GRANVILLE -- A world-renowned researcher is the featured speaker at this year's Anderson Lecture Series at Denison University. George Whitesides will discuss "Nanoscience and Nanotechnology" at 8 p.m. on Thursday (Feb. 24) in Slayter Auditorium. The convocation is free and open to the public. His talk will summarize some of the science on which nanotechnology will rest and compare nano and micro-technology in their characteristics and applications.

Whitesides is the Mallinckrodt Professor of Chemistry at Harvard University, where he has taught since 1982. A member of the National Academy of the Sciences and Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences, Whitesides is among the most prominent researchers in nanoscience, a rapidly growing field focused on the development of nanotechnology. The term nanotechnology is widely used to describe structures and materials ranging from one billionth to 100 billionth of a meter.

"Nanotechnology" is a word that is just beginning to emerge as a reality. The range of technological opportunities at the micron scale, combined with a growing capability for making true nanostructures -- structures with critical dimensions smaller than 100 nm in size, suggests the opportunity to build complex technology of very small devices.

Whitesides and his Harvard group work in four areas: biochemistry, materials science, catalysis and physical organic chemistry. Each of these areas requires the development of the fundamental skills of experimental chemistry, such as synthesis and characterization of new compounds, and examination of relations between molecular structure and reactivity or physical properties. His group uses an eclectic and generalist approach, with research on a particular problem requiring organic synthesis, organometallic chemistry, spectroscopy, computer analysis, biochemistry, molecular biology or a wide range of other techniques.

The author of more than 70 publications, his paper "Formulation of monolayer films by the spontaneous assembly of organic thiols from a solution onto gold" that appeared in the Journal of the American Chemical Society in 1989 has been cited more than 1,400 times. Whitesides is the co-author, with Felice Frankel of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.), ofOn the Surface of Things: Images of the Extraordinary in Science.

Whitesides was awarded both the Pittsburgh Analytical Chemistry Award and the Kyoto Prize for Advanced Technology in 2003. He also received the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Award for Significant Technical Achievement (1996), the National Medal of Science (1998) and the Materials Research Society's Von Hippel Award (2000). Whitesides earned a bachelor's degree from Harvard University in 1960 and a doctorate from California Institute of Technology in 1964. He served as a member of the M.I.T. faculty from 1963 to 1982.

The late J. Reid Anderson '38 and his widow, Polly Anderson, established the Reid and Polly Anderson Program in the Sciences in 1986 to strengthen science education at Denison. The program includes the Anderson Lecture Series, the Anderson Science Scholarships and the Anderson Research Assistantships for Science Students. The Anderson Lectures are an ongoing series of all-college presentations by distinguished expositors of the pure and applied sciences, aimed at elevating the general understanding of the natural sciences, mathematics and certain technologies.

Calendar Listing:

CALENDAR LISTING: Denison University, Granville -- The Anderson Lecture Series presents George Whitesides to discuss "Nanoscience and Nanotechnology"; 8 p.m., Thursday (Feb. 24), Slayter Auditorium. Free and open to the public. Call (740) 587-6261 to confirm information.

For press inquiries:

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Barbara Stambaugh

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Director, Media Relations

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stambaughb@denison.edu

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(740) 587-8575