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In Memoriam: Robert F. Curl Jr., 1933 - 2022
Jul 03, 2022
Robert Floyd Curl, Jr., physical chemist and Optica Fellow (1995), passed away on 3 July 2022 at the age of 88 in Houston, Texas. Curl was awarded the Nobel prize in chemistry in 1996 along with his colleagues, Harry Kroto and Richard Smalley, for the discovery of the nanomaterial buckminsterfullerene, or “buckyball,” previously an unrecognized form of carbon.
Curl was born in Alice, Texas on 23 August 1933. From an early age, Curl was passionate about science. When he was nine, his parents bought him a chemistry set that would allow him to work on his own science projects. Curl’s first formal chemistry education began in high school. In 1954, he received his Bachelor of Arts degree from the Rice University (formerly Rice Institute). There he met his wife, Jonel. He then went to study at the University of California Berkeley where he met Kenneth Pitzer, who was the Dean of the College of Chemistry. In 1957, Curl earned his PhD and then went to conduct postdoctoral research on molecular bonds at Harvard University with E. Bright Wilson.
Curl was offered a position as Assistant Professor at Rice University, where he inherited George Bird’s graduate students. Later, he chaired the chemistry department and remained at the university until his retirement. His tenure at Rice University would span more than 60 years. The university recognized him and Richard Smalley in 2015 by naming the Smalley-Curl Institute in their honor, the home of the Applied Physics Graduate Program and of several endowed postdoctoral research fellowships at Rice.
In his later years, Curl applied his discovery of fullerenes and worked with economists to study energy use and pollution prevention in the automation industry.
He is survived by his wife Jonel, his two sons Michael and David and his three grandchildren.
Optica and the scientific community mourn his loss.
