JIŘÍ JANATA Dr

JIŘÍ JANATA Dr. CHEMFET

ICT Prague Press, 2010

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OSOBNOSTI ČESKÉ VĚDY

PERSONALITIES IN CZECH SCIENCE

This book has been published with the support of the Learned Society of the Czech Republic

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ICT Prague Press, 2010

*A_Janata.indd 1 9/29/10 8:52 PM Edited by: Eva Dibuszová and Eva Juláková First published in Czech and English, 2010

Published by the Institute of Chemical Tecnology, Prague, ICT Prague Press Technická 5 166 28 Praha 6 Czech Republic

Printed in the Czech Republic

ISBN 978-80-7080-762-0 (Czech) 978-80-7080-763-7 (English)

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PREFACE

Writing memoirs is a preferred hobby of old people. was to give an account of the scope of radioactive con- I myself admit that the temptation is there, but so far tamination at Hanford, and he opened his lecture with I have refrained, since the project is treacherous. How a slide that was supposed to convey, how a partial view frank should one be? How many skeletons are there to may mislead the viewer, as to the meaning of the entire be disclosed? Will the reader be entertained, offended, picture. He chose a cartoon that I saw for the first time scandalized – or even worse – bored? The task is even as a schoolboy in Prague. It is an image of a keyhole, more complicated, if one is supposed to write about through which one may imagine seeing a nude female a friend, since one risks of loosing him by being too torso. It was not that, of course. Jirka made his point and frank, or insulting him by being too laudatory. went on. The next day I was called by the Chair who had I did not realized that I am falling into a trap, when convened a meeting of prominent faculty members, Jirka asked me to write this piece. I guess, that mischief and with a Sexual Harassment Officer delegated by the is part of his otherwise generous and compassionate Dean’s office. I was interrogated as to how I could pos- nature. He has exercised his peculiar sense of humor sibly invite such a dubious character, who would show more than once. When he lived in Salt Lake City, his fa- offending body parts in a seminar attended by sensi- vorite ski trek was to the rim of Peruvian Ridge, where tive females? A letter of apology was drafted, to seminar he sometimes took his unsuspecting visitors. From that participants, which I refused to endorse. Fortunately the point was no way back, except straight into the jaws lady in charge of Harassment Department was a sensi- of the mountain. We all know that Jirka loves classical ble person, and when I produced the second page of music (and despises opera). When we visited him in Salt Jirkas slide, showing a head of a sad looking cow, the Lake City, he generously gave us tickets to a perform- whole affair collapsed. For years Jirka entertained his ance of the local Symphony. The piece was so modern audience, by recounting this story, and rightly so. For (advanced?) that we decided to escape after the first us who grew up in Nazism and Communism, freedom movement. Unfortunately, we found that the exit door of expression is a cherished privilege, and any type of was locked. censorship is the step in wrong direction. A less innocent episode is the infamous cow story. It is generous of Jirka to share his memories and live This happened when I invited Jirka to give a seminar at experience. We learn about his values, his earnest and Department of Chemistry University of Washington. He inquisitive way of performing research, and his paternal

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concern for his students and coworkers. Not enough colleagues fall for this, but I doubt that “fly until you is said in his memoir about his generosity of spirit and drop” is a route to a happy end. I recommend red wine material support to many of us. We can never fully ap- and watercolor painting. In my experience this is a good preciate, from his account, Jirka’s devotion and love for balance between being frustrated and calmed down. his family. I am thankful to Jirka, for sharing his life with us. When we read his closing words, we may become I learned things about him, I did not know, although concerned about his looming retirement. Does he have I had the privilege to be his friend. enough hobbies? Will his new knees last for many years of tennis and skiing? (We do not worry about dancing – Aloha he despises dance more than opera singing.) Will he return to kayaking? I hope not, since he narrowly escaped Jarda Ruzicka drowning more than once. What about whirling around Honolulu, August 2010 the world on endless lecture tours? Many of our retired

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JIŘÍ JANATA

WAS BORN IN PODĚBRADY ON 12 JULY 1939 FINISHED THE HIGH SCHOOL IN KOLÍN IN 1956 AFTER GRADUATION FROM THE FACULTY OF NATURAL SCIENCES OF THE CHARLES UNIVERSITY WENT TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN AS A POSTDOC IN 1968 MOVED WITH ENTIRE FAMILY TO THE UK WHERE HE WAS EMPLOYED AS RE- SEARCH SCIENTIST AT IMPERIAL CHEMICAL INDUSTRIES, LTD. IN 1976 BECAME A PROFESSOR AT THE UNIVERSITY OF UTAH AND STARTED HIS WORK IN CHEMICALLY SENSITIVE FIELD-EFFECT TRANSISTORS (CHEMFET) IN 1991 MOVED TO RICHLAND, WASHINGTON AS ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR IN PACIFIC NORTHWEST NATIONAL LABORATORY FROM 1997 TEACHES AT THE GEORGIA INSTITUTE IF TECHNOLOGY IN ATLANTA

