General Lecture

"The Genius of Michael Faraday"

Thursday, February 20, 2003
7:30 p.m., PS H-150

Lord Rutherford said of Michael Faraday that he was one of the greatest experimenters ever; Albert Einstein believed that Faraday was responsible for the greatest change in the intellectual structure of physics since Newton. There is little doubt that Faraday bequeathed a greater corpus of experimental information and discovery than any other physical scientist. How did it come about that Faraday, a deeply religious man who left school at thirteen to become an errand boy and then an apprentice to a bookbinder (a young man who never attended high school or a university and knew no mathematics) could reach such pinnacles? In terms that are intelligible to non-scientists and interested laypersons, I shall endeavor to answer the above and related questions. The tale of Faraday's achievements and discoveries is one of the most romantic in the history of science; his character, intellect and commitment speak to us through all ages.

Technical Presentation

"The Role of Catalysis in Clean Technology and Green Chemistry"

Friday, February 21, 2003

3:40 p.m., PS H-150

The lecture will illustrate how catalysis can meet the pressing need for (i) chemical, petrochemical and pharmaceutical processes that may be conducted in a one-step, solvent-free manner and use air as the preferred oxidant; (ii) industrial processes that minimize consumption of energy, production of waste or the use of corrosive, and nonbiodegradable materials; (iii) cleaner fuels or ones that convert chemical energy to electricity, silently and without production of noxious oxides and particulates, with emphasis on principles rather than practice. Eight distinct ways of producing adipic acid (annual worldwide production 2.5 million tons) will be outlined starting with the currently favored industrial process (which uses nitric acid and generates massive quantities of nitrous oxide that contributes to global warming and ozone depletion) and ending with a heterogeneous catalytic method that converts cyclohexane to the acid using oxygen. High-performance nanocatalysts for single-step hydrogenations, derived from sustainable sources into desirable products will also be highlighted. Some developments in applied catalysis and biotechnology, as well as the quest for new solid catalysts will also be summarized.

Biographical Sketch of Sir John Meurig Thomas

Born December 1932 in South Wales, the son of a coal miner, Sir John’s interest in science was greatly aroused as a teenager when his physics teacher talked about the life and work of Michael Faraday, who has remained one of his scientific heroes. He graduated with a Bachelors degree from the University of Wales, Swansea, the town renowned as the birthplace of Dylan Thomas (no relation). He completed his Ph.D. at the University of London and worked with the U.K. Atomic Energy Authority for a year, before taking up his first academic appointment in 1958 at the University of Wales, where inter alia he demonstrated the profound influence that dislocations and other structural imperfections exert upon the chemical, electronic and surface properties of solids. He became Professor and Head of Chemistry at the University of Wales in 1969, where he pioneered the application of electron microscopy in chemistry. In 1978 he was invited to take up the Headship of the Department of Physical Chemistry, University of Cambridge, where his development and exploitation of new techniques in solid state and materials science and his design and synthesis of new catalysts progressed greatly. From 1986 to 1991 he became Director of the Royal Institution of Great Britain, where he occupied the Chair that was created for Michael Faraday, and was Director of the Davy Faraday Research Laboratory.

Throughout his career he has done much to popularize science, giving numerous lecture-demonstrations, radio, television and National Portrait Gallery talks. In 1987 his Royal Institution Christmas Lectures on crystals was broadcast on national television. He served from 1982-1985 as a science advisor in the U.K. Government Cabinet Office Committee, as Chairman of CHEMRAWN (Chemical Research Applied to World Needs), a Trustee of the Science Museum and of the Natural History Museum, London. In 1991 he was knighted for his services to chemistry and the popularization of science. In recognition of his contributions to geochemistry, a new mineral, meurigite, was named after him. He is the author of over 900 research papers, ten patents, two texts on heterogeneous catalysis (1967 and 1997), and of Michael Faraday and the Royal Institution: The Genius of Man and Place (1991). His awards include the Davy Medal and Rutherford Lectureships of the Royal Society, the Faraday Medal (and five other) of the Royal Society of Chemistry, the Semenov Centenary Medal of the Russian Academy of Science, and the Willard Gibbs Gold Medal of the American Chemical Society. He was the first recipient of the Award for Creative Research in Homogeneous and Heterogeneous Catalysis of the ACS. He is a Foreign Member or Honorary Foreign Fellow of 13 national and international academies including the American Philosophical Society and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.