Student Hosted Colloquium

Thursday, January 17th
Professor Geoff Coates
"Discovery and Development of New Catalysts for the Synthesis of Small Molecules and Polymers"
4:15pm - 5:15pm
Braun Lecture Hall
S.G.Mudd Chemistry Building
Stanford University







This seminar is being sponsored by Rohm and Haas and is free and open to the public. All Stanford University Chemistry students are encouraged to attend this special event.

About the seminar:
Society depends on polymeric materials now more than at any other time in history. Although synthetic polymers are indispensable in a diverse array of applications, ranging from commodity packaging and structural materials to technologically complex biomedical and electronic devices, their synthesis and proper disposal pose important environmental challenges. The focus of our research is the development of routes to polymers with reduced environmental impact. Two ways to achieve this goal are: 1) the development of synthetic procedures that reduce energy consumption, the use of non-renewable resources or the generation of chemical waste, and 2) the synthesis of polymers that are easily recycled and/or biodegradable. In this presentation, energy-efficient routes to biodegradable polymers from biorenewable resources will be presented.

About Coates:
Geoffrey W. Coates obtained a B.A. degree in chemistry from Wabash College in 1989 and a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from Stanford University in 1994. His thesis work, under the direction of Robert M. Waymouth, investigated the stereoselectivity of metallocene-based Ziegler-Natta catalysts. Following his doctoral studies, he was an NSF Postdoctoral Fellow with Robert H. Grubbs at the California Institute of Technology. During the summer of 1997 he joined the faculty of Cornell University as an Assistant Professor of Chemistry. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 2001, and to Professor in 2002. He became Associate Chair of Chemistry in 2004, and the Betty R. Miller Chair of Chemistry in 2007. He is an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow, and has received awards from the NSF (CAREER), MIT Technology Review Magazine (TR 100 Award), Research Corporation (Innovation Award), Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation (Young Investigator Award), David and Lucile Packard Foundation (Fellowship in Science and Engineering), ACS (A. C. Cope Scholar, A. K. Doolittle, and Akron Section Awards), and Dreyfus Foundation (Camille and Henry Dreyfus New Faculty and Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Awards). His main research interests are the design, synthesis, characterization, and applications of polymers, with an emphasis on catalytic transformations and the control of stereochemistry.

Questions
Please contact Patricia Dwyer at 650-723-4770.