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OUVERTURE

When I was asked to give a one hour opening lecture mental that they stay with you forever. So, I have con- at the symposium organized by my former students at vinced myself that preparing that lecture has been The Electrochemical Society Meeting in San Francisco, a worthwhile investment of time. But giving a lecture in May 2009, I was horrified. What would I talk about for like that is a one-time event and so when I was asked one hour? But I could not let them down. So, I reluctant- to transcribe it, I accepted the invitation. Perhaps the ly agreed and started forming a plan, during sleepless reader will believe me that this is only a written record hours of many nights. Slowly the idea started to gel and of that lecture and nothing more than that. became clearer and less repulsive. At the end I accepted it as an opportunity to take an inventory of my life up to this moment. It is not such a bad idea to do this from time to time, because one never knows if there is going to be another day. In the course of some 45 years of my professional career I have changed jobs often and at every station there were some kind and interesting people, something unexpected happened and there was always something new to learn. So I have organized my lecture around the periods of those stations and I highlighted what I have done and what I have learned at that stage. In exercise like this there is an ever present danger of succumbing to narcissism. I tried to avoid it as much as I could but at the end I cannot tell if I have succeeded or not. However, it forced me to look back at those seventy years and recollect things that I would have probably forgot. What has emerged from that exercise has been the realization of continuity of knowledge and growth of experience. Perhaps this is one consolation of growing old. I can say for certain that there are things that are so funda-

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FORMATIVE YEARS

I was born in Poděbrady, a middle class spa town, which its real purpose. Then there is a vague memory of our was spared of the ravishes of the Second World War. My Jewish neighbors, who suddenly disappeared, never to memories of that time are somewhat foggy: The allied be seen again. They were soon replaced by a German planes flying high on their way to bomb Kolín or Pardu- family that died in the hail of bullets at the end of the bice, further to the East and dropping aluminum confetti war. I vaguely remember the arrest of my father by the as the flak decoy. It was a very welcome gift because we Gestapo and more clearly his emotional return at the used it as Christmas tree decoration, not understanding beginning of May 1945. I observed but did not under-

JIŘÍ Z PODĚBRAD AND ME WITH A “PACIFIER”

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stand all that was happening. However, I still remember It the Kolín Gymnasium I was lucky to have a wonder- my first German sentence that my parents taught me: ful assembly of teachers. Two in particular have had the “Hitler ist gut”. strong influence on me. František Stejskal, professor of My parents named me “Jiří”, as many parents in chemistry, and professor Antonin Suchánek who taught Poděbrady named their boys. It was in the honor of the us Psychology and Philosophy. Above all he has opened Czech king Jiří Poděbradský (1420–1471), whose statue the world of arts and music for me and later became stands in front of his castle. Little they have realized, that my life-long friend. He showed me that philosophy, arts, this old and beautiful Czech name (George in English) and music were inseparable from science. Professor Ste- would become a problem for me later in my life, due to jskal arranged for me a summer job in the analytical lab- the pronunciation of the difficult consonant “ř”. Appar- oratory of the heavy chemicals factory (Lučební Závody ently only the born Czechs can do it correctly. That was Kolín). There I learned to titrate hundreds of samples of the real reason why, as I entered the English speaking sulfuric acid and I performed hundreds of gravimet- world, “Jiří” was replaced by the nickname “Art”. It was ric analyses of phosphates. It was tedious and boring the cover name that we used as the graduate students job but it turned out to be invaluable for my future. at the University, when playing “licitovany mariáš1”, in- I learned precise laboratory techniques, I recognized the stead of working on our research projects. Obviously, importance of the quality control and I also realized that our professors did not have much sympathy for “mariáš” I do not want ever to be a routine analytical chemist. and we needed to hide our mischief. Now back to Poděbrady. Few years after the war ended my father became headmaster of the middle school in Cerhenice, a small village close to Kolín. It was a rural, What I have learned bucolic life, which I have not experienced since then. My – Love and learn from Nature. father instilled in us the love of Nature. We made many – Be truthful. camping and hiking trips together, he taught me how – Art, Philosophy and Science are the same. to collect wild mushrooms, how to ski and many other essential things. My mother also taught us many things, but above all, the highest moral principle – “always be truthful”. Thus, the influence of my parents laid the two foundation stones of my science, long before I knew that I would become a scientist.

1 Licitovaný mariáš” is an ingenious, typically Czech card game for three or four players. Drinking beer is an essential component of it

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FATHER (1900–1987), MOTHER (1908–1998), SISTER HANA AND ME (1950), OUR FAMILY IN CERHENICE

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ROMANCE OF LEARNING AND DISCOVERY

