The Role of Copper Oxides in the Electrochemical Reduction of CO2 to C2 Carbon Fuels.

[NNadir]

3. I confess that Goddard is a scientist with whose work I am unfamiliar. His Orcid profile does...

...show his authorship of a number of papers that clearly involve experiment, but generally the authorship is broad. Perhaps his role is strictly to provide a theoretical basis for experimental results.

It may not have been a career change so much as a willingness to collaborate with experimentalists, which is a good thing.

But again, I'm largely unfamiliar with his work.

It is rare that a great scientist's career shows expertise on both sides. The most famous exception of course, was Enrico Fermi.

I believe an outstanding theoretician must engage experiments, and all of the greatest theories began with an experimental observation.

By contrast, an experimentalist who is surprised by his or her own results will need to call on a theoretician in most cases to justify that the experimental results. Sometimes of course, theory is thrown away because of experiment. The case that comes to mind is the Michaelson-Morley experiment to "measure" the speed of the "ether." It took some time, and in fact, Albert Einstein to come up with a way of explaining that one. Einstein, I've heard, was a horrible experimentalist.