Britton Chance's lab and thereafter: From NIR spectroscopy to molecular sensing via nanotechnology

• Main Author: Kyung A. Kang
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: World Scientific Publishing 2014-03-01
• Series: Journal of Innovative Optical Health Sciences
• Subjects: Biosensing; molecular sensing; contrast agent; Nanoparticles; cancer detection
• Online Access: http://www.worldscientific.com/doi/pdf/10.1142/S1793545813300048

I was fortunate to work with/for Dr Britton Chance as his postdoctoral fellow, in the Biochemistry and Biophysics Department at the University of Pennsylvania, between August 1991 and January 1994. As anyone who worked for him, I had a sufficient dosage of "Britton Chance" over the years. Initially, to me, I felt that he was someone who was above regular people and far away to reach. Then I became to know him as a person, who was simple and complicated at the same time, with a persistent pursuit for his life interests, i.e., the advancement in science related to human health. As far as it goes to science (and perhaps with sailing), he had few boundary: He communicated with any age group, any one from any country with any cultural background. Any scientists were welcomed to his lab, his own house, and even his boat. He was happy with minimal material things. He kept his friendship faithfully. From him, I came to know how much one person can actually do during a life time. I am very grateful that I got to know him during my life path. In this paper, I list some of my experiences with him scientifically and also how and what I learned from him impacted my research and personal life.