Electronic Journal of Biology, 2017, Vol.14(1): 45-46

Bridges between Biology and Hamada YZ* Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Department of Natural and Mathematical Sciences, LeMoyne-Owen College, Memphis, TN, USA. *Corresponding author. Tel 1(901) 435-1392; Fax: 1(901) 435-1424; E-mail: [email protected] Citation: Hamada YZ. Bridges between biology and chemistry. Electronic J Biol, S4:1 Received: March 23, 2017; Accepted: March 27, 2017; Published: April 03, 2017

Editorial

two of them: (1) “I am a teacher, and I am proud Professor , considered by many of it. At Cornell University I have taught primarily (myself included) to be one of the most influential undergraduates, and indeed almost every year since inorganic of the 20th/21st centuries. At 80, 1966 has taught first-year general chemistry”. (2) “It I will say he is still going and going and going (from is not good enough to be smart; it is smarter to be reading his recent publications in various fields of good”. I made a slight modification to the latter quote chemistry). During the 20th century, Roald Hoffmann and I said “It is good to be both smart and good” just and had their work recognized like , Roald Hoffmann, , by the 1981 shared chemistry for Mustafa El-Sayed, C. V. Raman, Kenichi Fukui and their work in . The first Nobel many others whom I learned from great deal. recognition of Inorganic chemistry efforts was the Nobel Prize in 1913 awarded to Alfred Werner (the 1. Anecdote father of coordination chemistry). The most notable coordination who came after Werner was Before the advent of the Internet, Google, and A.E. Martell of Texas A&M University who passed the Wikipedia, there was always the American Chemical baton to Wes. R. Harris of UM-St. Louis. Society (ACS) directory of graduate research in any chemistry department library or the university The editor-in-chief is launching this special issue of main library to search for papers and scientists so building bridges between inorganic chemistry and that we did not know the looks of many scientists. biology in celebration of prof. Hoffmann’s 80th birthday In the summer of 1995, I read many articles and (July 18th, 2017). Prof. Hoffman is one of the few background information about Roald Hoffmann at the chemistry scholars that knows how to “search to teach chemistry department where I received my graduate and know how to teach to search”. For decades, he education (UM-St. Louis). Two years to the date, this managed to teach undergraduate chemistry courses information came in handy when I met Hoffmann at Cornell while keeping his national and international by mere chance. It was in St. Louis Union Station research groups/collaborators busy and productive [1]. where Prof. Lee Brammer (University of Sheffield- The scientific community knows that Prof. Hoffmann England) had organized the tri-annual meeting for has contributions in very diverse sub-fields of chemistry. the American Crystallographic Association (ACA). Applied theoretical chemistry, pure inorganic chemistry, Lee Brammer was affiliated with UM-St. Louis at that philosophy of chemistry, coordination chemistry, time. I was one of the helpers to Lee to prepare the bioinorganic chemistry, organometallic chemistry, meeting’s materials. I was behind the counter waiting bioorganic chemistry, extremely high pressure effect for the attendees to collect the meeting’s material. on small molecules, to name a few. I am certain that I Roald approached the unknown young man stating missed two dozen areas that he contributed to due to Hoffmann so I can hand him the meeting’s material lack of knowledge in my part. (assuming that he is not known, a behavior reflecting humility). From excitement, I jumped up into the air We wish prof. Hoffman a healthy and long productive saying Roald Hoffman in a loud voice! Prof. Hoffmann life and many years to come to celebrate his myriad understood that he met a crazy young chemist! contributions to: chemistry/biology/physics/theory/ poetry/life. In this special issue of the Electronic Over the decades, I have kept very concise written Journal of Biology (EJBio), we will attempt to excite letters back and forth between wherever I am and the biologically sound scientists with a tint of chemistry Ithaca NY. I intentionally decided to make sure that I to submit their work. Areas of interests for this special am not describing the whole world to someone who issue are: Biology, Bioanalytical chemistry, bioinorganic presented and prepared “the world of chemistry”, chemistry, bioorganic chemistry, biostatistics, which is a series of video recordings that introduced toxicology, and bio-physical chemistry [2-4]. chemistry to the general public which was an aim of prof. Hoffmann for many years. In one of such brief I have learned many things from prof. Hoffmann communications from Roald to me, Roald inquired especially his quotes. It will suffice to mention about the start and the observance of the fasting

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month of Ramadan, at which he himself witnessed References one of such events in the great nation of India when [1] Hoffmann R, Goesten MG, Bickelhaupt FM, et al. (2017). he was in a visit to one of its great chemistry schools/ 8-coordinate fluoride in a silicate double ring. Proc Nat universities. Many societies have the practice of Acad Sci. 114: 828-833. fasting in one way or another. The discussion was [2] Cowan JA. (1997). In Inorganic Biochemistry-An about the theme of “the stomach is the worst container introduction. Wiley-VCH Inc. Hoboken, NJ. to be filled” which is also the reason behind many of the known and the unknown human diseases of the [3] Lippard SJ, Berg JM. (1994). In Principles of Bioinorganic gastrointestinal tract. Most diseases are the theme Chemistry, University Science Books, Mill Valley, CA. of most of the chemistry, biology, or biochemistry [4] Tietz NW. (1994). Textbook of clinical chemistry, 2nd research points. Research and its communication is edition, Carl A. Burtis and Edward R. Ashwood Ed. an ever going activity. Saunders, Philadelphia, PA.

Special issue title: Bioinorganic chemistry-bridges between biology and inorganic chemistry Editor(s): Y. Z. Hamada, LeMoyne-Owen College, USA

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