George A. Abbott Lectureship

The Abbott Lectureship is designed to bring outstanding chemists to our department and to the area, to provide an opportunity for personal interaction with area students, practicing chemists, and faculty.

We have been fortunate to have some of the most outstanding chemists in the country present these endowed lectures, including Nobel Prize winners in Chemistry.

The George A. Abbott Lectureship was established by gifts from the University of North Dakota Alumni.

2022 Abbott Chemistry Lectures

Featuring Angela K. Wilson, Ph.D., John A. Hannah Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at Michigan State University and 2022 President of the American Chemical Society.

Schedule

About Dr. Angela K. Wilson

Dr. Wilson is the John A. Hannah Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at Michigan State University. She is also the associate dean for strategic initiatives in MSU’s College of Natural Science and director of the MSU Center for Quantum Computing, Science, and Engineering.

Angela earned a Ph.D. in chemical physics from the University of Minnesota and a B.S. in chemistry from Eastern Washington University. She was a postdoctoral fellow at the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory (EMSL) at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in theoretical physical chemistry.  

In 2000, she joined the faculty at the University of North Texas where she ultimately became a Regents Professor and the Associate Vice Provost for Faculty and head of UNT’s Office of Faculty Success. She was also the founder and Director of the Center for Advanced Scientific Computing and Modeling (CASCaM). From 2016-2018, she served as the Director (head) of the Division of Chemistry at the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF). At NSF, she was responsible for nearly $1B in investments, and led the strategic direction and national funding priorities in chemistry for NSF.

Her computational/theoretical physical chemistry research spans quantum mechanics and quantum dynamics method development, heavy element chemistry, environmental chemistry, drug development, heterogeneous and homogeneous catalysis, thermodynamics, CO2 sequestration and utilization, and modeling of ultrafast phenomena.  Her computational chemistry methodologies including ab initio composite methods, Gaussian basis sets, multireference wavefunction diagnostics, and complete basis set strategies are utilized worldwide.  These efforts have been enabled by over 150 students and postdoctoral fellows who have worked with Angela.

Among Angela’s national and international honors are Fellow of the American Chemical Society, Fellow of the American Physical Society, Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Francis P. Garvan-John M. Olin Medal (ACS), International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) Distinguished Woman in Chemistry, and the Wilfred T. Doherty Award (ACS Dallas-Ft. Worth Section). In 2018, she was inducted into the Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame. She is on the editorial advisory board of the Journal of Physical Chemistry and Cell Reports Physical Chemistry, as well as the editorial board of Scientific Reports. She has served as President of the Division of Physical and Biophysical Chemistry of the International Union of  Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), Chair of the Chemistry Section of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and as Editor for Computational and Theoretical Chemistry. She has edited six books including “Pioneers of Quantum Chemistry”.

Angela is the 2022 President of the American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific society.

Previous Abbott Lectures