In 1956 I was accepted to the Charles University (Univer- mine. It was for monitoring of continuous coulometric sita Karlova v Praze), faculty of Natural Sciences. titration of aromatic sulfides. The titration curves were The life in Prague with its architecture, concerts, ex- remarkably reproducible and “esthetically pleasing”, but hibitions and the university life itself was the entirely the titration itself was too slow for direct analysis. Their new world me. For several summers I took an unpaid shape was dictated by the open kinetics, which is a spe- internship in the physical chemistry laboratory of in the cial kinetic case when the reagent is added to the reac- Pharmaceutical Research Institute. There I recorded my tion mixture continuously, at a constant rate. As such the first uv-vis spectra, run the first ion-exchange column time course of the reaction could not be solved by in- and recorded my first polarogram. At the end of the tegrating the corresponding differential equations, and first year I also started my first simple undergraduate I was stuck. Professor Zuman suggested to use an ana- project in the analytical chemistry department, under log computer for their solution and found for me a col- the tutelage of professor Jaroslav Zýka. When I became the graduate student (after the third year) all my previ- ous summer jobs really started to pay dividends. Precise laboratory work was natural to me. My project involved using dropping mercury electrode. I took the course on polarography from professor Jaroslav Heyrovský. Most importantly I met and sought advice from his pupil and collaborator, professor Petr Zuman – the “The prince of the dropping mercury electrode” as he was known. Those were my teachers and I became hooked on electrochemistry and dropping mercury electrode. After graduation I did a brief military service and then I returned to the Charles University. I was hired as “Junior Assistant” and started to teach undergraduate laboratory courses. I also found an unused instrument – a Metro- hm constant current coulometer, and with my miniscule knowledge of electrochemistry I built an amperometric EMPEROR FRANZ JOSEPH IN FRONT OF THE BUILDING OF THE sensor for detection of coulometrically generated bro- CHEMISTRY DEPARTMENT AT ALBERTOV

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PETR ZUMAN AND JAROSLAV ZÝKA

league at the Czech Technical University who had such sealed. I knew that I wanted to become a scientist. It a marvelous instrument. The analog computer worked also opened the door to my next job – a postdoctoral beautifully [1–3]. I could not only evaluate the rate con- fellowship with professor Harry B. Mark, Jr., in Ann Arbor, stants, but I could calculate and predict the course of Michigan. reaction for many complicated reaction schemes. The feeling of elation that I experienced for the first time by forming a hypothesis, creating the mathematical model What I have learned and confirming it experimentally was hard to describe. – “Licitovaný mariáš”. It literarily sent the shiver down my spine when I saw – Analog computing. the experimental curve tracking exactly the model pre- – Respect for my teachers. dicted by me on the analog computer. It was my first – Excitement of discovery. romance of discovery and at that point my fate was

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OUR AMERICAN LIFE

When I arrived in Detroit, in April 1966, “Jiří” quickly us in their house and helped us while I was waiting to changed to “Art”. Harry simply refused to torture his get the Labor Permit to work in England. We did not tongue on the pronunciation of “ř”, and I obliged. The like the US Midwest and we became “Europe-sick”. We project that Harry gave me was not particularly inno- could not return to Czechoslovakia, because the Soviets vative. It was organic electrochemistry of aromatic hy- have invaded in 1968 and we were given a prison sen- drocarbons in non-aqueous media. It has been done tence for “illegally residing abroad”. So a job that I mi- before by others. Nevertheless there was a lot to learn raculously got at the Imperial Chemical Industries Petro- because until then I have not had a chance to work chemicals & Polymer Laboratory in Runcorn in Cheshire with non-aqueous solvents and I did not use a three- was a lucky solution. electrode potentiostat. However, my knowledge of analog computing, and general laboratory experience have helped again. What I have learned Being in Harry’s group was an invaluable opportu- – Taste of American way of life. nity to learn the American way of life, and not only the – People are most important. academic life. My initially very poor English has rapidly – Be serious about science but do not forget to improved. I got my first “flat-top” haircut, much to the have fun. chagrin of my mother (“What have they done to my boy!” – she exclaimed when she saw my photograph). Above all, I have learned the value of “people skills” in research and also, that one should not forget to have fun (i.e. life) outside work. Those were the two main things that I learned from Harry, but really not much electrochemistry. Another important thing has happened in Ann Ar- bor– our Petr was born there. When my postdoctoral appointment ended, exactly two years, to a day, Harry left me without any support or insurance, with a seven month old child! Only many years later we have realized how lucky and fortunate we were that our friends took

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OUR BRITISH LIFE

England was a good option for the young family and we atomic absorption spectroscopy, which in 1968 was still stayed there for almost eight years. From our Ann Arbor a relatively new technique, has improved the produc- savings we bought a modest house in Cheshire, and tivity of the analytical laboratory manifold. Likewise, in- a car and then literarily struggled from one paycheck to troduction of fluoride ion selective electrode speeded another. In 1969 Hana was born in Liverpool. Northwest up otherwise very tedious fluorine analysis. My boss England and Wales are nice. Nature, although different was very happy with me and I was given a free hand than what we were used to was beautiful. The history of to do what I wanted to do. So I built my own potentio- the England and Wales is so rich. We made some won- stat, much to the chagrin of the unionized electronics derful friends and we were happy. workshop. My job at the ICI was to develop and introduce Then I got an idea how to measure extreme acidities “new analytical techniques”, which I accomplished very and basicities using my beloved DME as the reference. quickly. My summer jobs paid off again! The main work- In any potentiometric measurement one must have load of the analytical laboratory was the elemental a reference potential against which the potential of the analysis of various mostly transition metals. Introducing indicator electrode is measured. In the aqueous solution this is accomplished by using a glass electrode (pH indicator) and a reference electrode, which contains liquid junction. It is more or less an open channel that con- nects the interior of the reference electrode with the sample and thus completes the electrical circuit. That arrangement does not work in “extreme” solutions, i.e., concentrated solutions of salts, acids, bases or in mixed aqueous/organic solvents. The idea occurred to me to switch the pH electrode and the DME at which the constant redox polarographic wave of ferrocene (or co- baltocene) is recorded as a reference. With this arrangement acidity (and basicity) scales from pH –10 to pH +26 could be experimentally obtained and seamlessly PETR AND HANA IN ENGLAND related to the standard aqueous buffers. We determined 26 acidity functions in various extreme media and pub-

