Here's an interesting article about Hervé This. I'd read about This (of course -- you can't do much reading about molecular gastronomy without encountering his name) but didn't know that he'd been trained as a chemist. It's interesting that several of the more well known chefs working in wilder and flashier styles (Adria and Achatz particularly) have rejected the name "molecular gastronomy" while This does not, but seems to take more of a determined approach. He reminds me a bit of Harold McGee.
On a related note is this recent post on Tasting Menu which talks about the links between tradition and innovation, about how each one informs and gives context to the other. I think that in much the way that This and McGee and Alton Brown are trying understand the basic properties of food and the science of what happens to it when cooked, a lot of cutting edge cooks (both in and out of the MG scene) are trying to understand the way people respond to food, the role that memory and tradition play in shaping the experience of eating.