| Susie P. Gonzalez | 210-999-8406 | susie.gonzalez@trinity.edu |
Nobel Prize Winner in Chemistry to Share Research on Nanotechnology and Discovery of ‘Buckyballs’ |
|
Professor Smalley will deliver the 2003 DeCoursey Lecture titled “Buckytubes! New Applications of Nanotechology.” The presentation is free and open to the public. Nanotechnology, an emerging and revolutionary technology, involves mechanical and electronic devices at the molecular level where lengths and diameters are measured in nanometers. A nanometer equals one-millionth of a millimeter. Professor Smalley is widely known for the discovery in 1985 of Buckminsterfullerenes, a new form of pure carbon that is formed when 60 carbon molecules combine to form a closed hollow sphere with a one-nanometer diameter. The discovery of this new molecule gave rise to the less formal name of “buckyball” and led to the development of an additional fullerene, the “buckytube,” a cylindrical form of “buckyballs.” “Buckytubes” have the form of one nanometer diameter fibers that are 10 times stronger than steel at a fraction of the weight. Professor Smalley has been involved in the development of new technologies based on these discoveries and believes that these and other nanotechnologies will have important and revolutionary applications in the near future. Professor Smalley received his bachelor’s degree in 1965 from the University of Michigan and Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1973, with an intervening four-year period in industry as a research chemist with Shell. During an unusually productive postdoctoral period at the University of Chicago, he pioneered what has become one of the most powerful techniques in chemical physics – supersonic beam laser spectroscopy. After arriving at Rice in 1976, he rose rapidly through the academic ranks and was named the Gene and Norman Hackerman chair in chemistry in 1982. He was one of the founders of the Rice Quantum Institute in 1979 and served as chairman of this interdisciplinary Institute from 1986 to 1996. Since January 1990 he has also been a professor in the physics department. He is the recipient of the 1991 Irving Langmuir Prize in Chemical Physics, the 1992 International Prize for New Materials (which he shares with his colleagues R.F. Curl and H.W. Kroto), the 1992 E.O. Lawrence Award of the U.S. Department of Energy, the 1992 Robert A. Welch Award in Chemistry, the 1993 William H. Nichols Medal of the American Chemical Society, the 1993 John Scott Award of the City of Philadelphia, the 1994 Europhysics Prize, the 1994 Harrison Howe Award, the 1995 Madison Marshall Award, the 1996 Franklin Medal, and the 1996 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Doors to Laurie Auditorium will open at 6:30 p.m. on the evening of the lecture. The lecture series is made possible by a gift from the late Gen. Elbert DeCoursey and Mrs. DeCoursey of San Antonio. For more information, contact Trinity’s department of academic affairs at (210) 999-8201. |
|
Back to the Trinity Today Page The Trinity Home Page |
Last updated on March 24, 2003 by the Office of Public Relations |
March
20, 2003 – Richard E. Smalley, the 1996 Nobel Prize winner for chemistry
and a professor of chemistry and physics at Rice University, will present
an illustrated lecture on the technological and economic implications
of his research on nanotechnology during a lecture at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday,
April 16 in Laurie Auditorium on the campus of Trinity University.
This event was originally scheduled for April 2.