"Try and fall sick .."-the composer, chemist, and surgeon Aleksandr Borodin.
Although Aleksandr Porfir’evič Borodin is considered one of the outstanding Russian composers of the 19th century, he left only a very small volume of musical work. He is particularly renowned for the world-famous “Polovtsian Dances” from the opera “Prince Igor” and for his membership in “The Mighty Handful”. Also noteworthy, aside from the forementioned opera “Prince Igor”, are his three symphonies, two string quartets, and a symphonic poem “In the Steppes of Central Asia”. The reason for his small œuvre is that he considered himself a sunday composer, composing for fun and only in his rare spare time or when he was ill. In fact, he was a professor of chemistry, and chemistry was avowedly his first passion. There were also other fields, besides chemistry, to which he was more committed than composition. Despite this declared priority for chemistry, Aleksandr Borodin is mostly unknown as a chemist to chemists of today, and—much to my regret—even as composer. This surely is not justified, since he is the discoverer of outstanding reactions, although unfortunately at a time when it was uncommon to name reactions after their inventors. This Essay is intended to shed light on all the various facets of Borodin, with a special focus on his chemical work.
Single-step catalytic conversion of furfural to 2-pentanol over bimetallic Co–Cu catalysts
Catalytic conversion of furfural to 2-pentanol over Co–Cu/Al2O3 catalysts.
The identity and self-perception of artists-managers
Manager’s and artist’s professional identities seem to be opposite, but there are many indications that this understanding is not justified in reality. Despite the contradictions, these two identities can intersect. The paper aims to define the characteristics of the artists-managers’ identity. The object of the study was qualitative research (n = 22) conducted in the form of in-depth interviews with key informants from the international environment. The practical objective was to verify common and contradicted features of the artist’s and the manager’s identities among artists-managers to understand the possibilities of reducing the intra-psychic tensions and ways of fruitful paradoxical thinking among managers and negative consequences for personalities and organizations. The study reveals common characteristics between the artist’s and manager’s identities and describes artists-managers’ identity. Although artists-managers experience diversity between both identities, they do not see them as contrary; they use paradoxical thinking, being experts in using personal seemingly contradictory characteristics to achieve outstanding performance. Acting in paradoxical contexts and focusing on the positive aspects of seemingly contradictory personal qualities, they find nonstandard creative solutions. By trying to understand and implement their self-construction, there is the possibility to reduce the intra-psychic tensions and negative consequences of seemingly opposite identities or goals among individuals in organizations. There is a synergy between the manager’s and artist’s identities. Understanding the nature and attributes of artistic creativity, aesthetic theories and the phenomenon of artist-manager’s identity can be a valuable contribution to the practice of management and organizational life.