Dr. Kimani Stancil @ FSU Colloquium
Most of us would never be able to understand the science of material composition for everything from pharmaceuticals to space rockets and thousands of other commercial and industrial products. Dr. Kimani Stancil does. Recently he told me he would be in Tallahassee, Florida to make a presentation as part of the Florida State University polymers and gels as a guest of the biochemical engineering department.
While a lay person would never understand the terminology, it was clear that this is important work in developing materials that may somehow revolutionize future designs in a number of products. What was more important to me was that I was watching a friend (and big supporter of The Chess Drum) discuss his passion outside of chess. We rarely get a chance to see fellow chess players discuss their professional work or see them in action. It was impressive indeed and shows that chess can certainly help shape minds in positive ways.
Dr. Kimani Stancil presenting on the topic, “Understanding the Strcuture and Behavior of Polymer Gels as host for nano solutes – a photonics recipe.” The lecture took place at Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida. Photos by Daaim Shabazz.
Dr. Stancil earned his Ph.D. in Physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2002 and served as a post-doctoral fellow at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory. He then took a position at Howard University in 2008 where he is now an Assistant Professor. Dr. Stancil competed in the National Denker Tournament for High School Champions in 1989 and went to chess power University of Maryland-Baltimore County.
Kimani Stancil (right) playing (now GM) Fabiano Caruana at the 2004 World Open (1-0). Photo by Daaim Shabazz.
Pictured above is (now GM) Maurice Ashley analyzing R.O. Mitchell’s game (with his seated opponent) at the 1989 U.S. Open in Chicago. Kimani Stancil looks on while Ashley (standing left) makes point to Mitchell. Both Stancil and Mitchell were competing in the Denker Tournament of Champions which ran concurrent with the U.S. Open. R.O. Mitchell was a rising star in U.S. chess and came from nowhere to win the U.S. Junior Open in 1990. Photo by Daaim Shabazz.
Thankyou Daaim for the honor of your post! It was nice to have you both as a friend and audience member during my recent talk at FSU-FAMU’s Department of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering. At any given moment, the knowledge that I have is always a surprise but having the abilityt to share the knowledge along with my vision gives me the most joy! Peace.
Kimani A. Stancil
LoL , nice article and pictures the one with Kimani and Caurana is really some funny stuff!!! hahaha. Oh and i see he took the kid down,1-nil, chesslessons! lol
I want to see that game LOL, but the link doesn’t work for me.
Not sure why. I just tried it.
I tried the link too. The game begins to come up, but then the following site kicks in…https://www.zeevex-online.com/
It should work now. Some of my files have contracted an infected URL. I’m not sure when this happened because it is not every file.
I just took a look. Very instructive. 1 Rook, 2 Bishops, and an advanced passed pawn is clearly the advantaged side here versus a Queen and bishop and no passed pawns.