As with everything he does, he approaches both with focus, energy and enthusiasm. He was recognized at the Distinguished Chairs dinner on Sept. 21 as a new chair recipient. Ask Jim Tour about his research, and suddenly he kicks into a higher gear. His voice lowers to nearly a whisper when explaining how many molecules exist in a drop of water, then explodes with the excitement of creating molecular-sized computer chips and the fact that more molecular devices could fit in a drop of water than all the devices that exist in the world today. Photo by Jeff Fitlow Jim Tour, the Chao Professor in Chemistry, joined the Department of Chemistry and Rice's Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology in June.
Tour builds molecules for a living.
As a synthetic chemist, he learns how to control electrons and change one molecule into another. There is nothing else on earth that I would rather be doing. In particular, Tour loves the freedom to explore with creativity. Then the students come and want to hear your lecture. I get paid to talk.