My story involves the trek from Wilkie Quad, across campus, to Jordan Hall. One of my fall A.M. chemistry classes required that I walk past the I.U. music school. Invariably, as I walked past the music school on those crisp fall days, I would hear musicians practicing scales and rifts. I heard pianists, trumpeters, violinists and an occasional French Horn student practicing their art and craft. By the time I arrived at Jordan Hall my mind had been primed to look at the world of chemical structures with a musician's eye for harmony and balance The elegance of the molecular structures I studied in Jordan Hall on those fall days reminded me of the beauty and precision of musical scales played by I.U.'s talented musicians/students. I have no doubt that my appreciation for chemistry's artistic and elegant precision was the direct result of I.U.'s music school and the very talented and dedicated students who subliminally primed my mind to see the connection between chemical structures and musical scales. To this day, I view chemistry with an artist's eye, dare I say, a musician's eye. My reflections of my time at I.U. illustrates the importance of I.U.'s campus environment. A campus life comprised of both the arts and the sciences is greater than the sum of its parts. Having a degree from I.U.'s School of Arts and Sciences has a special meaning to me and, perhaps, many others, even if they weren't fortunate enough to have to walk past the music school on their way to Jordan Hall to study chemistry.
Name: Dr. Anthony Napoleon
Hometown: Chicago
Degree and Major: BA/PSY & Journalism
Graduation Year: 1980