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| Habemus Chemia! Source: Guardian UK |
My Spanish is a bit rusty, but the Excelsior (Mexico) and 20Minutos (Spain) label him a 'chemical technician' and 'chemical engineer' respectively. Lisa Balbes helpfully points out that, according to ABC News, one of his first assignments in the church was teaching high school chemistry.
I tried to look up the Pope's peer-reviewed chemistry publications through SciFinder, Reaxys, and Google Scholar, but, alas, I'm unable to find any. Perhaps a more enterprising reader can clue me in if they're more successful...
*Though I'm not Catholic, I appreciate the influence and direction the Pope offers the faithful. I also find it exciting when chemists enter very public walks of life. See, for example, Jack Welch, Angela Merkel, or John Kuhn.
I checked Web of Science- none there.
ReplyDeleteNuts. Thanks, though!
Deletehe went to a chemical industry-oriented highschool. It is actually quite common in Europe (and I presume in Argentina also) to have a hybrid between highschool and tradesman school that trains kids in industry-related technical fields, with curriculum emphasizing practical engineering over literature. With such a highschool diploma you can continue onto engineering/science major in college or you can get a job as entry-level technician without college.
ReplyDeleteAngela Merkel is a physicist though. I did take a look at her thesis once, which could pass as physchem. Her husband is a professor of quantum chemistry. Wiseass much?
ReplyDeleteThanks for the tip, either way.
DeleteOr is this yet another example of how hard it is to find a good job in chemistry nowadays so one ends up selecting a different life path......
ReplyDeleteAnd Margaret Thatcher! She got a degree from Oxford in chemistry working under the great crystallographer Dorothy Hodgkin. Then she was a research chemist at a plastics company for a few years.
ReplyDeleteGreat catch!
DeleteI am happy to see this post; I especially liked your asterisked comment. It is great to see that chemistry is interesting to people from so many walks of life, and, likewise, that the work of the Pope can be appreciated by non-Catholics as well.
ReplyDeleteThe recently-deceased owner of the Los Angeles Lakers, Jerry Buss, had a PhD in physical chemistry from USC.
ReplyDeleteRecently I was in an independent coffee shop with photographs on the walls, all from a local photographer. His biography, posted at the entrance of the shop, explained that he had a PhD in analytical chemistry (like me!), then he decided to do something fulfilling, and went into photography (ouch...)