Nick Janson behind the legend

Author: Roger Perreault

The name Nick Janson never fails to conjure up images of a seven-foot-tall, pony-riding hero. Messages and graffiti along the lines of "Nick Janson is the current president" and "Nick Janson invented numbers" bespeckle desks and walls across Middlebury. The Campus managed to catch up with Janson, now an organic chemist working at the College, for a glimpse at the man behind the myth.



The Campus: Do you have any quirky anecdotes from your childhood?

Nick Janson: I hit puberty at an early age.

TC: How did the famous "Nick Janson..." legend begin?

NJ: When I was in Battell freshman year, my friends Erik Skaar, Nicholas Dubroff and Sam Wilson (all '05) and I got a Ouija board and combined it with our magical skills. My alchemy, Erik's charisma when dealing with the gods, Sam's boyish good looks and Nick's barely visible mustache all would come together to create something Middlebury would never see again. On the fifth night after the new moon that followed the harvest moon of the year 2001, we journeyed out into the fields with one goal in mind: to cast a spell on the population of Middlebury College. The spell was intended to give everyone happiness and a stress-free college experience. I must have mixed a tiny bit too much milk weed nectar into my mortar and pestle because instead of complete stress-free happiness, I started seeing these little phrases appear about the campus. They seemed to relieve peoples' stress momentarily and give them only brief happiness. This was probably because I messed up the proportions of my mixture. Now that I have studied chemistry I probably would do it correctly. Needless to say, Sam was not pleased, but Nick comforted him.

TC: I heard "Nick Janson is a blind poet from antiquity." Any comment?

NJ: He might be blind or he might ride a Shetland pony, or know pi to a hundred digits, but he definitely sees the writing on the wall, and definitely doesn't eat poo.

TC: I heard "Nick Janson is the son of Jan." Any comment?

NJ: I think it is a Swedish name. I feel Viking.

TC: Do you have any tips for current students who aspire to become Midd legends?

NJ: You must unite with friends and listen to your inner "self."

TC: What activities did you participate in at Midd'?

NJ: At Midd, I enjoyed a couple of seasons of junior-varsity soccer and I was pretty involved with The Mill social house. When I was a freshman The Mill was composed of only 10 or 15 members. Now the count must be in the forties. It was a pleasure watching it transform into a well-known social space. Other than that, I was just cruising around the Middlebury campus and Vermont doing the things I love, such as hiking, skiing, snowboarding and occassionally backpacking. Lately I have been addicted to golf. During summers I always swim in rivers a ton and enjoy diving from cliffs.

TC: Was there a certain activity you especially enjoyed?

NJ: I really loved cruising around on the skateboard. There are a lot of fast, but not too dangerous, hills around here.

TC: How did you discover your interest in chemistry?

NJ: Chemistry fascinated me early on because it explains physical phenomena that happen in our body, and in the world around us. I am not saying I expected to learn the answers to life from chemistry, but it is definitely nice to understand organic chemistry because it helps with cooking, it helps me understand my stomach aches better, and it helps me think about things like weather and ground conditions. It also helps me cast spells.

TC: What do you research?

NJ: I study a particular type of chemistry referred to as "radical addition" chemistry. I have a couple of projects that I have worked on. We submitted a journal article for one of the projects titled, "Radical additions to (6-styrene) tricarbonylchromium," in which I have developed a certain reaction and gathered significant supporting data.