Richard Smalley (June 6, 1943 - October 28, 2005) was one of the recipients of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1996, as a co-discoverer of Buckey-balls. He earned his Ph.D. at Princeton's Department of Chemistry, under Elliot R. Bernstein.

An article in the Houston Chronicle about him.

An autobiography written for the Nobel. It documents much of his early life.

One notable thing about Smalley is his research: for historic reasons, early atomic physicists tend to be classified as chemists. The same thing happened to me when I worked at Argonne: while technically we worked in the physics building and our research clearly falls under the study of atomic physics, we were members of the chemistry division.

For those interested in atomic and molecular physics, especially in laser-cooling, masers, free molecular beams (kind of near my "specialty"), the above autobiography is a fascinating read, especially when he started talking about his Ph.D. research proposal and such.

One of the most admirable thing about Smalley as a scientist, however, is his dedication to solving the world's problems. In his later years, after the discovery of Fullerene and experiments with carbon nanotubes, he spent much of his time talking about the energy problem that is facing our country. In his research and in his teaching, the public interest holds a significant place. For that, he is one of the greatest scientists of this era.