Sole laureate from DuPont

A Brilliant Chemist with the Soul of An Artist

Early in 1967, a paper from Charles J. Pedersen, a chemist at the DuPont Experimental Station, landed on the desk of the editor of the Journal of the American Chemical Society. The paper was unusual for several reasons, not least of all its sheer volume - when published it ran 20 densely printed pages. It represented more than five years of laboratory work accomplished entirely by Pedersen with the assistance of a single technician, Ted Malinowski. In the paper, Pedersen reported the discovery of a novel class of chemical compounds called macrocyclic polyethers, which he dubbed the "crown"ethers because of their molecular shape.

The journal's distinguished editor, Marshall Gates, wrote to Pedersen saying, "You are quite clearly reporting monumental piece of work which we shall be quite happy to publish." Both Gates and the still-anonymous referee who reviewed the paper pointed out that many researchers would have managed half a dozen articles out of a similar quantity of data.

For Pedersen, who freely admits he disliked writing papers, one was enough. Although he later published some follow-up papers, the original article, "Macrocyclic Polyethers for Complexing Metals" [J. Am. Chem. Soc. 89, 7017 (1967)] has since become known to Pedersen's colleagues simply as "the blockbuster."

It was the capstone of a successful career. Pedersen retired from DuPont with considerable fanfare two years later. After that, things quieted down. "Charlie," as he is called by friends, spent his retirement gardening, fishing, birdwatching and writing poetry.

But other chemists began to build on his discovery and such work began to snowball. In August of 1987, a symposium on crown ethers was held in Japan in Pedersen's honor, and it appeared he was at last getting overdue recognition - at least from scientists in his field.

And then came the phone call from Sweden.

On the morning of October 14, 1987 an undersecretary of the Nobel foundation called to tell Pedersen that he would share the 1987 Nobel Prize for chemistry.

"I was flabergasted," Pedersen said at a press conference later that day.

Anyone who knew Pedersen could appreciate the sincerity of his surprise. Even in his later years, his health impaired by cancer, he had lost none of the gentle, unassuming and sensitive nature that endeared him to friends and colleagues over the years. He was a brilliant chemist with the soul of an artist - a man who admitted he would have been as content to paint watercolors as do chemical research. Former chairman Richard E. Heckert called him a "chemist's chemist - a man of unusual curiosity and keen ability to see simple solutions to complex problems, often when others missed them."

Al MacLachlan, DuPont senior vice president for technology at that time, acknowledged that "the company's entire research community was uplifted by the news that Charlie Pedersen won the Nobel. It represents a vote of confidence in the way we go about doing research. There are several other technical developments underway in the company that could lead to similar recognition in the future, and would be nice if Charlie's prize could some day be looked upon as the first of several."

In hindsight, it is easy to believe that Pedersen was destined to make some phenomenal discovery. He had a penchant for being in the right place at the right time. "When I was working at Jackson Lab, I used to go one day a month to the Experimental Station. Once while I was there, I saw Julian Hill mixing a solution in a test tube. He pulled out the rod from the tube and with it came many strong fibers." It was historically the first example of cold drawing a synthetic fiber, a technique which later became the process for making nylon and Dacron® polyester fibers.

On another day at Jackson Lab, where Roy Plunkett's laboratory was across the hall from Pedersen's. "I saw Plunkett's technician, Jack Rebok, open a cylinder. On the inside was a white substance along the rim." It was Teflon® fluorocarbon resin," Pederson said.

A few years down the road, in another lab, it would be Pedersen's turn.