Ronald Gillespie
Not all leading scientists
start out with their hearts set on science. For Ronald
Gillespie, it was a second choice. Growing up and going to
school in England, he was assigned to the science program
because he did not do well enough in his entrance exam to get
into the classics program he wanted.
He often had to work at his
studies, but he loved learning and the process of discovery.
At university, he specialized in chemistry because it was a
chemistry professor who challenged students to think for
themselves, both in the classroom and in the laboratory.
After earning his PhD and
getting his research career-started, he became interested in
the question of why brightly coloured solutions turned up
when certain elements (such as iodine, sulfur. selenium, and
tellurium) were dissolved in concentrated sulfuric acid.
His research group worked
for years on the puzzle. and discovered that the very high
acidity of H2SO4 was responsible for generating
new, coloured, species that were not stable in water.
Intrigued, he began experimenting with ways of making
H2SO4even more acidic. That led to the concept of superacids
(such as HSO3F). which became widely used in organic and
inorganic chemistry.
After he moved to Canada in
1958, Gillespie's superacids turned out to be important to
the discovery that non-metallic elements could be obtained in
the form of polyatomic cations (I2+, S82+) a discovery that
opened up a whole new field of chemistry.
Gillespie was also
fascinated by the shapes of molecules and, along with R. S.
Nyholm, developed the widely- used Valence Shell Electron
Pair Repulsion (VSEPR) theory. VSEPR is a very simple way to
predict the shape of molecules; it is simple enough for high
school students to use, yet works just about as well as the
predictions of a supercomputer.
Exploring the unknown has
kept Gillespie excited about research throughout his career,
and he loves seeing students discover that excitement.
In his view, chemistry is
not just a lot of theory to be learned. It is a fascinating
process of discovery, one that draws on imagination and
creativity.
Kelvin Kenneth Ogilvie
Great scientific discoveries
usually are the product of long, hard work, but sometimes
they are found in a research "failure." Kelvin
Kenneth Ogilvie has done it both ways. When Ogilvie began his
education in a two-room schoolhouse in Summerville, N.S.,
catching fish after school was his biggest interest. By the
time he finished university, he was fascinated with the
central roles of DNA and RNA in all living systems.
In graduate school, he
became determined to find a way to chemically synthesize DNA
and RNA for scientists to study, and he focused on DNA
synthesis while earning his PhD.
When he started his career
at the University of Manitoba, he began working on a chemical
synthesis of RNA — a much more complicated task than the
synthesis of DNA. (He also took up dog-sledding, with a
passion.)
His first attempt at RNA
synthesis failed, but it helped him understand the
relationship between a key animal enzyme and its substrates.
Based on that discovery, he invented a new class of molecules
to act against viruses.
For ten years other people
thought he was wrong, but he kept working with the new
molecules. Today, one of his compounds (ganciclovir) is the
critical ingredient in a drug that has saved or lengthened
thousands of lives, including transplant patients and AIDS
victims.
While doing that work,
Ogilvie stayed on the trail of RNA synthesis. He and his
research group were making progress in that direction when a
Toronto biotechnology company (then called Bio Logicals, now
known as Enscor) asked him to help develop an automated DNA
synthesizer for industry.
By 1981 Ogilvie had what
they wanted. and his "gene machine" kick-started
the genetic engineering field.
The product took some folks
by surprise. For example, he took the new device to a press
conference in New York, and was delayed six hours at the
border while U.S. Customs officials searched through the
customs manuals for a definition of "gene machine."
With that problem solved for
industry, Ogilvie turned again to RNA synthesis. In 1986, he
finally achieved his goal; he synthesized the transfer RNA
molecule that initiates protein synthesis in living cells.
Some said he had created a
"flicker of life." His method is now used by
scientists worldwide.
Ogilvie, now at Acadia
Universitv in Wolfville, N.S., has the rare privilege of
being responsible for a drug that saves thousands of lives,
and for making accessible the two molecules most fundamental
to modern biochemistry.
That, he says, "is true
satisfaction from research."
Geraldine Kenney-Wallace
Being a scientist is a
little like being a molecular detectives Sherlock Holmes who
studies atoms, molecules, and the mysteries of nature.
Geraldine Kenney-Wallace has always been drawn to that kind
of detective work.
As a young girl, she played
with induction motors, trains, and crystal radio sets-, she
was fascinated by the colours of chemistry and the shapes of
crystalline rocks and fossils. In school in London, England,
she chose to focus on science and mathematics because of the
adventure and sense of discovery they offered.
When she finished high
school, she went to the Clarendon Physics Laboratories at
Oxford as a summer research student. She was excited by the
scientific developments unfolding at that point-from new
tools like lasers, nuclear magnetic resonance, and microwave
spectroscopy, to the rockets going into space for the first
time.
At this end of the summer
she decided to stay on and continue her research work along
with her studies, rather than go to university full-time.
That gave her career an unusual start- for most students, the
courses come first and the research comes later.
She completed her
undergraduate work in the United Kingdom and then moved to
Canada, where she earned a PhD in chemical physics. After
several years on the faculty. at Yale, she returned to Canada
and the University of Toronto.
As Professor of Chemistry
and Physics at the U of T, she built the first Canadian
Ultrafast Laser Laboratory, and pioneered picosecond (I x
10-12 s) and femtosecond (I x 10-15 s) laser spectroscopy.
Now the president of McMaster University, she is an
internationally recognized authority on lasers, ultrafast
molecular motions, and optoelectronics.
Optoelectronics is the field
of science and engineering concerned with creating
electricity from light. You can see it in the holograms that
protect credit cards and large-denomination money, compact
disks that play everything from Mozart to rock, and in a huge
number of medical laser applications. Kenney-Wallace's
research career has always encompassed chemistry, physics,
mathematics, and some molecular biology, and it has taken her
around the world to work with other scientists.
The excitement has not worn
off. Thirty years after that first summer in the lab, she is
as enthusiastic as ever about new scientific discoveries.
Historical Note….
Kerosene is a Canadian
discovery
Abraham Gesner, a Nova
Scotia doctor, was searching for a cheaper, brighter lamp oil
when he tried distilling New Brunswick coal. The process
resulted in burning oils that he called "kerosene",
and by 1850 it was lighting up homes in Dartmouth and
Halifax, N.S.
When petroleum was
discovered a few years later (in Pennsylvania in 1859 and in
Ontario in 1860), it soon became the major source for the
production of kerosene, the C12-C15 distillate fraction.
Gesner's work led to the use
of petroleum for lighting, and gave birth to the modern
petroleum refining industry. Kerosene, originally developed
for heating and lighting, is even more important today as a
fuel for jet aircraft.
