing body of the is short and a career is even receiving this great honor means National Science Foundation, from 1992 to 1998, serving as shorter. If you don't love your to me. Let me express again my NSB's chairman during 1996-98. job, you better think about leav gratitude to the American ing it for some other job that Chemical Society
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