Contact: Sammy McDavid
STARKVILLE, Miss.--Sir Harold W. Kroto, winner of the 1996 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, will be featured Oct. 26 in a special program at Mississippi State.
Sponsored by the university's chemistry department, he will discuss his much-praised and groundbreaking research during a 7 p.m. public program in Lee Hall's Bettersworth Auditorium.
"Carbon in Nano and Outer Space" is the title of his presentation, which also is co-sponsored by the College of Arts and Sciences, of which the chemistry department is a part.
Kroto is the Frances Epps Professor of Chemistry at Florida State University. He is a doctoral graduate of the University of Sheffield, England.
Nanoscience and nanotechnology involve the creation, study and application of accurately constructed, complex molecules with hundreds of thousands of atoms and overall nanoscale dimensions. Considered the defining sciences of the 21st century, they offer seemingly endless opportunities to advance socio-economic and humanitarian benefits, according to Kroto and other scientists working in the field.
Nanoscale devices are predicted by researchers to soon replace silicon and metal in chips to make possible pocket supercomputers. The tensile strengths of these new materials also promise other exciting possibilities in engineering. For more, click here.
Kroto is a Fellow of the Royal Society of London and served 2002-04 as president of the Royal Society of Chemistry. Among his other major honors are the 1994 Hewlett Packard Europhysics Prize (shared), 2004 Copley Medal and 2001 Faraday Award. More biographical information can be found here.
For additional information on the program, telephone the chemistry department at 662-325-3584 or visit www.chemistry.msstate.edu/seminars/featured/.