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A B

Ec = ϕDME – ϕref – ϕj Ec = ϕGlass – ϕDME

C D

Fec+ + c– = Fec

(A) Normal arrangement of electrochemical experiment in which a referent electrode with liquid junction is used. (B) The „new arrangement“ in which the DME is connected as the working electrode and the glass electrode is connected as the reference. The prob- lematic liquid junction is thus eliminated. (C) Recording of traditional „non-dampened“ polarogram on which unusually large oscillations of current are due to the charging current. (D) The electrochemical HGF function (dashed) recorded in our „new arrangement“. Values of Hammett acidity functions obtained with various optical indicators are included for comparison [6]

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Perhaps, the most important learning experience for me came from sharing the office and the laboratory with Dr. D. E. H. Jones, otherwise known as “Daedaleus”. David is a genius and a most creative person whom I have ever met. With amazing regularity he has been writing one column of “improbable” Daedaleus schemes every week, first for the New Scientist and then for the Nature. He has compiled them into several volumes of “Inventions of Daedaleus”. Among them was the correct prediction of the “buckeyball”, long before it was discov- ered in 1985 by Kroto, Smalley and Curley (New Scientist, INVENTIONS OF DAEDALEUS BY Nov. 3, 1966). Talking to David every day was sometimes D. E. H. JONES exhausting, but always exciting adventure in discovery. AND HIS “ANTIGRAVITY There are many stories that I could but will not tell here, EXPERIMENT” but I would like to mention one. It illustrates that too much creativity can be dangerous. We have been periodically asked to stage a “dog- THE ANTIGRAVITY EXPERIMENT IN PROGRESS, and-pony show” for the upper management, in order PLEASE DO NOT DISTURB to demonstrate our scientific talents and potential. On one such occasion I was prepared to demonstrate my newly constructed potentiostat, with its fancy blinking lights and dials, while David set up a seemingly empty fish tank with a heavy glass cover on the top. When the visitors came they became fascinated by the fish-tank and did not pay any attention to my fabulous instrument. Inside the “empty” tank was floating, seemingly on “nothing”, a folded-paper boat. There was also a note “The antigravity experiment in progress, please do not disturb”, casually placed on top of the glass cover. David lished five papers [4–6]. It so happened that the issue of was nowhere to be found, because, as I found out later. “reference electrode” has become a problem that has he was hiding in the library. I could not provide any ex- followed me ever since. planation of his “antigravity experiment”, because he

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did not tell me anything about it. After our visitors left – totally confused – it has dawned on me why he bor- What I have learned rowed from me earlier a bottle of carbon tetrachloride. – There is no such thing as a non-interest- That also explained the tiny amount of liquid visible at ing scientific problem. the bottom of the fish tank! Because every manuscript – Creativity is essential, but too much of it had to be cleared by the patent department of ICI be- can be dangerous. fore publication, his weekly Daedaleus columns quickly – It is OK to use creativity as a weapon tied up all the patent lawyers in Runcorn, and the rest against management. of ICI organization. The management’s solution to that problem was simple: David was fired for being too creative and I have learned an important lesson: Too much creativity can be dangerous to your job! After that incident I did not feel too comfortable in ICI anymore.

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LIFE IN UTAH

The opportunity to leave ICI came when my classmate “amazing results”, which I was getting, but could not and close friend Josef Michl visited us in Runcorn in explain, turned out to be reproducible experimental ar- 1971. We went hiking in North Wales mountains and on tifacts. I wrote it up and it was published in the Journal that hike he suggested that I come to Salt Lake City on of American Chemical Society without a problem [7]. a sabbatical as a visiting faculty. I took his offer without Seven years later, when we understood and explained much hesitation. ICI gave me a “sabbatical leave” (with- the nature of that artifact we could not get it accepted out pay) and the whole family moved to Salt Lake City in JACS and we had to publish it in a “lower quality jour- for 18 months. Jarmila could return to the laboratory nal”! [8, 9] for the first time after her maternity leave, and became However, something else and much more important a postdoc with Bill Gray in Biology while I was teach- had happened at that time. It has had a profound effect ing undergraduate analytical chemistry and a graduate on the rest of my scientific career. One student in my electrochemistry courses in the Chemistry Department. electrochemistry class told me that people in the Electri- We bought our first VW camper and enjoyed the fabu- cal Engineering Department had a problem. They could lous outdoors and skiing in Utah. not explain a paper in which was described a potentio- I also had a chance to do some research and I started metric measurement of pH using a field-effect transis- working on “immunoelectrode”. It was completely silly tor, but without a reference electrode. At that time I did concept, but I did not realize it at that time. The most not know what the field-effect transistor was and how

