Theo Hoffman
Theo Hoffman
Many colleagues of Gregorio Weber have enthusiastically commented on his brilliant science, his outstanding achievements and his unique personality. I will confine my remarks on some personal interactions with him which show his extraordinary generosity towards his colleagues. I had arrived in Sheffield as a young, inexperienced lecturer. I soon got to know Gregorio because of his interest in his colleagues and in their activities. From the start he wanted to talk about my trivial research problems and ideas and invariably offered profound advice and insight in the narrow field of my investigations. But he also frequently came into my office to talk about his own recent studies and his unique ideas and expanded in detail on them. Inexperienced as I was, I had great difficulties in following his discourse and his arguments and certainly was not in a position to make any intelligent contributions. All the same, when he left he invariably thanked me and left with the comment "Thank you very much, Theo, that was a very helpful discussion". I don't think he ever noticed my embarrassment. He was an extraordinarily generous, kind and modest man; he was of invaluable help later when I tried to apply the fluorescence techniques which he had developed to some of my own studies. His help was also crucial in furthering my post-Sheffield career.

I owe this outstanding colleague my warmest thanks.

Theo Hofmann

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| Gregorio Weber in Cambridge | The First Floor | Memories | Reminiscences | Gregorio Weber at Cambridge | Friendship Renewed in Sheffield | Gregorio Weber, friend and mentor | Gregorio Weber: Some recollections | Appreciation | Recollections of Gregorio | Gregorio | "Stay in Sheffield": Gregorio's Sage Advice | Gregorio as Teacher | Golden Age | Memories of the Biochemistry Department Sheffield, 1961 | My Best of Times: With Gregorio in Sheffield and Urbana 1954-1964 | Weber Memoir | A Roman Connection | My Mentor at Urbana, Rome, Corvallis | Gregorio Weber, A Great Gentleman of Science | Fond Memories | Two Memories in Parallel | A Superb Interaction | An Appreciation | Short snippets |