UW-Eau Claire Chemistry Prof. David E. Lewis thought he was traveling to Russia in mid-January simply to present a paper on a pioneer in Russian organic chemistry.
He’s been invited to do that before, as a result of the papers he’s written on the role played by Russian chemists in the history of organic chemistry. Thirteen of those articles were translated into Russian and published in connection with a presentation that Lewis made in 2016 to an international symposium at Kazan Federal University.
This presentation, at a conference run by Moscow State University, wasn’t quite that routine.
“They had a surprise for me when I got to Moscow and out to the conference site at Krasnovidovo,” Lewis said in an email.
(Krasnovidovo is the university’s resort about 100 miles west of the Russian capital.)
Lewis said it was only then “that I realized that I was to give a Medal Lecture, and not just a plenary lecture – a very pleasant surprise!”
That meant that Lewis became one of the three newest recipients of the V. V. Markovnikov Medal for outstanding achievement in organic chemistry. He is the first non-Russian to win the award, which was established in 2017, and the first chemist-historian to receive it.
Lewis said that this “Markovnikov Readings” conference dealt with organic chemistry from Markovnikov to the present day. It is an international event associated with a pan-Russia research school for graduate students and features international and Russian speakers. It was established to celebrate Markovnikov, who founded the Organic Chemistry School at Moscow University where he was a professor from 1875-1893.
“Markovnikov was a brilliant chemist, as well as a gadfly to most authorities,” Lewis said.
He was ousted from his professorship by his enemies while he was absent from the university at a conference, Lewis added.
Lewis’ presentation was entitled “Vladimir Vasil’evich Markovnikov (1838-1904): A Builder of Russian Organic Chemistry.” He said that while his presentation was in English, all of his PowerPoint slides were in Russian.
Note: the contributed home page photo shows Prof. David E. Lewis displaying the V. V. Markovnikov Medal which he received at a January conference hosted by Moscow State University.