A Memoir of Love Science and Adventure- My life with Svante Wold

By Nouna Kettaneh

This book is the story of my life with Svante Wold. Svante was a brilliant Swedish scientist who started the field of Chemometrics (how to extract information from large datasets.) We met at a conference in New Hampshire, when Chemometrics was in its infancy, and fell madly in love. Everything separated us. We lived in different countries, were from differing cultures, had established careers, and were in long-term relationships. But love and destiny won. We got married, lived together, worked together and were never apart. We founded a company and succeeded in growing and expanding the field of Chemometrics to what it is today: a forever young discipline, showing the capacity to adapt and solve new challenges in the Natural and Life Sciences. Simca, the software we started, has become the standard of Multivariate Analysis. Above all this book is a love story and a tribute to a wonderful and unique man. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Outskirts Press
• Release date: Aug 23, 2023
• ISBN: 9781977267818

Nouna Kettaneh

Nouna Kettaneh-Wold is retired and lives close to her family in Hollis, NH in the home where she and Svante lived. 

Book preview

A Memoir of Love Science and Adventure- My life with Svante Wold

All Rights Reserved.

Copyright © 2023 Nouna Kettaneh

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PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

NOUNA KETTANEH-WOLD

A Memoir of Love

SCIENCE AND ADVENTURE—

My life with Svante Wold

Nouna Kettaneh-Wold has a master’s degree in Physics and Applied Mathematics. She co-founded Umetrics with her late husband, Svante Wold, where she was the head of software development. She was the primary designer of the Design of Experiments software Modde, the Multivariate Analysis (MVA) software Simca, and an automated Batch Model Builder, and she implemented Umetrics’ version of batch modeling. Nouna has consulted for and taught MVA courses at pharmaceutical, semiconductor, cosmetic, and chemical companies. She has published several articles on Partial Least Squares with Mixture Design and Batch Modeling.

To my beloved husband

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface

Chapter One: Our Backgrounds

Chapter Two: The Gordon Conference

Chapter Three: Nouna August 9, 1986

Chapter Four: Svante August 29, 1986

Chapter Five: Nouna September 5, 1986

Chapter Six: Nouna September 19, 1986

Chapter Seven: Svante October 3, 1986

Chapter Eight: Professional Relationship

Chapter Nine: Nouna November 1986

Chapter Ten: Svante November 25, 1986

Chapter Eleven: Nouna December 19, 1986

Chapter Twelve: A Weekend in Stockholm

Chapter Thirteen: Nouna February 18, 1987

Chapter Fourteen: Svante February 18, 1987

Chapter Fifteen: Nouna March 30, 1987

Chapter Sixteen: Note from Nouna April 15, 1987

Chapter Seventeen: QSAR Conference July 1987

Chapter Eighteen: Svante July 25, 1987

Chapter Nineteen: Nouna July 27, 1987

Chapter Twenty: Svante July 29, 1987

Chapter Twenty-One: Nouna July 29, 1987

Chapter Twenty-Two: Nouna August 2, 1987

Chapter Twenty-Three: The Japanese Artifact

Chapter Twenty-Four: Nouna August 4, 1987

Chapter Twenty-Five: Svante August 7, 1987

Chapter Twenty-Six: Nouna August 7, 1987

Chapter Twenty-Seven: Extract of Nouna’s letters

Chapter Twenty-Eight: Svante August 13, 1987

Chapter Twenty-Nine: Extract of Nouna’s Letters

Chapter Thirty: Svante August 18, 1987

Chapter Thirty-One: Svante August 21, 1987

Chapter Thirty-Two: Nouna August 22, 1987

Chapter Thirty-Three: Tokyo, Japan 1987

Chapter Thirty-Four: Svante September 21, 1987

Chapter Thirty-Five: Nouna September 22, 1987

Chapter Thirty-Six: Svante September 22, 1987

Chapter Thirty-Seven: Svante September 23, 1987

Chapter Thirty-Eight: Svante October 6, 1987

Chapter Thirty-Nine: Return from Japan

Chapter Forty: Svante November 1, 1987

Chapter Forty-One: Return from Europe

Chapter Forty-Two: Nouna November 30, 1987

Chapter Forty-Three: Christmas 1987

Chapter Forty-Four: Svante January 9, 1988

Chapter Forty-Five: A Week in Paris

Chapter Forty-Six: Nouna January 30, 1988

Chapter Forty-Seven: Park City March 1988

Chapter Forty-Eight: Svante’s Little Note

Chapter Forty-Nine: Our Wedding

Chapter Fifty: Our Life Together in Sweden

Chapter Fifty-One: Our Life in the US

Chapter Fifty-Two: Special Events and Fond Memories203

Chapter Fifty-Three: Our Travels

Chapter Fifty-Four: Svante’s awards

Chapter Fifty-Five: Our Accomplishments

Chapter Fifty-Six: Retirement Years in Hollis NH

Chapter Fifty-Seven: Svante’s Disease

Epilogue

About the Author

PREFACE

As the title of this book states, this is the story of my life with Svante Wold.

