Shapely polysaccharides. The eighth Colworth Medal Lecture

Abstract

Ever since I was so pleasantly surprised by the letter from Professor Davison that told me about the Committee's decision, it has been natural for me to ponder the rationale of Awards like this.I cannot think that a Society so concerned with righteous stan- dards should perpetuate this Award to encourage young biochemists to vanity rather than productive work.I am sure that it is meant to have a more positive influence and I would like to say first what it means to me.When I started research, I was very romantic and thought that it would be better to commit myself to a subject that was temporarily unfashionable and that I could believe had jewels concealed behind the grey appearances.A decade later, I see that much of my reasoning was over-optimistic and that my investigations could easily have led nowhere at all.The award of this Medal is a reassurance that I have been lucky enough to avoid disaster and that my research life has, after all, started on the right lines.Perhaps even more, the distinguished men who represent this Society seem to be saying that my work is not only worthy and sound but has some interest; this is a special compliment when one knows from experience that they can quite readily take the reverse view when it is justified.And so this Medal comes as a par- ticularly great reward.I am especially pleased that colleagues in my research field, who committed them- selves similarly in faith and hope, should rightly see this Award as a vindication of them as well.Because of all this, perhaps it is appropriate that this Lecture should have some personal as well as scientific content.