MIT Professor to Discuss “Personalized Energy” on Earth Day
Contact: Francois Amar at (207) 581-1196; Joe Carr at (207) 581-3571
ORONO — One of the leading chemical researchers in renewable energy at the molecular level will be at the University of Maine for two lectures on Earth Day, April 22.
Daniel Nocera, the Henry Dreyfus Professor of Energy and Professor of Chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will speak at 3 p.m. on “Personalized Energy: A Carbon-Neutral Energy Supply for 1 (x 6 Billion).” This talk will be held in the Hill Auditorium of the Engineering and Science Building. At 7 p.m., he will give the Sigma Xi Distinguished Lecture on “Powering the Planet: The Challenge for Science in the 21st Century.” This lecture will be held in 316 Aubert Hall. Both talks are free and open to the public.
His appearance is sponsored by the Department of Chemistry and the UMaine Chapter of Sigma Xi with support from the Maine Section of the American Chemical Society and the UMaine Cultural Affairs/Distinguished Lecture Series.
Nocera, the recipient of the American Chemical Society’s 2009 Award in Inorganic Chemistry, appears regularly on ABC Nightline, PBS, NOVA and the Discovery Channel. Last summer in Science, he and a colleague announced the discovery of a process for storing solar energy in fuel cells, creating carbon-free electricity.
Nocera’s research focuses on the basic mechanisms of energy conversion in biology and chemistry, including solar generation of hydrogen and oxygen from water. Among his pioneering contributions to the development of renewable energy, Nocera discovered multielectron photoreactions for hydrogen production and solved an 80-year problem in bonding theory. He created the field of proton-coupled electron transfer at the molecular level, and demonstrated light-driven hydrogen and oxygen generating cycles.