According to Sky News Arabia, this scientist made many sacrifices for his studies, including losing one of his eyes during laboratory experiments.
The 81-year-old Sharpless is the fifth individual to get the renowned Nobel Prize twice since it was established in 1901.
The American researcher shared the Chemistry Nobel Prize with Caroline Bertozzi and Morten Meldahl in honour of their contributions to “pure chemistry,” which advanced the study of pharmacology.
Sharpless initially intended to pursue a career in medicine, but one of his instructors persuaded him to switch to chemistry instead, where he remained until earning his PhD in organic chemistry in 1968.
At prestigious American universities and institutions like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sharpless worked for more than 50 years as a researcher and professor.
Following a tube explosion in a lab mishap in 1970, Sharpless lost one of his eyes. He joined the Massachusetts Institute of Technology at that time.
Since then, the American researcher has emphasised the importance of wearing safety glasses when doing laboratory trials and studies.
Sharples described the incident, saying: He spent days bandaging his eyes following the accident, so he was quite concerned that he would go fully blind and lose his sight. However, he was fortunate to lose his left eye and keep his right eye.
However, the incident that rendered one of the researcher’s eyes blind did not deter him; he continued on his brilliant path and was eventually given the Nobel Prize twice, first in 2001 and then in October 2022.
The man who gave up his eyes for science and won two Nobel Prizes
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