It is not of all of my life, nor is it of all of his life, as we met when we were in our late forties.

Writing this book is my way of re-living the tremendous and magical love Svante and I shared that lasted thirty-four years until his death on January 4, 2022.

As with all love stories, the emphasis will be on the beginning and the end, with mention of interesting events and accomplishments in between.

Now that Svante is gone, this book brings him back to me, and I see him with my heart as he was before the disease took him over: young, healthy, and full of love.

One sees clearly only with one’s heart. Essential things are invisible to the eyes. -The Little Prince, Saint-Exupéry.

October 26, 2022

My love, my infinite love, min käraste

How can I start telling you what it meant to me to be without you? I had still so many things I would have loved to do with you and to tell you.

In the beginning after you left, I was in a daze, a fog. I could not grasp that you were really gone. I just imagined that you were away on a long trip. As time went by, I started to realize the finality of your departure, what it meant for me, the fact that I would never see you again. The pain of this realization was unbearable at times. I was drowning in sorrow. In order to get some relief, to try to somehow find you, I decided to write the story of our life together, our magical and great love that lasted thirty-four years. This was my way to turn back time, to relive my wonderful life with you and remember not only our love and accomplishments, but many of our magical moments.

I have already put together two binders that tell our story. My writing is interspersed with our long correspondence, two years of physical letters, as we were living in two different countries and often apart. I reread and typed all the letters, yours and mine; they are so wonderful and full of love, and in many ways, they tell our story.

I put them in the right order, and in between, wrote additional material.

I relived, with a lot of emotions, our secret marriage in the little church in Lebanon NH, as you said How wonderful it was and how lucky we were, our magical honeymoon in Tokyo, the Ana Hotel, the buying of our wedding rings, etc. When I feel so lonely without you, missing you so terribly, I think of Tokyo, yes We will always have Tokyo.

I have just finished writing about our official wedding, hence the first part of our love story is done. I will take my time to write now about our work together, what we accomplished, that is:

Umetrics, the company that still exists as part of a large German company, Sartorius AB, that you started and together we made it a viable and successful company, selling both software and expertise in MVA.

Simca, the MVA software that you also started.

Modde Design of experiments that we started together.

Simca for analyses of batch data, and online monitoring. All of these are still much used to this day, helping pharma companies and researchers in very diverse fields. I will also address your work at the Swedish National research council, and your other undertakings.

I will not forget to mention some of our wonderful travel and special trips and all the learning and fun we always had together.

Doing all of these things has helped me, as I feel you near me and by my side when I relive our life. Thank you for helping me.

Before I end this letter, that I will never mail, but hope somehow you will read, I would like to tell you a couple more things.

First I want to thank you with all my heart, for all you did for me, your infinite love for me, your caring, your teaching, your patience.

The person I am today is because of you. I really owe you so much, you taught me so much, and not only about MVA and PLS.

I also want to tell you how much I love you and how much I have always loved you, infinitely to the infinite as we used to say, during our life together. You are and will remain the biggest part of me. Your soul is with me, in me and I shall carry you in my heart until the day I die and then hopefully join you. You see, our love will have endured and will be stronger than death. I have half your ashes in our office sitting above the chimney, on the mantelpiece. The other half of your ashes went to Sweden and are buried near your father and mother as you had wished.

Like I promised you, the day I die, my ashes will be mixed with yours and we shall again be together for eternity.

Meanwhile, sleep and rest in peace, my love, min Käraste, and know that my love for you will endure and live forever.

I love love love you

PS. I am wearing your wedding ring on my chain around my neck. I keep it close to my heart, you will be happy to know it’s safe and in a good place. On my right hand, I wear the watch that you gave me on that marvelous July 20, 1987, in the church of Lebanon NH, when we secretly married. This watch makes me feel closer to you, and I often pat it, as I used to do, when we were often separated before our official wedding. In a way, it’s like being with you; you are there, but just in another dimension, and only temporarily, until we meet again.

CHAPTER ONE

OUR BACKGROUNDS

I was born Nouna Mragel in Alexandria, Egypt, just a few years before WWII. Alexandria is a beautiful city with extraordinary geography. It’s only a short distance from the Libyan desert, which gives it its spirit. Most of the city is surrounded by water: the Nile, lakes, and the Mediterranean Sea that stretches from Ras el-Tin, once the island of Pharos with the famous lighthouse, to the Montaza, the summer palace of the kings of Egypt.

