Preeminent Chemist Richard Zare to Speak at UNCA September 15-16;
Talk is Sixth Annual S. Dexter Squibb Lecture Series
Stanford University chemist Richard N. Zare will be the featured
speaker at UNC Asheville’s sixth annual S. Dexter Squibb Lecture Series
September 15-16. Several years ago national attention was focused on Zare
when his research on a meteorite found in the Antarctic provided evidence
of life on Mars. Zare’s two public talks will focus on the uses of laser
chemistry. Events are free and open to the public.
Zare will discuss "Life on Earth, Mars and Beyond" at 7:30
p.m. Monday, Sept. 15, in UNCA’s Robinson Hall room 125. This keynote
talk will focus on the origin of life, as it relates to biological
chirality and how these asymmetrical forms propagated into dominance. Zare
will explain the nature and origin of the molecular building blocks of
life, which are responsible for the transmission of genetic information
from one generation to the next.
Zare will explore "Investigations of Chemical Reactions with
Lasers" at 8 a.m., Tuesday, Sept. 16, in UNCA’s Robinson Hall room
125. The presentation will focus on recent advances in the simplest of all
neutral-neutral reactions. New data will be presented which shows that a
simple semiclassical model is able to capture many features of the
reaction dynamics.
Zare, the Marguerite Blake Wilbur Professor in Natural Science at
Stanford University, holds a doctorate in chemical physics from Harvard
University. He is renowned for his research in the area of laser
chemistry, resulting in a greater understanding of chemical reactions at
the molecular level. He is the author of more than 700 scientific
publications and served as chair of the National Science Board.
The S. Dexter Squibb Endowed Distinguished Lectureship brings
well-known scientists to the UNCA campus to give public and campus
lectures, and meet with UNCA students, faculty and high school science
students and administrators. The lecture series honors S. Dexter Squibb,
former UNCA Chemistry Department Chair. Squibb joined the faculty in 1964
and was instrumental in developing UNCA’s Chemistry Department into a
certified four-year program.
For more information, call UNCA’s Chemistry Department at
828/251-6443 or e-mail bhenderson@unca.edu.
Media Contacts:
- Dr. John Stevens, UNCA Chemistry Professor, 828/232-5173
- Jill Yarnall, UNCA Public Information Assistant Director, 828/251-6526
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