François Diederich, inspiring the next generation of chemists

When we choose the route of academics as a profession, it often means spending a lot of time away from family and friends, including working late hours to prepare for teaching, writing proposals and manuscripts, and attending conferences and meetings all over the globe, as just a few of many examples. How lucky we were, then, to find new “families” that allowed us to feel comfortable, welcomed, and appreciated when we were away from home. This is, as many have heard us say before, the “Diederich Family” and the “ISNA family.” The Diederich Family is, of course, those hundreds of individuals that have worked with François, including Diplom, Masters, and PhD students, as well as postdoctoral fellows, visiting researchers, colleagues, and friends. This is a close and tight‐knit family, and many of us have remained friends over decades after spending only a few months or a couple of years together in the Diederich group. Several years ago, while preparing to introduce François at a conference in Edmonton, I (RRT) tallied a few numbers and was amazed to see just how big the “Diederich Family” really was. During the course of his career, François worked with over 125 PhD students and over 100 postdoctoral researchers. Here is, however, the remarkable part: Of these coworkers, more than 60 have gone on to form their own independent research groups in academia. That is, more than one in four. Thus, in addition to direct members of the Diederich academic family, there are, shall we say, a lot of grandchildren (not to be confused with his actual grandchildren James and Alexandre, who he talked about a lot). François has touched so many people and their careers.

François and his wife Georgine

The breadth of François' expertise and research contributions is nothing less than amazing, which led to quite a diverse cohort of coworkers. Many are familiar with his ground‐breaking work with carbon‐rich structures that produced fantastic new systems such as the cyclo[n]carbons and tetraethynylethenes. This work inspired a generation of young researchers, including both of the authors of this in memoriam. In later years, his focus in this area offered new and powerful methodology (his acetylenic click reactions) for forming opto‐electronic materials, as well as chiral systems based on alleno‐acetylenes. Alternatively, you might know François from his pioneering work toward developing an understanding of molecular recognition phenomena in chemistry and biology, for example, complexation studies with proteins and studies with synthetic receptors. Or, perhaps, you are a fan of his seminal efforts in medicinal chemistry, based on studies with biological receptors to form nonpeptidic enzyme inhibitors. This work includes the development of new targets against, for example, malaria and African sleeping sickness. Physical organic chemistry was an underlying, yet pervasive, theme throughout all of these seemingly disparate topics. François' research success came from the fact that he truly understood, at the molecular level, the properties of his molecules, whether structural or electronic, whether biological or synthetic. Equally important was François' ability to understand people, to attract the best and brightest to his group, and to mentor them as the next generations of scientists.

François's sudden and untimely death at the age of 68 is a terrible loss. He had finished his research activities only 15 months prior to be able to spend more time with his wife, children, and (especially) his grandchildren. Sadly, both the real Diederich family and the Diederich research family lost its patriarch all too soon. Given his vast number of progeny in a broad diversity of research fields, however, François' legacy is firmly secure. While he will be sorely missed, he will not be forgotten—his memory will burn bright.

弗朗索瓦·迪埃德里希（FrançoisDiederich），启发了下一代化学家

当我们选择将学术界作为专业途径时，通常意味着要花费大量时间与家人和朋友在一起，包括工作时间很晚，以准备教学，撰写建议书和手稿，以及参加全球各地的会议。只是许多例子中的几个。因此，我们多么幸运地找到了新的“家庭”，让我们在出门在外时感到自在，受到欢迎和赞赏。正如许多人之前听到的那样，这就是“ Diederich家族”和“ ISNA家族”。Diederich家族当然是与François合作过的数百个人，包括Diplom，Masters和PhD学生，以及博士后，访问学者，同事和朋友。这是一个紧密联系的家庭 在Diederich小组一起度过了几个月或几年的时间后，我们中的许多人几十年来一直是朋友。几年前，当我准备在埃德蒙顿的一次会议上介绍弗朗索瓦时，我（RRT）取得了一些数字，并惊讶地发现“狄德瑞希家族”的真正规模有多大。在他的职业生涯中，François与125多名博士生和100多名博士后研究人员合作。然而，这是一个了不起的部分：在这些同事中，有60多个已经组成了自己的学术研究独立小组。也就是说，四分之一以上。因此，除了Diederich学术大家庭的直接成员外，还有很多孙子孙（不要与他实际谈论过的孙子James和Alexandre混淆了）。

弗朗索瓦和他的妻子乔治

弗朗索瓦（François）的专长和研究贡献之广令人赞叹，这导致了相当多的同事群体。许多人都熟悉他在富碳结构方面的开创性工作，该结构产生了奇妙的新系统，例如环[ n ]碳和四乙炔基乙烯。这项工作鼓舞了一代年轻的研究者，包括两位纪念者。在后来的几年中，他在这一领域的工作重点为形成光电材料以及基于异炔乙炔的手性体系提供了新颖而强大的方法（他的炔属点击反应）。另外，您可能会从François的开创性工作中了解到化学和生物学方面的分子识别现象，例如，蛋白质的络合研究和合成受体的研究。或者，也许您是他对药物化学的开创性的爱好者，该研究基于对生物受体形成非肽酶抑制剂的研究。这项工作包括制定新的目标，例如针对疟疾和非洲昏睡病。在所有这些看似完全不同的主题中，物理有机化学是一个基本但普遍的主题。弗朗索瓦 研究成功来自以下事实：他在分子水平上真正了解了分子的特性，无论是结构分子还是电子分子，无论是生物学的还是合成的。同样重要的是弗朗索瓦的理解人的能力，吸引最优秀和最聪明的人，并指导他们成为下一代科学家的能力。

弗朗索瓦（François）享年68岁时突然去世，真是可怕的损失。他仅在15个月之前就完成了研究活动，然后才能够花更多的时间陪伴妻子，孩子和（尤其是）孙子。可悲的是，真正的Diederich家族和Diederich研究家族都太早失去了祖先。然而，考虑到他在广泛的研究领域中拥有大量后代，弗朗索瓦的遗产是坚定的。虽然他会被深深地怀念，但他不会被遗忘-他的记忆将变得明亮。