RIP Bill Lipscomb

I heard an interesting piece on NPR about Harvard chemist Bill Lipscomb, who recently passed away. Lipscomb won the Nobel prize for chemistry in 1976. Now that is pretty impressive, of course, but that's not what caught my attention. Lipscomb was a student who worked with multiple-Nobel prize winner and all-around smarty pants Linus Pauling (the only person ever to win two Nobels). Bill Lipscomb learned to think big and tackle hard problems. To whit:

Prof. LIPSCOMB: Its not a disgrace in science to publish something thats wrong. What is bad is to publish something thats not very interesting.

Here's the really cool part. Three, count them, three former students of Lipscomb's went on to win Nobel prizes of their own. That is both amazing and ridiculous. One count argue that teaching at an elite school like Harvard, Lipscomb would have access to a higher caliber of students that someone toiling away at a smaller, lower-tier school. But that doesn't even come close to explaining how one could be an inspiring enough teacher that three of your students win Nobels on their own. That shows a rare gift for teaching and inspiring others.