Nobel Prize Winner and Homecoming Queen Richard Smalley Dead at Age 62

If I have seen further . . . it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants.
--Sir Isaac Newton

Rice University Professor Richard Smalley is dead after a bout with cancer. Dr. Smalley, with Robert Curl and Sir Harold Kroto, won the Nobel Prize in 1996 for their work in discovering the class of chemicals known as fullerenes (C60).

I saw Dr. Smalley speak earlier this year and he seemed in perfect health. As a speaker he was as earnest as he was entertaining. As a scientist he was without peer and will be missed. The fact that he was elected Rice homecoming queen in 1996 also shows that he was probably a pretty good guy.