David Ruth
713-348-6327
david@rice.edu

Mike Williams
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mikewilliams@rice.edu

Statement by Robert Curl on the passing of Sir Harold Kroto 

HOUSTON – (May 3, 2016) – Nobel Prize laureate Robert Curl of Rice University discovered, with Rice colleague Richard Smalley and Sir Harold Kroto, the carbon-60 molecule commonly known as the buckyball in 1985. The trio was awarded the Nobel in chemistry in 1996.

Kroto died April 30 at 76.

“I am deeply saddened by the loss of my dear friend Harold Kroto. Long before the buckminsterfullerene, we were in the same field of molecular spectroscopy and well aware of each other’s work. We first met in person in the summer of 1977 at a meeting in New Forest in England. Harry invited me to come visit him at his home in Lewes, Sussex.

“It happened that my schedule permitted a few extra days in the UK, and I happily accepted for a very pleasant non-scientific visit with him and his wife, Margaret. Harry had an impish sense of humor fed by his favorite comedians, Monty Python — an aspect of his personality that I greatly appreciated.

“Harry was a great scientist. He had a creative mind and tremendous energy. His completely independent works, subsequent to the joint C60 discovery of the Rice-Sussex team, on the properties of the fullerenes stand as important milestones in the advancement of chemistry.  His death is a great loss to science and to me.”

Curl is University Professor Emeritus and the Kenneth S. Pitzer-Schlumberger Professor Emeritus of Natural Sciences at Rice University.

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