Feb 25 2009
Nanoscience and its applications will play a major role in future scientific and medical breakthroughs. For the past two decades, A. Paul Alivisatos, Ph.D., has been at the forefront of this revolution. Alivisatos will be at WUSTL 11 a.m. Wednesday, March 4, in Graham Chapel to deliver the Arthur Holly Compton Lecture on "The Development of New Nanocrystal Molecules for Biological Sensing and Detecting" for the Assembly Series.
Alivisatos has gained worldwide recognition for his pioneering work in the creation of nanocrystals that are now being used as tracers that, depending on size, emit light of different colors.
His many contributions to nanotechnology have been acknowledged through numerous honors, including membership in the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
He is a Fellow in the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Physical Society. His research has been published in the journals Nature and Science.
In the private sector, he is founder and editor-in-chief of Nano Letters, a journal of the American Chemical Society, as well as the scientific founder of the Quantum Dot Corp. He has helped launch several successful nanotech startups and has mentored a growing number of young nanoresearchers.
Alivisatos earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry from the University of Chicago, graduating with honors in 1981. He earned a doctorate in chemical physics from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1986.
After postdoctoral work at AT&T Bell Labs, he joined the faculty at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1988. He is the Larry and Diane Bock Professor of Nanotechnology and holds a joint appointment as professor in the departments of chemistry and materials science. In addition, he is associate lab director for physical sciences and director of the materials sciences division at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab.
The lecture is free and open to the public.
For more information, call 935-4620 or visit the assemblyseries.wustl.edu.