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Dr. F. Gordon A. Stone, who came to Baylor University in 1990 as The Robert A. Welch Distinguished Professor of Chemistry, has mentored some 85 students from around the world who have earned doctorates under his supervision, and more than 100 postdoctoral students from North and South America, Europe, Asia, and Australia have studied in his laboratory. The Robert A. Welch Foundation of Houston funds approximately 25 Welch chairs in Texas institutions that offer Ph.D. programs in chemistry and are active in research.

Dr. Stone was born in Exeter, a city in the southwest of England. He obtained his bachelor’s and doctorate degrees from Cambridge University. In 1952 he became a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Southern California. From 1954 to 1962, he was an instructor and later an assistant professor at Harvard University, and in 1961 he was awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship. He returned to the United Kingdom in 1962 and for the next 27 years taught at Bristol University, serving two periods as chair of a large school of chemistry. During that time he also served as visiting professor at Princeton and Carnegie-Mellon universities and at the University of Arizona.

“Professor Stone is a world-class scientist, an author of more than 700 publications in internationally recognized scientific journals, and a Fellow of The Royal Society of London,” said Dr. Marianna Busch, professor and former chair of chemistry and biochemistry. “His former students hold positions of responsibility and importance at universities and scientific organizations throughout the world.”

For Dr. Stone, chemistry is the foundation for much of the modern lifestyle we enjoy. “Chemistry is a rewarding science both intellectually and in practice,” Dr. Stone said. “It addresses human curiosity-what is the nature of the world we live in and what is life? -and its provisional answers have already enhanced the quality of life. Chemistry underlies all our modern lifestyle. There are few things that we use which have not at some stage been made, processed, or monitored by chemists.”

Recently, Dr. Stone was honored for his imprint on the scientific world by being named one of the 100 most-referenced chemists in the world by the Institute for Scientific Information, an agency that keeps track of publications in all of the sciences.

Postdoctoral students compete to work with him in his research group, which has a strong international profile. Currently 75 of those who have been associated with him in a professional way occupy teaching posts in universities throughout the world. In Spain, 23 of his former coworkers are professors.

Dr. Busch said, “he once told me that there is hardly a major city in the United States, Canada, Great Britain, or Europe where he does not have extensive contacts and can generally count on having a colleague or former student prepared to greet him on arrival at the airport.”

Written by Randy Fiendler for the Provost’s Report, Baylor University, 2002