Pedersen Memorial Issue

individual can make an enormous difference in science. The effect of his life and work on those of us who contributed papers for this issue and on many others is appreciated and is acknowledged by several of the authors in their individual papers. It is entirely appropriate to honor his memory with this special issue. Department of Chemistry, R. M. IZATT Brigham Young University, Provo, UT 84602, U.S.A. J. S. BRADSHAW 3 (a) Charles Pedersen on campus at the University of Dayton in the mid-1920's. 4 FOREWORD / f (b) Charles Pedersen in his laboratory at the Experimental Station in 1968. 5 FOREWORD (c) Charles J. Pedersen receiving the Noble Prize, 1987 (© Pressers Bild AB). 6 FOREWORD (d) Charles J. Pedersen, Nobel Laureate 1987 (Photographed by Lief Skoogfors). Journal of Inclusion Phenomena and Molecular Recognition in Chemistry 12: 7- 10, 1992. 7 © 1992 Kluwer Academic Publishers. The Discovery of Crown Ethers CHARLESJ.PEDERSEN I regret that I have nothing new to add to this field in which so many able investigators have obtained interesting results extending the scope of my discovery. So I must resort to old material, perhaps so old that some have forgotten, and some of the younger of you never knew of it. Briefly, I will recount how I discovered the crown ethers and the fun I had doing so [1, 2].