NEWSMAKER: Stephen J. Lippard is the Arthur Amos Noyes Professor of Chemistry at MIT. Age: 65 Residence: Cambridge, Mass. Occupation: Professor and chairman of the department of chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology In the news: President George W. Bush announced on Nov. 14 that the Squirrel Hill native was one of eight scientists to receive the 2004 National Medal of Science, the nation's highest science honor. Education: Bachelor's degree in chemistry from Haverford College in 1962; doctorate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1965 Quote: "Chemists discover what is out there and create and invent totally new molecules that are not out there. There is a synthetic and artistic quality to chemistry." Family: Wife, Judy Lippard; children, Josh, 36, of Washington, D.C., and Alex, 31, of Brooklyn , N.Y. Click photo for larger image.

Holding a vial of calcium carbide and a match near clothes his mother had hung on a line to dry in their Squirrel Hill home's basement, young Stephen J. Lippard threw the chemical and lit match into a bucket of water.

The youngster watched as the chemical reaction turned the water and the carbide into a show of fiery, sooty black plumes of smoke.

The clothes on the line were collateral damage in Dr. Lippard's fledging chemistry experiment, an interest which ultimately led to him becoming head of the chemistry department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and, on Nov. 14, recipient of the National Medal of Science, the nation's highest science award.

Dr. Lippard, a Pittsburgh native and the Arthur Amos Noyes Professor of Chemistry at MIT, was recognized for his seminal contribution to helping medical researchers, doctors and scientists understand Cisplatin, the anti-cancer drug that has proven particularly effective against ovarian and testicular forms of the disease.

"He is an absolutely outstanding scientist," said Dr. JoAnne Stubbe, the Novartis Professor of Chemistry and Biology at MIT and a former researcher in one of Dr. Lippard's laboratories. "He's not just a chemist. I think he goes where it takes to solve the problem and that he has been problem-driven his whole life."

Yet what may have seemed an early sign of a chemistry brain at work was actually Dr. Lippard's love of scientific experimentation and infatuation with medicine.

But the allure of the composition, structure and properties of substances and the transformations that they undergo proved stronger than his draw to neurosurgery -- especially given the chance to blow things up as a chemist-in-training.

"Important decisions are not made in the head, but in the stomach," said Dr. Lippard from his temporary home in California, where he is on sabbatical at Stanford University. "And any attempt to make them rationally must be resisted."

That intestinal reaction came at Haverford College as Dr. Lippard worked to complete a bachelor's degree in English and premed. He almost finished his requirements for an English major, but the draw of chemistry, his ultimate major, proved overwhelming.

When Dr. Lippard was an undergraduate student, he would drive with his chemistry professor, Dr. Colin MacKay, to Yale University to place samples in the heavy ion accelerator. The two would take the samples back to Haverford to analyze.

Dr. Lippard's love for experiments and his chemistry and biology courses solidified his eventual decision to study bioinorganic chemistry.

He even performed an experiment to test whether he was destined to be a bioinorganic chemist:

He shadowed a doctor as he removed a hernial sac to make sure he wouldn't faint. He didn't.

He then weighed the experience of participating in the operation against the thrill of analyzing and watching the Yale accelerator hurl electrically charged particles at high speeds.

The experiences in science proved too much of an attraction when compared to a life of dealing with patients.

"Chemistry was a wonderful opportunity for me," Dr. Lippard said.

"There must be variety in [surgery], but it didn't seem as interesting as science. Chemists discover what is out there and create and invent totally new molecules that can only be imagined. There is a synthetic and artistic quality to chemistry."

After years of science awards, research and mentoring some of the brightest young scientists who are now accomplished researchers and professors at top universities in the country, Dr. Lippard has been recognized with the highest honor to be bestowed upon a scientist -- something his younger sister said wasn't surprising.

While his siblings were more social, Dr. Lippard stuck with piano lessons and built his own harpsichord, which has been replaced by a newer model in his Cambridge, Mass., apartment. But he also understood complex theory and jargon with ease.

"I remember when me and my twin would struggle with chemistry and he would come back from college and help us," said Carol Ratner, one of his sisters who lives in Greensburg. "He would teach us more in a night than a whole semester. It just came so naturally to him.

"I'm not surprised that he won this award."