Student Hosted Colloquium

Thursday, February 21st
Professor Daniel Nocera
"The Molecular Chemistry of Renewable Energy"


4:15pm - 5:15pm
Braun Auditorium
S.G.Mudd Chemistry Building
Stanford University




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




About Nocera:
Daniel Nocera received his early education at Rutgers University where he was a Henry Rutgers Scholar, obtaining a B.S. degree in 1979 with Highest Honors. He moved to Pasadena, California where he began research on the electron transfer reactions of biological and inorganic systems with Professor Harry Gray at the California Institute of Technology. As a graduate student with Gray, he performed the first experiments on measuring the rates for electron transfer at fixed distances in proteins (cytochrome c). After earning his Ph.D. degree in 1984, he went to East Lansing, Michigan to take up a faculty appointment at Michigan State University. He joined the faculty of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a Professor of Chemistry in 1997 where he is the W. M. Keck Professor of Energy. Professor Nocera is widely recognized as a leading researcher in renewable energy at the molecular level. His group studies the basic mechanisms of energy conversion in biology and chemistry with primary focus in recent years on the photogeneration of hydrogen and oxygen from water. The overall water-splitting reaction requires the coupling of multielectron processes to protons, which are energetically uphill, thus requiring a light input. Nocera has pioneered each of these areas of science. Most examples of multielectron photoreactions have originated from his research group in the past decade. This work has relied on the generalization of the concept of two-electron mixed-valency in chemistry. He created the field of proton-coupled electron transfer (PCET) at a mechanistic level with the publication of the first ultrafast laser study of an electron transfer through a hydrogen bonded interface. With the frameworks of multielectron chemistry and PCET in place, Nocera has designed hydrogen- and oxygen-producing catalysts. Professor Nocera has received numerous accolades, which are highlighted by receipt of a Dreyfus Foundation Grant for Newly Appointed Young Faculty, a Presidential Young Investigator Award, and an Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship. Nocera is Editor of the Inorganic Chemistry Communications, serves on the Metallo-biochemistry Study Section of the National Institutes of Health and the Scientific Advisory Board of Polaroid Corporation. His research in energy conversion has been featured on the nationally broadcast television programs ABC Nightline and PBS NOVA in the US and Explora in Europe, as well as radio shows such as NPR. He developed the pilot that was used to begin the new PBS science program ScienceNow and his PBS NOVA show was nominated for a 2006 Emmy Award. In 2005, he was awarded the Italgas Prize for his fundamental contributions to the development of renewable energy at the molecular level.

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