Since its inauguration in 2011, the Siegfried Hünig Lecture has attracted several highly renowned chemists from Europe and the USA, including two Nobel Laureates. Certainly, Eichii Nakamura perfectly fits into the growing list of awardees. Nevertheless, this year’s speaker was outstanding in two ways. For the first time a speaker from Asia was elected, and for the first time a speaker delighted the audience with a beautiful piece of music.

Actually, Nakamura turned out to be as much a virtuous and passionate musician as he is a great scientist. He was extremely happy to finally receive a flute he had ordered from a German instrument maker one year ago. Despite receiving this new flute and travelling with light baggage, he also had his baroque flute with him, which he used to play a classic Japanese tune after the lecture.

During his lecture, great part of the audience for the first time ever saw movies of real molecules and molecular reactions. Nakamura and his group made this possible by using the technique of single molecule HR TEM imaging. A method that they developed in 2007.