Interview with Dr. Julius Rebek Jr.

I took the usual premed courses and was good at math and science at KU. The professor of organic chemistry, Albert Burgstahler lectured to our class of about 200 students. It met 3 times a week, while a dozen lab sections met once a week, managed by teaching assistants. Burgstahler appeared in my lab section one day and changed my life. He came up to me, told me I had a talent for chemistry, and asked if I wanted to work for him that summer. The program was funded by the NSF and paid $90/mo., about a third of what I made working for Dad painting houses in Topeka. Wow! Working in private, air-conditioned lab next to his office vs. scraping, sanding and painting in the hot and humid Kansas summer? It was an easy decision for me. And so, I became a chemist.

I learned experimental techniques, used instruments and studied synthetic reactions, one-on-one with my mentor that summer. Organic chemistry, often compared to learning a new language and notorious for its burdensome memorization, was a comfort to me: it had structure. It also made it possible for me to depart the premed track and concentrate on science. I took on a heavy course load and had the language requirement waived, since the university could not find someone to test my Hungarian. I finished required classes and graduated mid-year, then enrolled in the graduate program to avoid the draft. I took advanced courses and cumulative exams and relaxed only when I received admission to the PhD program at MIT.

I was working in molecular recognition, which is the result of weak intermolecular forces acting between compounds of complementary size, shape and chemical surface. The key to recognition – complementarity – suggested the next step: simply attach the two compounds covalently to provide a structure that is self-complementary. Any such combination of host and guest, donor and acceptor, concave and convex, acid and base, etc… shows this property (and can be a recipe for polymeric chains). But with proper attention to orientation and reactivity, a self-complementary structure can act as a template – a catalyst for its own formation, it can replicate. A number of these synthetic compounds were developed and showed replication: autocatalysis based on recognition. They complemented the self-replicating DNA systems of von Kiedrowski and the peptides devised at Scripps by Ghadiri. Self-replication provided me with another research identity, a dividend from the molecular recognition project. I am most proud of having worked with the 200 or so former members of my research group. They are my real legacy. Some 50 of them are academics in North America, Europe and Asia.

I had research appointments at Fudan and Shanghai U. in China during the last decade of my career. From Hainan to Jilin, I traveled a lot. The actual travel was effortless. since the omnipresent escort dealt with the hassle of vehicles, airports, transfers, hotels. But the faculty – waiting anxiously with their laptops open to power point decks– induced stress. They needed to show me their best and latest. Even with appointments scheduled every half hour, I got the fully rehearsed, complete hour lecture; they simply talked faster. Never ask questions, it derails their train of memorized English. Their slides were overworked – every square cm covered with data and structures. I never knew where to look, confused by the lightning-fast, oscillating pointer or pointing finger. It was a relief when they literally read the words on the screen to me; I could then look into their eyes without making them blush. Six, seven such meetings a day. By the late afternoon – my turn to lecture – I was ready to hurt someone. I learned to treat visitors to Scripps much more humanely: offer a restroom; let them enjoy the view of the golf course and the Pacific from my windows; make them a shot of espresso. Spending nearly half my life in the office, I had made it comfortable: a glass dining table for a desk and designer sofa for a nap; an area rug for warmth; an antique Scandinavian armoire for academic regalia. A Giacometti print shared the walls with a painting done by my daughter.

In chemistry, there is a traditional injunction against continuing your graduate or postdoctoral work in your own academic career, so I suggest doing something different. Find and develop an independent research identity – something that can distinguish you in a unique way. Most of all, find something you like to do.