Dr. Roald Hoffmann - Nobel Prize, Rescue in WWII, & Beauty of Chemistry | Interview (Part 1) | ChemU

Today our special guest is Prof. Dr. Roald Hoffmann, a Polish-American chemist, writer, poet, philosopher, winner of 1981 Nobel Prize in chemistry, and professor at Cornell University New York since 1965. Topics of the Interview: 00:00 - Introduction 00:46 - Childhood during Second World War 04:45 - “To this day I am afraid of people in uniform“ - War Influence on Personality 07:13 - “I am not a pessimist and the war has not left me in that way“ 07:28 - Being Hidden in Attic by the Ukrainian Family during WWII & Returning to the Shelter After War 13:01 - Working in the Soviet Union 15:14 - State of Soviet Science after WWII 18:04 - “When I Came to the US, English Was My Sixth Language“ 19:28 - Living Life from the Beginning in the USA: “We did not look back“ 22:58 - Hückel Theory & Isolobal Principle 31:13 - About “Simulation versus understanding: a tension, and not only in our profession.“ 33:27 - Could We Compute and Predict Categories like Beauty and Ugly? 36:42 - Importance of Master & Apprentice Relations - Influence of R.B. Woodward 40:56 - Empathy as a Key to Success 43:09 - Ethics in Chemistry and Science 47:27 - Personal and Rising Collective Responsibility in Science 49:01 - Favourite Books of Dr. Hoffmann 51:05 - Conclusion Web-site of Roald Roffmann: Stay up to date, as the second part of this interview will be released soon! Don’t forget that all our videos are useful not only for the undergraduate and postgraduate chemists, biochemists, pharmacists and medics, but also for the final years of school students, taking exams in chemistry on IB, SAT, A-level, NEET, and JEE. Our Website and Forum: