Recent and Upcoming Events

On May 10th, Prof. George M. Whitesides, Woodford L. and Ann A. Flowers University Professor from Harvard University, presented the 11th Howard Tieckelmann Memorial Lecture. The Tieckelmann Lecture was established in 2009 by family, friends, and former students to honor the legacy and memory of Prof. Howard Tieckelmann. Through their generosity, and the leadership of Dr. Robert Tieckelmann (UB BS in Chemistry), the Lecture has become our department’s signature annual seminar event. Over the past decade, we have been fortunate to attract a truly distinguished group of speakers from wide-ranging areas of chemistry, including 10 members of the National Academy of Sciences, 5 Winners of the National Medal of Science, 5 Priestley Medalists, and 2 Nobel Laureates. Prof. Whitesides’ lecture, “New Kinds of ‘Chemistry’,” highlighted his research team’s groundbreaking advances in the wide-ranging areas of information storage, soft robotics, and the use of density as a tool for chemistry and biology. The lecture was followed by a lively question and answer session and a reception with Prof. Whitesides, faculty, and distinguished guests.

The department’s Foster Colloquium series, Organic Chemistry and Chemical Biology seminar series, and Chemistry MEETS (Materials, Energy, and EnvironmenT Seminar) series are held throughout the academic year. These seminar events bring speakers from academia and industry to our department to present their research and to meet with faculty and students. They also provide great opportunities to showcase our department!

Prof. Andrew Hamilton, President of New York University, will present the 12th Tieckelmann Lecture on May 1, 2020.

UB hosted the 37th Graduate Student Symposium from May 20th to 22nd. The GSS is going strong! This year’s event was highlighted by keynote lectures by Dr. George Grobe III, Vice President of Research and Development for Vision Care, Bausch and Lomb; Prof. Julia Laskin, William F. and Patty J. Miller Professor at Purdue University; and Prof. Andy Borovik, Professor of Chemistry at University of California Irvine. Additionally, the GSS featured 62 talks and 21 poster presentations by students from UB and elsewhere. Students from 13 universities in the US and Canada participated. As always, the GSS was run entirely by our graduate students. This year, the tireless efforts of graduate students Emily Sekera and Anthony Cannella made the event another great success. The GSS remains a signature event that attracts distinguished keynote speakers, provides students with an opportunity to present their research and to network, and showcases our department and graduate program.

Spring 2020 National ACS Meeting in Philadelphia.