Ott Lecture features award-winning chemist

The Arnold C. Ott Lectureship in Chemistry features Harry B. Gray, professor of chemistry and founding director of the Beckman Institute at the California Institute of Technology.

Gray will give a public lecture September 22 and address Grand Valley students September 23. His public lecture, “The 21st Century Solar Army,” will be held in Grand Rapids at the Cook-DeVos Center for Health Sciences.

“The sun is a boundless source of clean energy, but it goes down every night,” said Gray. “We and many others are trying to design solar-driven molecular machines that could be used on a global scale to store solar energy by splitting water into its elemental components, hydrogen and oxygen. We have recruited hundreds of students to join a solar army whose mission is the discovery of brand new metal-oxide catalysts for solar water splitters.”

Gray’s research addresses a wide range of fundamental problems in inorganic chemistry, biochemistry and biophysics. Electron transfer chemistry is a unifying theme for much of this research.

The 21st Century Solar Army
Thursday, September 22
5 p.m. Reception
6 p.m. Lecture
Cook-DeVos Center for Health Sciences, Hagar Auditorium

Electron Flow through Proteins
Friday, September 23
1 p.m.
123 Manitou Hall
GVSU Allendale Campus

Gray is the Arnold O. Beckman Professor of Chemistry at the California Institute of Technology. Gray has published more than 750 research papers and 18 books. He has received several medals including the National Medal of Science from President Ronald Reagan (1986), the National Academy of Sciences Award in Chemical Sciences (2003), the Wolf Prize (2004) and six national awards from the American Chemical Society.

The lectures are free and open to the public. For more information, contact the GVSU Chemistry Department at (616) 331-3317 or visit www.gvsu.edu/chem.