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|| High Country Press Newswire

March 13, 2008 issue

Noted Chemist Discusses Art and Science March 19

Noted chemist Sir Fraser Stoddart will present the talk Mingling Art with Science on Wednesday, March 19, at 8:00 p.m. in Farthing Auditorium at Appalachian State University. The talk draws attention to how art in its many different guises has fashioned Stoddart’s chemistry over the years.

The talk, sponsored by the university’s Morgan Science Lecture Series, is free and open to the public.

Stoddart also will present a scientific research lecture titled Chemistry and Molecular Nanotechnology in Tomorrow’s World to students and faculty on Tuesday, March 18, at 5:00 p.m. in I.G. Greer Auditorium.

Stoddart is one of the few chemists of the past quarter century to have created a new field of organic chemistry in which the mechanical bond is a preeminent feature of molecular compounds. He has pioneered processes that have been used as molecular switches and as motor-molecules in the fabrication of nanoelectronic devices and NanoElectroMechanical Systems (NEMS).

Stoddart has also designed and constructed nanovalves that are much smaller than living cells. The tiny valves are capable of crossing cell membranes and are being adapted for use as highly targeted drug-delivery systems for cancer cells.

Stoddart is widely regarded as one of the most prolific chemists of our time. He has published more than 800 scientific papers, trained more than 300 Ph.D. and postdoctoral students, and given more than 700 invited/plenary lectures during his career.

He is currently a Board of Trustees Professor of Chemistry at Northwestern University. He previously was the director of the California NanoSystems Institute and the Fred Kavli Chair of NanoSystems Sciences at UCLA.

A native of Edinburgh, Scotland, Stoddart was appointed by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II as a Knight Bachelor in her 2007 New Year’s Honours List for his services to chemistry and molecular nanotechnology.

Want To Go?

Date: Wednesday, March 19,
Time: 8:00 p.m.
Location: Farthing Auditorium
Cost: Free

Program on Tropical Glaciers March 20

Dr. Andrew Klein from the Department of Geography at Texas A&M University will present Monitoring of Tropical Glaciers from Space on Thursday, March 20, from 3:30 to 5:00 p.m. in Plemmons Student Union’s Linville Falls Room at Appalachian State University.

His talk is part of the Department of Geography and Planning’s Speaker Series and is supported by the university’s External Scholars Grant. The public is welcome.

Klein’s primary research interests are in application of remote sensing and GIS technologies to the study of the cryosphere. In particular, he is conducting research on the use of remote sensing to monitor changes in the extent of tropical glaciers and to map the maximum extent of glaciers in the Andes of South America during the last ice age.

He also is working with other Texas A&M researchers on an environmental monitoring program for the National Science Foundation’s McMurdo Station in Antarctica.

Klein has a Ph.D. in geological sciences from Cornell University.