LIFE IN UTAH

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it worked, but I knew that such measurement was not I forgot to negotiate for any start-up money or a labora- possible, because it violated the thermodynamics, but tory space. We just wanted to get out of Runcorn and I could not explain why. So, I started to learn semicon- we did. Looking back at our opportunities and actions ductor device physics and I was simultaneously teach- from the distance of 33 years I can say that we were ing my EE colleagues electrochemistry and thermody- completely crazy! namics. In doing so I found the way to explain the error But were we really? The following fifteen years in SLC in the mystery paper. We became interested in the new can be only described as my “scientific bonanza”. We (but wrong) concept and soon we were fabricating our made every possible analog of macroscopic potentio- own transistors, putting ion selective membranes and metric sensor, in the field-effect transistor format. We various enzymes on them [10–12]; Thus, the chemically also explored the unique properties inherent in the di- sensitive field-effect transistor (CHEMFET) was born. rect coupling of the chemically selective materials with The large proposal that we soon submitted to the the isulator of the transistor gate. Thus, we explored NIH was funded. But when the start date came I was both the direct analytical [13] and physical chemical thrown out of the USA; My visa had expired and we [14–18] properties of the new devices. Funding agen- had to return to England. My old employer ICI initially cies, industry and academia became interested in the showed some interest in the new sensor, but only very novelty and we had plenty of money. I really did not reluctantly. Meanwhile, our new friends in Utah had need a start-up. pulled every political string and within a year I was of- Of course, the family enjoyed the life in Utah. Skiing, fered a faculty position in the newly formed Bioengi- backpacking, white water sports and more were all at neering Department and we obtained a permanent US our fingertips. Jarmila could work again with Bill Gray visa. I remember that when we broke the news to Petr and Hana and Petr found many new friends in the East and Hana they were simply besides themselves, we were High school. returning to Salt Lake City! There are times when a completely unexpected and We sold our house and our car, both at a loss, and seemingly insignificant event has a determining effect in early November 1976 we landed in Baltimore. There on one’s life. I was invited to participate at one of the we picked up a new Volvo, which we bought “sight-un- first “bioelectronic” conferences, organized by professor seen” from the catalog and started our migration across Gene Yates at the UCLA. The conference started in ab- the country to Utah. That Volvo turned out to be a “gen- solutely awful way. One speaker after another was pre- uine lemon”. By the time we arrived in Ann Arbor the senting “hype” and “unrealistic fantasies”. After the third tail-gate already fell off and the power steering stopped or fourth speaker a big, white-haired man at the front working. It was only a beginning of the problems with row raised his hand and said: “If this nonsense does not that car. After we arrived in Salt Lake City I realized that stop I am not going waste my time anymore”. The tone

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of the meeting had changed in an instant! The talks ceremony. The tribesmen sung and danced, the plane became more focused and crisp. When my turn came with the precious cargo arrived and the status of the I explained how FET works and how its function can be shamans went up and up. Hence, the “Cargo Cult” was modified by coupling the physics with chemistry and born. It worked fine until the end of the war when the biology. I then ad-libbed: “You should not forget that liv- airstrip and the democracy were no longer needed, and ing systems do not like electrons, because they are cytotoxic the cargo stopped arriving. That spelled trouble for the and all charge transport is done by ions. On the other hand, shamans. At first they blamed the problem on lack of charge transport in electronic devices is electronic. So, no vigor of the dancers, but the tribesmen had their doubts matter what you do, at some point you must translate the and started questioning the competence of the sha- ionic mode of transport to the electronic one. For that you mans. Obviously, some democracy has rubbed off. So, need to obey the Faraday Law and you will need an elec- the tribe was instructed to carve out of wood replicas trochemist.” I sat down and at the intermission that big of the cargo planes, down to the minute details of the man came to me and said “You are an electrochemist, pilots, their goggles, buttons on their uniforms etc. and aren’t you”? I replied, “Yes, as the matter of fact, I am an to perform the ritual dances. It did not work. Feynman electrochemist”. He nodded his head and smiled and does not explain what befell the shamans but warns the I smiled back at him. That was it. We did not shake hands students not to do “cargo science”. That is the “something and he walked away. That was my one and only encoun- that looks like real science, is worshiped like real science, but ter with Richard Feynman. But the way how his pres- is not the real science”. I was so touched by that story that ence and authority changed the tone of that meeting I wowed never to do “cargo science”. Such promise was was unforgettable. So much so that I bought the book really not too far from what my mother taught me when “Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!” [19]. It is a fabulous I was a little boy, “always be truthful!” book, witty and funny. In it is also the transcription of his speech to the Stanford graduating class, in which he What I have learned admonishes the students “never to do cargo science”. – If you find a gold mine, dig gold. So, let me tell you about “cargo science”. During the – It is possible to know that something WW II the Americans needed a landing strip in Papua cannot work but explaining it to people New Guinea. Because arrows and spears interfere with who want to believe it is difficult. the flights they befriended the natives. They would reg- – Set your own standards. ularly fly in a cargo plane, carrying glass beads, colored – Do not chase awards. Knowing that you trinkets, etc. These days such help is called “exporting de- found the truth is your highest reward. mocracy”. The tribal shamans figured out the frequency – Never do cargo science. of the cargo flights and constructed a “song-and-dance”

