David Weininger - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

David Weininger is a chemist and entrepreneur. He is a co-founder of Daylight Chemical Information Systems, a company in Santa Fe, New Mexico

Santa Fe, New Mexico

Santa Fe is the capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico. It is the fourth-largest city in the state and is the seat of . Santa Fe had a population of 67,947 in the 2010 census...

that does rapid analysis of massive chemical databases. Weininger is the inventor of Simplified Molecular Input Line Entry Specification (SMILES), a universal language for chemical compounds. Weininger and his team produced other specialized software packages for working chemists, including Rubicon, a rule-based geometry program for creating 3-D forms, and Thor, a client-server database for chemical information.

Weininger also was a director at the United States Environmental Protection Agency

United States Environmental Protection Agency

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is an agency of the federal government of the United States charged with protecting human health and the environment, by writing and enforcing regulations based on laws passed by Congress...

in the 1980s; his laboratory was responsible for the original Clean Air Act

Clean Air Act

A Clean Air Act is one of a number of pieces of legislation relating to the reduction of airborne contaminants, smog and air pollution in general. The use by governments to enforce clean air standards has contributed to an improvement in human health and longer life spans...

. Weininger did his PhD research in water chemistry.

Miscellany

Weininger lives in a house once owned by science-fiction writer Roger Zelazny
Roger Zelazny
Roger Joseph Zelazny was an American writer of fantasy and science fiction short stories and novels, best known for his The Chronicles of Amber series...

.
He has an astronomical observatory and invites the local Santa Fe community to viewings during new moons.
Daylight Chemical has a large statue of a molecule near the entrance to the building.
Weininger owns and flies a Russian fighter-bomber.
He once lived on a barge docked in Lake Ponchartrain in New Orleans.
Weininger claims his PhD is the only degree he was ever awarded. He did not graduate high school, nor did he receive his Bachelor's or Master's degrees.
He is a licensed flight instructor, and also holds certificates to fly many types of aircraft such as twin engines, seaplanes, and helicopters.
He is an experienced scuba diver who borrowed the towel of Douglas Adams
Douglas Adams
Douglas Noel Adams was an English writer and dramatist. He is best known as the author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which started life in 1978 as a BBC radio comedy before developing into a "trilogy" of five books that sold over 15 million copies in his lifetime, a television...

once after a dive.
In an attempt to create a chocolate that is less stimulating to the nervous system, Weininger created a substance containing considerably more theobromine than chocolate of comparable mass and cacao concentration. Unsurprisingly, this "super-chocolate" tastes much better than the non-stimulative variety.
Quote : "Most people think you come to work to work and get away from people to think. I think it’s the opposite. You do your best thinking with people and your best work away from them"

Miscellany

See also