A simple life—finding function and making connections

Though the Priestley Medal is for “services to chemistry,” my services have always been for chemists: to give you more reliable portals to the bond-making universe and molecular properties and function. I’m just a researcher, and one whose methods are uncommon, so the honor of my being here tonight could not be felt or appreciated more deeply. I want this talk to be a service too. I’m the product of an upper-middle-class home that wasn’t always a happy one. My house, my schools, and my father’s surgery practice were in Philadelphia, but when asked “Where’s home?” I would say, “Manasquan, New Jersey.” My mother grew up there, and she took my sister and me to the Jersey shore summers and weekends. On a wooded bluff above the Manasquan River, our parents bought a Sears Roebuck prefab cottage—four tiny bedrooms surrounded a big gathering area and kitchen that were often filled