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HANFORD ADVENTURE

Then came the “monumental year 1989”. Undoubtedly something to do with that decision. So I moved from my first “midlife crisis” had arrived and I knew that it the most beautiful mountain and sandstone scenery of was time to move. I became tired of the academic life. Utah to the most arid desert of southeastern corner of I was approached by the Battelle Memorial Institute Washington, to the edge of the largest nuclear waste to take a job as one of the Associate Directors of the dump in the USA. The change of the environment was Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory (EMSL), most staggering. at the Pacific Northwest Laboratory, in Richland, Wash- The Hanford job was very different than any aca- ington and I accepted the offer. Even after twenty years demic routine. Building from scratch the largest DOE I still have hard time to rationalize that decision. Money research facility dedicated to clean-up the Hanford en- had nothing to do with that decision, I just wanted to vironmental disaster was an exciting challenge. The in- do something different. The romantic notion of helping dustrial experience of my ICI years should have and did to clean up the environmental disaster at Hanford had help. I soon assembled team of outstanding scientists

HANFORD AREA

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and started to learn about the nature and the extent of It became for me a prime example of the “cargo man- the Hanford problem. In early nineties the Hanford site agement”. was still a highly secret and guarded operation. I was While my role at EMSL was mainly managerial, I could very lucky to meet Roy Gephart who was an old hand at not and did not want to completely silence my love of the PNL. He opened many “locked doors” for me and my science. From Utah I brought with me some unfinished group. He organized the tours of the Hanford site for us, projects, and most importantly excellent students and so that we could see “first hand” the magnitude of that collaborators. One project, that was and still is very close disaster. That was the first part of my own education in to my heart, was the “molecular vise” [21–23]. It was con- radiochemistry, nuclear chemistry and of environmental tinued by Cindy Bruckner-Lea who moved to Richland legacy of the Cold War. It was like going again to the with me, first as a postdoc and later as PNL staff scien- graduate school. Roy has made available to us many tist. We managed to perform the first scanning electron documents, otherwise unavailable, and established for tunneling experiment at liquid mercury interface (see me contacts to people who have lived through the plu- the next page). Sadly, that project died after two years tonium production years of Hanford. My own goal was for the lack of funding. to have my group as closely connected to the Hanford We have been luckier with the chemical sensor problem as possible [20]. That was my first mistake. Very project that was carried on by Mira Josowicz. It has be- soon it became apparent to me that there have been come the last and the most successful chapter of my two sides to the “Hanford story”. The engineering, plu- CHEMFET story. It started in late eighties in Utah and tonium manufacturing Hanford site, managed by the continues in my laboratory to the present time. In this Westinghouse Corporation, and the research oriented project we found and experimentally confirmed a re- Pacific Northwest Laboratory, managed by the Battelle lationship between partial pressure of donor/acceptor Memorial Institute. The two sides coexisted under the gas and work function of organic semiconductors, in formal umbrella of the DOE Field Office in Richland and secondary doping [16, 24–26]. competed for essentially the same source of funding. I knew already that people are most important and While the plutonium production ended in 1982 the I practiced that philosophy. In the PNL environment PNL was established in 1965 and has been maintained I quickly realized that the true role of a manager is to as the ready pool of scientific talent, should such talent protect the people below him and to create for them been needed. It took me almost six years to realize that the best possible working conditions. My group reward- neither Westinghause nor Battelle had any real interest ed me with loyalty and friendship. It was a remarkably in cleaning up the nuclear legacy of Hanford. The real close group, which was very hard to leave. But in 1997 goal of both organizations has been to obtain money I finally realized that if I wanted to maintain my scientific and not to fulfill their much advertised, official mission. life I had to leave PNL.

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*A_Janata.indd 24 9/29/10 8:52 PM Dr. CHEMFET RMS Tip Height Variation (nm) Variation Height Tip RMS

Blas Voltage (V) RMS Tip Height Variation (nm) Variation Height Tip RMS

Blas Voltage (V)

–dγ = qdE + Σ Γi dμi i Gibbs–Lipman equation ➡

capillary waves

Schematic representation of the „Molecular Vise“ experiment in which mercury surface is imaged by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). Top right: Amplitude of the capillary waves induced by applied bias voltage in experiments performed in air. Bottom right: Amplitude of capillary waves of mercury/decane interface (A), and of mercury/decane interface with 25 % 1-nonanol added (B)

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δ 1 G = G + δ e ND+= N 1– 1+ 1 exp ED– EF [ gD kT ] Fermi–Dirac equation ➡

kT KCa ED+ = ED + ln 2δ 2δ (gDKD) Nernst equation

640 ppm 174 260 147 520 694 520 347 260 174 50 174 260 347 520 694

635

NH3 30

625

620 (mV) G V ∆ 615

610

605

600 15 35 55 75 95 115 135 155 čas (min) ΔV = kT ln PG + 1 G 2δ g (Σ Ki Pi ) i

Title page of our article celebrating the centenary of the Nernst and the Kelvin experiments. Evolution of the secondary doping equation (bottom left) from the Fermi Dirac equation. Bottom right: response of the CHEMFET with polyaniline (electron acceptor) gate to partial pressure of ammonia (electron donor) in air [25]

