Goodyear Medal winner remembered for his contributions

INDEPENDENCE, Ohio—Nissim Calderon lived long enough to learn he was named the winner of rubber chemistry's highest honor—the Charles Goodyear Medal.

But the former Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. scientist passed away last February before he could be publicly celebrated by his peers for receiving the 2020 award.

While more than a year has passed since Calderon died, the ACS Rubber Division took time out April 28 to celebrate his life and accomplishments during its Spring Technical Meeting. Plans to honor him last year were put on hold due to COVID-19 restrictions.

The task of recounting Calderon's professional life and accomplishments fell to Adel Halasa, who worked with him at Goodyear.

And it was a bittersweet moment.

"I feel very, very sad. I am honored that they allowed me to do that," Halasa said near the end of his hour-long talk about Calderon. "I feel very humbled. I feel very proud. But I am sad."

Calderon left his mark on Goodyear and the industry in many ways, Halasa told in-person and virtual attendees of the 199th Technical Meeting of the Rubber Division in Independence, a Cleveland suburb. He was a force for good, both within the walls of Goodyear and in the greater rubber community, a man whose accomplishments deserve recognition.

And at the top of a list of those accomplishments was his 1967 introduction of olefin metathesis to the world. Calderon published an article in Tetrahedron Letters, a journal devoted to providing information about advances in organic chemistry and related disciplines, that year introducing his research.

These days, olefin metathesis is so widely understood that no explanation is needed within rubber chemistry industry and academia, Halasa said. But that was not the case before Calderon came along with his work.

For the uninitiated, olefin metathesis is a reaction where two carbon-carbon double bonds come together and exchange carbon atoms with each other. This process, which is reversable and uses a catalyst, creates new molecules.

While Calderon now is being recognized with the Rubber Division's highest honor, Halasa strongly suggested his friend also should have received wider acclaim in 2005 when the Nobel Peace Prize in chemistry was awarded to a trio of other men for study of olefin metathesis. That's the same area of research Calderon explained back in 1967.

Halasa peppered his recounting of Calderon's professional accomplishments—he had a total of 17 patents—with remembrances of their time working together.

Calderon was employed by Goodyear from 1962 to 1998 when he retired as vice president of corporate research overseeing a staff of 400. He previously received the Carl Dietrich Harris Medal by the DKG German Rubber Society for his contributions to the industry.

Halasa, during his presentation, remembered one particular trip he took with Calderon to Japan that involved a very expensive steak dinner and trying to figure out the best way to list it on their expense reports. But he also took joy in remembering more common times when they shared lunch while at work at Goodyear.

Calderon, who was Jewish, and Halasa, who is an Arab, marveled at how they were both born in the Middle East and ended up working together at Goodyear in Akron.

"Jewish and Arab, harmoniously we worked together as friends forever. Only in America. Here's what happened. He said to me, 'I love this country.' I said to him, 'I love this country.' Because both of us can sit down and each lunch together. Only in America," Halasa said.