See above, his Professor ran the NMR spectrum, someone who probably has not had hands on probably for quite a while. Profs. write grant applications interspersed with occasional papers, they push pencils. Ever seen a Prof. in the lab experimenting?
My promotor did, occasionally (I still see him, wearing neither lab coat nor gloves, pouring MeI into a reaction mixture directly from the bottle, then turning towards me and saying, "that should be enough," then adding some more for good measure). He was a bit special. And I always had things to do somewhere else when he was doing his synthesis.
Orgopete: I'm not doing this enough anymore...