Professional provocateur
Lionel Goodman, rogue scientist
Archived article from Sep 24, 1999
By Laurel Van Leer
Lionel Goodman likes to greet new students by telling them they are "repulsive." He means it in the nicest possible way. We're all "repulsive," says this slight man with a twinkle in his blue eyes. People -- meaning all the molecular particles people are made of -- must repel each other or we'd be like ghosts passing through walls and one another. It wouldn't be as interesting as it sounds, he warns. For one thing, kissing would be no fun.
Goodman, a chemistry professor at the Faculty of Arts and Sciences-New Brunswick, is a self-described provocateur, nuisance and eccentric. "I think it's good for there to be eccentrics in science," he says. Nuisances too. He combines these attributes to challenge his colleagues and students. At research group meetings he enjoys introducing outrageous ideas as a friendly dare, a gauntlet thrown onto the conference table. Prove him right. Prove him wrong. No matter, as long as the discussion is lively, creative and thought-provoking. He often brings ice cream to meetings as a reward for the effort.
Goodman, with his original viewpoint, is unusually adept at raising issues and starting discussions, notes department Chair Roger Jones. Indeed, Goodman makes thought-provoking discussion a hallmark of all his courses, but he is especially proud of the course he calls "Scientific Creativity." The genesis of this undergraduate course was a1989 discussion with a colleague in the English department about the nature of creativity. The discussion was enhanced, as many are, by a glass of wine. Goodman then meditated on the topic while on a hiking trip in the Pyrenees. He decided that the best way to study the subject was to teach it.
Goodman now guides students as they examine the lives of four or five great scientists, including Albert Einstein, who conceived the photon; James Watson and Francis Crick, who discovered the double-helix shape of DNA; and Johannes Kepler, who took the key step to understanding the movements of the planets in our solar system. According to Goodman, these scientists are united by a common thread -- the ability to see a link between two seemingly unrelated topics. Creative researchers, he maintains, frequently are widely knowledgeable generalists who have prepared their minds to accept new ideas.
Goodman's own prepared mind, and what others call his sense of "whimsy," are part of the reason his colleagues from around the world recently dedicated a special issue of the International Journal of Quantum Chemistry in honor of his 70th birthday, says journal editor Michael Kasha of Florida State University. Goodman's "flair for curiosity coupled with keen insight" make him an engaging colleague and companion, says Kasha.
A more important reason is his lifelong and continuing contribution to his discipline. Goodman is known for dabbling in a field of chemistry, making a significant contribution and moving on. "I get pretty bored if I do anything for much more than five years," he says.
Goodman's field of quantum chemistry is concerned with protons and electrons bouncing from atom to atom. The tools of his trade are powerful lasers and supercomputers.
During one especially productive research period he used nonlinear spectroscopy to discover that the movement of atoms was governed by all the parts of a molecule, not just the nearby parts as had been widely believed. Goodman is also known for identifying precisely which molecular forces, called force fields, cause different types of motion within a molecule. Previous work had posited numerous possibilities; Goodman, however, developed a method to pinpoint the unique force field actually responsible for these motions.
Unlike most of his colleagues, he does both experimental and theoretical chemistry in a discipline where each is considered a full-time occupation. And he does both well. "Goodman serves as an inspiring role model for investigative original work in molecular chemical physics, attaining a new height of harmony between experiment and theory," says Kasha. To pass on this skill, Goodman requires that his doctoral and postdoctoral students develop the ability to think in both worlds.
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