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I have no regrets for having spent six years in Rich- land. I have learned a great deal of radiochemistry and What I have learned nuclear physics. Above all, I have learned the responsi- – First and foremost role of a manager is to bility of scientists for the results of their work [20]. It also protect his people and make their work put in different perspective the magnitude of the envi- possible ronmental damage caused by the Cold War. The poem – Cargo management is cardinal sin that David Jones gave me some twenty years ago sud- – Scientists have to assume responsibility for denly assumed a strong and imperative meaning (see the legacy of the Cold War the page 28). – Development of civilian nuclear energy is the What could and should I do with such experience? only option I still do not have a clear answer to the Hanford problem and to nuclear energy, but education seems to be the least harmful and most effective course of action. So, I moved back to academia and accepted an endowed chair as Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar, at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia.

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FUNDAMENTAL CONSTANTS David E. Jones

As God devised the Universe He chose the electronic charge To whom He gives this warning – There grew at his fiat In His creative way; That time may now be short, The table of physical constants Defined the particle masses, That even He will weary As He drew them out of his hat. Invented h and k ... Of the things He has wrought.

Before He said “Let there be light!” Till with a set of numbers And soon may sound the trumpet He chose, to meet his need, He‘d totally constrained For that awful moment when The arbitrary constant c A single mighty Universe The fundamental constants To represent its speed. And all that it contained. Will be shuffled and dealt again!

And in His new creation And in their implications, He needed there to be According to God‘s plan, A law of gravitation The fundamental constants And so selected g. Imply the creature Man:

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PRESENT LIFE IN ATLANTA

Moving to the South was in many ways just as stressful not qualified to judge the societal impact of their work, experience as moving from Utah to Richland. I missed but it has changed the course of the history forever. the Rocky Mountain West and I still do. Endowed chair Whether that change is for better or for worse remains has helped me to re-start my scientific operation. Get- to be seen. However, one thing is absolutely certain: ting my brain to switch from the managerial mode to the that the environmental impact, which is inherent in the scientific one was more difficult. My wife Mira and our nuclear physics in its broadest sense, is undeniable. So, new postdoc David Hatchett were an enormous help I have lived up to my promise and started to teach new in that transition. I resumed teaching graduate course graduate course in “Energy and Environment”. It has Chemical Sensors and, of course, the usual spectrum of become a “radiochemistry course in disguise”. In that traditional analytical courses. The “chemical electronics” course I have not been offering solutions or prognoses. has become the cornerstone of our research activities and it quickly expanded from purely analytical, sensor research to the issues of organic electronics in general [24–26]. So, after running away from the academic “rat- race” I have willingly returned to it six years later. But something has changed. The Hanford experience taught me to look at the role of a scientist in the society from a more critical angle. I hesitate to generalize but every scientist must make his own decision how to see his role in and his responsibility for the society. That realization cannot be ignored. The Manhattan project would not have been possible without scientists. They had done and delivered superbly well what they had been asked to do.. Many questioned their role in that project but very few realized its long-term consequenc- es. The curiosity-driven science that started with Henri Becquerel and Marie Curie-Sklodowska and that contin- ued through the work of so many outstanding scientists and engineers has been hijacked by the politicians. I am

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I am only providing the most essential factual informa- laid down my resignation letter and left for the new tion, which is necessary to make informed decisions. job. Perhaps it was not the smartest thing to do, but it I am also asking my students to ask questions based on made me feel good that I did not have somebody else knowledge and not on emotions. It is about all that I can to decide my future for me. Nevertheless, the few things do. that I have learned from my managerial jobs became I also became involved in the issues of transportation permanent. security, by serving for many years on the panel of the

National Research Council. There again, just like the nuclear energy and environmental issues, I have encoun- – Above all, it is all about people. Not about tered irrational arguments based on cargo politics and money, nor equipment, nor space, nor cargo science. And so Don Quixote became my hero influence – only people. and those “cargo science” issues became my windmills. – Secondly, one should never do cargo anything! It is the same imperative as the first rule that my mother gave in her words “follow My current windmills the truth”. – Energy issues – Last but not least, whatever one does it is

– CO2 religion important always to have fun! – Homeland security – Organic field-effect transistors I want to add one more thing that was not included in my San Francisco lecture. This story has naturally fall- Having made the switch from non-academic to aca- en into chapters. I know that I am not going to move to demic life three times I can safely say that I am not made another position and so my next chapter will be called for a non-academic job. Daily interactions with students “Retirement”. I have no idea when, where and what I will keep me young, although my bones tell me otherwise. be, but the guiding principles that I have learned will be Most importantly, the freedom to chose the direction all there. I already know that there is only one wish that of my research is more precious than anything else. Of I have. When that last chapter is finished and the book is course, venturing out of the popular mainstream has its closed with a quiet snap I would like to have just a few own perils, but it is the choice that I can make myself seconds to be able to look back and say “it has been and not having somebody to make that choice for me. a very interesting reading”. And I will leave it at that. Likewise, when I made those switches I never negoti- ated for better deal with my existing employer. I always

