Talking with Dr. Meshri
ON SOME OF THE CHALLENGES OF CHEMISTRY
“President Kennedy’s goal was to put a man on the moon, and researchers were looking for new rocket fuels. We were working with very unstable compounds. I had an explosion and ended up with plexiglass in my face and chest. They took me to the student infirmary and put me in a tub. Five or six nurses came with tweezers to pull out the glass. They called my wife. We were married only three days, and she had just come from India. She just cried and thought I was going to die. But I was fine. Later, I worked for a company and was developing a material for lithium batteries. Every day for six months I had an explosion. This is the life of an experimental chemist who tries new energetic materials.”
ON BEING IN THE ALUMNI HALL OF FAME
“I’m very excited. I brought my whole family here, even my grandchildren. I want them to see how beautiful Idaho is, and how great the school is, and how the teachers treated us like family and inspired us. This is the place you want to be. If you work hard, the sky is the limit.”