Carolyn Bertozzi Named Kavli Lecturer

ACS has selected Carolyn R. Bertozzi, the T. Z. & Irmgard Chu Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and professor of molecular and cell biology at the University of California, Berkeley, to be the lecturer for The Kavli Foundation Innovations in Chemistry Lecture program at the 2012 spring ACS national meeting in San Diego.

The program is designed to address the urgent need for vigorous, outside-the-box thinking by scientists as they tackle the world’s mounting challenges, including climate change, emerging diseases, and water and energy shortages (C&EN, July 19, 2010, page 42). The lectures take place during the ACS national meetings and are sponsored by The Kavli Foundation, a philanthropic organization that supports basic scientific research.

Bertozzi’s lecture will describe her research at the interface of synthetic methodology and biology, in particular the development of bioorthogonal chemistry as a powerful tool kit for studying biochemical pathways in living organisms.

“The Kavli Foundation has demonstrated extraordinary vision and leadership in their support of leading-edge basic science research and in promoting the public understanding of how critical science is for the human condition,” Bertozzi says. The lecture series “provides scientists like me with a valuable opportunity to share research results with the citizens that support us,” she adds. “As well, it is an opportunity to communicate to the next generation of students how important the chemical sciences are for solving central problems of humanity.”