Alexandria had a spirit and a culture transmitted to all its people, of which I am a product. The city reflects its glorious history and past, with the names of Cleopatra and Caesar still used today. Alexandria was a model of conviviality in my day, home to many different communities--British, French, Italian, Greek, Armenian, Syrian, Egyptian--and hence many religions. All these communities interacted and lived together, creating a cosmopolitan identity. The city’s spirit, elegance, and culture certainly had a significant influence on shaping me.

My mother, Isabelle Sahyoun, was born in Haifa, Palestine at the time and my father Georges, was born in Lebanon, then part of Greater Syria. I was educated at Notre Dame de Sion, a French nuns’ school, and graduated with a baccalaureat. My father was a well-known and successful medical doctor with a brilliant intellect. I owe him my love of science and my passion for knowledge.

I completed my first year of college at the Sorbonne in Paris and passed my MPC (Math, Physics, Chemistry) exam with honors. Due to my father being ill and my wanting to be close to Egypt, I transferred to the "Centre d’Études Mathématiquesˮ in Beirut, Lebanon, to continue my studies and get my license, a Master’s in Applied Math and Physics.

In 1962 I married Anthony Kettaneh and moved to the US East Coast. We lived in Boston, and I was exposed to computers for the first time. Rather than continuing my studies for my PhD, I studied programming and worked in various companies as a head programmer. Though I was happily married and had a daughter, Leigh, unfortunately, my marriage ended in divorce in 1972.

In 1986, I lived with a German engineer, Karl, and was pretty content in that relationship. I was working at BBN and was enjoying a successful career as the head of the statistical group developing software, including RSExplore for data analyses and RSDiscover for Design of Experiments.

In April of 1986, we were visited by Jerry Hahn, then head of statistics at GE. I asked for a recommendation for a conference to meet more people in the field. He recommended I apply to The Gordon Conference on Statistics in Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, held in North Hampton, NH, in July. The conference was a week long and accepted around 100 people. Jerry promised to recommend me as he knew the conference chair. This is how I found myself on July 27, attending the Gordon Conference.

Svante was born in Stockholm during WWII, but soon after, his family moved to Uppsala, where he was raised and went to college.

Svante comes from a scientifically minded family. His mother, Anna Lisa Arrhenius Wold, is the daughter of Svante Arrhenius, the physical chemist awarded the first Nobel prize for Chemistry in 1903 and is still cited today for his work on climate change and CO2 heating our planet. Anna Lisa herself had a PhD in Mathematics and a brilliant intellect. She had a fascination with and unique understanding of numbers. Svante inherited that from her, as throughout his life, he always discussed the special properties of some numbers, i.e., prime numbers, composite numbers, real numbers, imaginary numbers, etc.

Svante’s father, Herman Wold, was a famous statistician and professor at Uppsala University. He pioneered many fields, including Multivariate Analyses and Time series.

Svante inherited his sharp and brilliant intellect from his parents. He gravitated toward chemistry, and by 1963 he was a graduate student in Physical Organic Chemistry at Uppsala University. He studied Quantum Chemistry and, in doing so, became proficient in Matrix Algebra. With the advent of computers, he learned many computer languages and helped his father program a PCA and PLS algorithm.

In 1968 he moved to Umeå University in the North, where he got his PhD. He decided that experimentation was not for him and became a computer chemist. In 1972 he coined the name Chemometrics to create a term for what he was doing, and a couple of years later, he founded the Chemometrics Society with Bruce Kowalski. In 1974, Svante spent a year at the University of Wisconsin with George Box as the statistician in residence and became very proficient with statistics for data analysis.

Svante married Margherita Kylberg and had two daughters, Magdalena and Susanna Wold. In 1975 his marriage came to an end, and they divorced.

When I met Svante in 1986, he lived with a woman, Ulla, was part of the Swedish Research Council, and was an associate professor in the chemical department of Chemistry at Umeå University. He was very busy teaching, mentoring graduate students, and administering the department. He was invited to give a talk at the Gordon conference on Statistics in Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, held in July of 1986 in North Hampton, NH.

Little did we know that this conference would change our lives.

CHAPTER TWO

THE GORDON CONFERENCE

I arrived at New Hampton School for Boys in NH on Sunday evening, July 27, 1986. My mother practically pushed me out of the door as I felt timid and reluctant to attend this prestigious conference. This year, in particular, the speakers were very well-known. George Box and Geneshi Tagushi, the speakers for the first day, were famous and respected statisticians, having published many books. In particular, George Box, a British statistician, has been called one of the great statistical minds of the 20th century. Geneshi Tagushi was a Japanese engineer and statistician who developed statistical design to improve the quality of manufacturing goods. His approach to statistical experimental design was applied and used in the automotive industry, including the Ford company.

