[Ccecil]

I think one of the key sentences is this one :

"He has the best possible relations both with the theoretical people of whom he is one, and with the experimental people with whom he works in very close harmony."

His strength that is being highlighted is that he functions well as a middle man between the experimenters and the theoretical. There is something to be said for that. Just like being able to be the person who can go between the software and hardware people and properly communicate with both. Things get stalled quite often by lack of communication between the disciplines.

Sometimes you don't have to be the best in either field...but being able to understand enough of each side to be able to "put people in contact" with each other when they are working on similar things (and/or be the mediator when blames are being cast) can be overlooked and unappreciated.

Often, it is good to be the person who points to the paper and says "What is that?". It gets both sides thinking.