Facets of the Tetsuo Nozoe Legacy Immortalized in an Enduring Series of International Symposia on Novel Aromatic Compounds (ISNA)

Abstract

Note from the Editor: According to Robert K. Merton (1988), “Invisible college” is a term used “to designate the informal collectives of scientists interacting in their research on similar problems, these groups being generally limited to a size ‘that can be handled by interpersonal relationships.’ ” Invisible colleges can be highly competitive, even ugly in their priority races, or they can be congenial, even enthusiastically supportive to its members. In the community of organic chemists who studied novel aromatic chemistry in the 1950s–1990s, one man—Tetsuo Nozoe—is largely responsible for bringing together researchers from across the world and setting the tone of brotherhood. Larry Scott, today a senior scholar of that invisible college, warmly shares the spirit of Tetsuo Nozoe with each of us in the following essay. Jeffrey I. Seeman Guest Editor University of Richmond Richmond, Virginia 23173, USA E‐mail: jseeman@richmond.edu

Tetsuo Nozoe: The World Traveler, On a Determined Trajectory

“…His travels were to international meetings, especially the ISNA meetings [1][2][3] where, subsequent to his death in 1996, the establishment of the Nozoe Lectureship and the display of a largerthan-life portrait demonstrate the affection his colleagues had for this gentleman. In addition, Nozoe fashioned multi-month grand tours that took him to tens of cities in many countries where he would visit old friends, make new associations, give lectures, and talk-and-talk chemistry.…”

“…In particular, I wish to provide some understanding and documentation of the social and communicative norms of the chemical community in the second half of the 20th century. In fact, the entire Nozoe Autograph Books along with many of their accompanying essays [1][2][3][4][5][7][8][9][10][11] are intended to do just that, as well.…”

The Nozoe Autograph Books Project: An Assessment

“…With the exceptional and warm cooperation of Nazario Martín, Symposium Chair of ISNA-16 ( Figure 5), autographs and chemical pictographs were collected during that meeting which had been founded by Nozoe in 1970 in Sendai. [3] Larry Scott, a longtime friend of Nozoe ( Figure 6) and the first Nozoe Lecturer, gave a short talk to the ISNA-16 audience in Madrid, inviting them to participate ( Figure 7). Many pages were collected, and these are being combined with the autographs and associated graphics obtained from others in 2015 to form a new autograph book that will join the Nozoe Autograph Books at the Tohoku University Archives.…”

“…Several of the essays were deeply personal, written by close friends and former students of Nozoe [3,[6][7][8][9] as well as immediate family members [10] (one of Nozoe's daughters and two of his grandchildren). Several essays had themes on the history and sociology of chemistry.…”

Chemistry without Bo(a)rders

“…Every essay I read about him comments on his open and friendly personality, his curious nature and his love for chemistry, a truly inspiring person from whom we can all learn. [1][2][3][4][23][24][25][26][27][28][29] Looking back, I wish I had heard about Prof. Nozoe's tradition of autograph books before embarking on my scientific adventures. Collecting the autographs of the many people I met on the way would have been a wonderful reminder of this unique journey.…”