The Gordon conference format was designed to give ample time to the speakers and their presentations and encourage the intermingling of the attendees. The talks were organized to provide the speaker an hour and a half for the presentation, followed by an hour and a half for questions and discussion with a moderator. With two talks a day, one in the morning from 9 a.m. to noon, and one from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m., we were given ample free time to mingle with the speakers and attendees and get to know each other.

The conference housed 124 persons, including 20 speakers, moderators, and a chair and vice chair. The attendees were primarily men; there must have been at most 10-15 women. After lunch, we all mingled to chat and discuss topics of interest. I shared a room with Karen Rappaport, head of statistics at Celanese. Luckily I knew her as she was a BBN customer, and I tended to stay near her for the first three days. Svante’s talk was on the third day, July 30, in the morning. Before that day, I have no recollection of having noticed him, though later, he would recall having attempted to strike up a conversation with me.

On Wednesday, July 30th, at 9 a.m., Karen and I sat in the third row, ready to hear Svante present Chemometrics in Practice, Design and Multivariate Analysis. Svante gave an excellent, well-organized, well-presented, and enlightening talk. He used their work at Umeå University on peptides as an example. I was fascinated by how well this new algorithm he used, called PLS, extracted the desired information from the data.

Following his presentation and discussions/questions, I got up to ask Svante for more details. Several people, all men, were in front of me in line, wanting to talk to him. Svante looked down the line, saw me, and said, Ladies first. I got dirty looks from some men in front of me, but the line opened up, and I was in front of him. I felt very shy, and not knowing what to say, I mumbled, Let me first congratulate you on an excellent presentation, and do you think you could give me five minutes of your time to explain PLS a little more to me? Svante looked me up and down for what felt like an eternity, but was probably only a few seconds, and answered, Why five minutes only? Complete silence followed, and I felt like hiding under a table. Little did I know that five minutes would turn into a lifetime.

I spent the whole afternoon of Wednesday with Svante. He was an excellent teacher, clear and patient. He explained that Chemometrics was a toolbox with tools based on mathematics and statistics to extract the desired information from noisy and large data sets. PLS was one of the tools and was far more suited for prediction than Multiple Regression. He spent a lot of time explaining the PLS algorithm and its properties. We also discussed ourselves: family, children, and many other topics. It felt so easy and comfortable to be with him. We had very similar interests and a passion for science. We connected on many levels, intellectually and professionally, and we felt a strong mutual attraction.

Time flew by as we spent all our free time together, and before we knew it, it was Friday, the departure day. Svante planned to go to the airport and leave for Sweden the next day. I proposed to him to spend Friday evening at my house, and I would drive him to the airport the next day to catch his flight. He gladly accepted, and we went to my Winchester house at the conference’s close. Karl and I took Svante to dinner that evening at Legal Seafood. It was a pleasant and friendly evening. The next day I drove him to the airport. We said our goodbyes and promised to stay in touch and continue our professional and social collaboration.

As I drove back home, I felt melancholic. In such a short time, I felt a closeness, an intellectual connection, and intense feelings for Svante. But many things separated us. We lived in different countries and had careers, relationships, and family commitments. Would I see him again? Would any future be possible for us?

CHAPTER THREE

NOUNA AUGUST 9, 1986

August 9, 1986

Dear Svante,

It’s been a week today that you have left and I have been thinking about all the events of the past two weeks. It certainly was unexpected for me and wonderful to meet you. In the little time we spent together, you taught me a lot and managed to make me feel respect, admiration, friendship, and a sense of closeness. When you left I felt melancholic; I had found you and you were gone! Maybe you felt it too? In any case, as you said, I hope that we will keep in touch by corresponding. I would like to talk to you about my work and all of the topics that interest both of us.

Maybe you can become a little bit like Master Ma and advise me on books and articles to read and answer some of my questions. (Don’t worry; I will not ask you the inverse question, but I will keep thinking about it—it’s a lifetime quest.)

As I told you on the phone I bought the Fractal book, and Godel Escher and Bach and Metha magical themes. (have you read that last one?) I have just glanced at them because this week was very busy. But as I read them, I will discuss them with you. I also bought the Golub book on Matrix Algebra computation. I read two chapters; it reads slow. I also read two of your articles: Food Research and the one on The International Conference on Computers. They are well written and very clear—I really think that you explain the concept of PCA and PLS very well.

I have one question on PLS that you can help me with:

Basically we have:X=TP+E

Y=UC+F

The inner relationship between X and Y

U=TB+H (B = a diagonal matrix)

Which gives Y=TBC+F*

I understand all that.

T is then an eigenvector of XX’ and YY’. Can you then say that T is an Eigenvector of XX’YY’ as you state in your