In the name of spontaneity

摘要

Royce Murray's long career as a scholar, teacher, and editor in chief is guided by spontaneity. "One should always be on the lookout for something that is more intriguing and original and less understood than what one is currently doing," wrote Royce Murray of the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill (UNC) in an autobiographical piece for his 65th birthday (J. Phys. Chem. B 2001, 105, 8642-8647). This philosophy has served him well throughout his career. Driven by a curiosity that is loaded with sparks of spontaneity and a deep sense of service to science, Murray has shaped several areas of analytical chemistry, the chemistry community, and AC. His name is inextricably intertwined with chemically modified electrodes and is closely linked with the field of nanoparticles. Electron-transfer reactions in monolayers and polymer melts, synthesis of materials that act as molecular rectifiers, theory for coupled electron transfers--all these scientific topics have connections to research done on Murray's watch. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. This journal bears the unmistakable imprint of his guiding hand as editor in chief (EIC). And it is hard to think of UNC without Murray's presence--he has been a member of the faculty there for 48 years.