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.
2024 Abbott Chemistry Lectures
Featuring Dr. Paul J. Chirik, Edwards S. Sanford Professor of Chemistry, Princeton University
| Lecture | Date/Time | Location |
|---|---|---|
Re-Imagining the Periodic Table: The Elements and YouLikely not a day goes by where you do not think about how you can change your lifestyle to become more sustainable. Should I drive an electric car? Stop using plastic? Can I live my life without interacting with products from the fossil fuel industry? Will wind and solar address all of our energy needs and is it really carbon neutral? Chemistry and molecular science are at the core of the answers to these important questions. Much is made about our “carbon footprint” but what Dr. Chirik's lecture will show is that we need to be more broadly focused on our “elemental footprint” – meaning that many of the products that enable our quality of life rely on some of the most exotic and scarce elements on earth. In addition to carbon, our plastics footprint has gained increased attention as accumulation of these materials in the environment has become both undeniable and problem. Are plastics a net positive or negative in society? Should we ban their use? Dr. Chirik's lecture will explore the chemistry behind plastics and more generally hydrocarbons, the opportunities and challenges presented by recycling and what, if any, alternatives are available. |
April 18, 2024, 7 p.m. | Abbott Hall 101 |
Catalysis with Iron, Cobalt and Nickel as an Enabling Tool for Chemical SynthesisTransition metal catalysis has revolutionized chemical synthesis. Reactions such as metal-catalyzed cross coupling, asymmetric hydrogenation and C–H functionalization have changed the way chemists approach bond constructions and ultimately expand molecular space. Dr. Chirik's group has been studying catalytic transformations with earth-abundant, first row transition metals that exploit the unique electronic structures available to these elements that provide new reactivity or selectivity. Levering one- or two-electron redox changes determines which application is most appropriate. For the former, unique metallobased radical chemistry has been applied to a C(sp3)–C(sp3) bond formation by cycloaddition and cross coupling methods for assembly of C(sp2)–C(sp3) bonds relevant to the synthesis of active pharmaceutical ingredients. For two-electron reactivitiy, transformations of interest include site-selective C–H functionalization that is governed by the ability of the metal catalyst to distinguish the electronic differences between various C–H bonds and the site and stereoselective insertion of arenes into metal-hydride bonds. |
April 19, 2024, 12:20 p.m. |
Abbott Hall 138 |
Dr. Paul J. Chirik
About Dr. Paul J. Chirik
Paul J. Chirik is the Edwards S. Sanford Professor of Chemistry and a synthetic chemist with broad interests in catalysis and sustainability. A principal focus has been catalysis with earth-abundant transition metals and the interplay of electronic structure with various applications in the synthesis of fuels, pharmaceuticals, fragrances and chemically recyclable plastics. A native of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he obtained his B. S. in chemistry at Virginia Tech and then earned his Ph. D. at Caltech under the supervision of John Bercaw. Following a brief postdoctoral appointment at MIT, he began his independent career at Cornell in 2001. In 2006, he was promoted to Associate Professor and in 2009 was named the Peter J. W. Debye Professor of Chemistry. In 2011, Chirik and his research group moved to Princeton University. His teaching and research have been recognized with the Linus Pauling Medal, an Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award, the Blavatnik Award for Young Scientists, a Packard Fellowship in science and engineering, a Camille Dreyfus Teacher Scholar Award, the Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award, the Eni Environmental Solutions Prize and the Gabor Samorjai Award for Creative Research in Catalysis. In 2022, Chirik was elected a fellow of AAAS. He is the author of over 260 peer reviewed publications, inventor on more than 20 patent applications, is the current Editor-in-Chief of Organometallics and in 2023 was named Chair of the Department of Chemistry at Princeton.
Previous Abbott Lectures
| Year | Lecturer and Institution | Lecture Information |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Dr. Phil S. Baran, Professor, Department of Chemistry, The Scripps Research Institute | 2023 Info |
| 2022 | Dr. Angela K. Wilson, John A. Hannah Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at Michigan State University and 2022 President of the American Chemical Society | 2022 Info |
| 2021 | Dr. X. Chris Le, University of Alberta | 2021 Info |
| 2019 |
Dr. Christopher Cummins, Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
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| 2018 |
Dr. Thomas R. Hoye, University of Minnesota |
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| 2017 |
Dr. Jonathan V. Sweedler, University of Illinois, Urbana |
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| 2016 |
Dr. David Yarkony, John Hopkins University |
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| 2015 |
Dr. Donald J. Darensbourg, Texas A&M University |
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| 2014 |
Dr. Bruce Lipshutz, University of California, Santa Barbara |
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| 2013 |
Dr. Debra R. Rolison, U.S. Naval Research Laboratory |
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| 2012 |
Dr. Michael Ward, Molecular Design Institute, New York University |
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| 2011 |
Dr. Thomas J. Meyer. University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill |
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| 2010 |
Dr. Michael P. Doyle, University of Maryland |
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| 2009 |
Dr. Richard N. Zare, Stanford University |
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| 2008 |
Dr. Richard J. Saykally, University of California, Berkeley |
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| 2007 |
Dr. Catherine Fensealu, University of Maryland |
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| 2006 |
Dr. Malcolm Chisholm, Ohio State University |
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| 2005 |
Dr. Barry K. Carpenter, Cornell University |
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| 2004 |
Dr. William H. Miller. University of California, Berkeley |
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| 2003 |
Dr. Victor J. Hruby, University of Arizona |
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| 2002 |
Dr. Samuel H. Gellman, University of Wisconsin - Madison |