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REFERENCES

[1] Janata, J.; Zyka, J. Verwendung der Coulometrie bei Konstantem Strom zur Messung der Geschwin-digkeitkonstaten. Reaktion des Diphenylsulfids mit Brom. Collect. Czech. Chem. Com- mun. 1965, 30 (5), 1723. [2] Janata, J.; Schmidt, O. Application of Analog Computers to the Study of Reactions Involving Elec- trolytically Generated Reagent. J. Electroanal. Chem. 1966, 11 (3), 224. [3] Janata, J.; Schmidt, O.; Zuman, P. Application of Analogue Computers to Studies of Reactions In-volving Electrolytically Generated Reagent. II. Treatment of Consecutive and Competitive reactions. Collect. Czech. Chem. Commun. 1966, 31 (6), 2344. [4] Janata, J.; Jansen, G. Polarographic Determination of Hydrogen Ion Activities in Strongly Acidic Media: A New Acidity Function. J. Chem. Soc., Faraday Trans. 1 1972, 68, 1656. [5] Janata, J.; Holtby-Brown, R. D. Polarographic Determination of Hydrogen Ion Activity III, Basic Aqueous Mixtures of Nonelectrolytes. J. Chem. Soc. Perkin 1973 (II), 99l. [6] Janata, J.; Zuman, P. Electrochemical Acidity Functions. Collect. Czech. Chem. Commun. 2009, 74 (11-12), 1635–1646. [7] Janata, J. An Immunoelectrode. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1975, 97 (10), 2914–2916. [8] Collins, S.; Janata, J. A Critical-Evaluation of the Mechanism of Potential Response of Antigen Poly- mer Membranes to the Corresponding Antiserum. Anal. Chim. Acta 1982, 136, 93–99. [9] Janata, J.; Blackburn, G. F. Immunochemical Potentiometric Sensors. Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci. 1984, 428, 286–292. [10] Moss, S. D.; Janata, J.; Johnson, C. C. Potassium Ion-Sensitive Field-Effect Transistor. Anal. Chem. 1975, 47 (13), 2238–2243. [11] Janata, J. Thermodynamics of Chemically Sensitive Field Effect Transistors; Theory, Design and Biomedi- cal Application of Solid State Chemical Sensors; CRC Press: Boca Raton, 1978. [12] Caras, S.; Janata, J. Field-Effect Transistor Sensitive to Penicillin. Anal. Chem. 1980, 52 (12), 1935–1937. [13] McKinley, B. A.; Houtchens, B. A.; Janata, J. In Vivo Application of ISFETs – Summary of Current Laboratory Research and Probable Future Clinical Detectors. Ion-Selective Electrode Reviews 1984, 6 (2), 173–208. [14] Haemmerli, A.; Janata, J.; Brophy, J. J. Equilibrium Noise in Ion-Selective Field-Effect Transistors. J. Electrochem. Soc. 1982, 129 (10), 2306–2312. [15] Blackburn, G. F.; Levy, M.; Janata, J. Field-Effect Transistor Sensitive to Dipolar Molecules.Appl. Phys. Lett. 1983, 43 (7), 700–701.

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[16] Janata, J. Chemical Modulation of Electron Work Function. Anal. Chem. 1991, 63 (22), 2546–2550. [17] Josowicz, M.; Janata, J. Suspended Gate Field-Effect Transistor Modified with Polypyrrole as Alco- hol Sensor. Anal. Chem. 1986, 58 (3), 514–517. [18] Janata, J. Principles of Chemical Sensors; Plenum Press: New York, 1989. [19] Feynman, R. Surely You’re Joking Mr. Feynman; W. W. Norton & Co.: New York, 1985. [20] Janata, J.; Gephart, R. E. Nuclear Waste – Scientific Liability, Challenge and Opportunity. Interface 1995, 4, 46–50. [21] Bruckner-Lea, C.; Conroy, J. F.; Pungor, A.; Caldwell, K.; Janata, J. Scanning-Tunneling-Microscopy on a Mercury Sessile Drop. Langmuir 1993, 9 (12), 3612–3617. [22] Conroy, J. F. T.; Caldwell, K.; Bruckner-Lea, C.; Janata, J. Effects of Interfacial Tension in Tunnel-ing Microscopy, I. Theory. J. Chem. Phys. 1996, 100 (46), 18222–18228. [23] Conroy, J. F. T.; Hlady, V.; Bruckner-Lea, C.; Janata, J. Effects of Interfacial Tension in Tunneling Mi- croscopy. II. Experimental Observation of Surface Instability. J. Chem. Phys. 1996, 100 (46), 18229– 18233. [24] Janata, J.; Josowicz, M. A Fresh Look at Some Old Principles: The Kelvin Probe and the Nernst Equation. Anal. Chem. 1997, 69 (9), 293A–296A. [25] Janata, J.; Josowicz, M. Chemical Modulation of Work Function as a Transduction Mechanism for Chemical Sensors. Acc. Chem. Res. 1998, 31 (5), 241–248. [26] Janata, J. Potentiometry in the Gas Phase. Collect. Czech. Chem. Commun. 2009, 74 (11-12), 1623–1634.

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