Word: dibdin
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...Molecule. At 23, Albert did a brilliant paper on something called "non-typical Wurmer-Klaus reactions" and was invited to join a chemistry-research department at Oxford. There he went to work for F. R. Dibdin, a revered character who wandered around in a cloud of pipesmoke and portentous cliches, occasionally avoiding difficult questions by sidling off to the lavatory. Scientist Albert told his diary: "Dr. Dibdin ... is a wonderfully inspired leader ... He will give Woods the discipline he needs...
...faculty, Albert lost his head. When somebody questioned a point in a paper he was reading, he called the man "daft," and went on blustering long after he was proved wrong. The fellowship he was seeking went to another man. Albert blamed the setback on treachery, and concluded that Dibdin didn't "know one end of a molecule from the other...
Knighthood That Failed. The sense of estrangement from Dibdin did not last long. Dibdin's daughter Margaret had beauty, Dibdin had money, and, perhaps best of all, Mrs. Dibdin had aristocratic blood. On his honeymoon Albert was converted, after "some excesses of which he was proud," from a great amorist to a great husband. "Woods." he told himself, "is at the height of his powers"; and rushed back to his laboratory to become a great scientist...