UK Chemistry’s annual Naff Symposium to focus on 'Energetic Foundations and Futures of Life'
LEXINGTON, Ky. (March 21, 2024) — The University of Kentucky’s Department of Chemistry is set to host its 49th annual Naff Symposium, from 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Thursday, March 28, in the William T. Young Library Auditorium. The day's lectures will start with the dawn of life, which emerging science now explains in terms of reactions that capture and convert energy. Moreover, variants of those same reactions are being exploited in new research to offer paths forward, to a sustainable future. These topics have formed the 2024 symposium's theme of “Energetic Foundations and Futures of Life.”
Distinguished scholars from around the world will present their work to students and faculty from UK as well as other colleges and universities in Kentucky and the region.
Speakers and presentation topics include:
- Wolfgang Nitschke, Ph.D., from the French National Centre for Scientific Research, “How and Why Life Emerged: Insights from Microbial Bioenergetics, or Erwin Schrödinger meets Peter Mitchell”
- Gary W. Brudvig, Ph.D., from Yale University, “Learning from Nature How to Make Solar Fuels”
- Shelley Minteer, Ph.D., from Missouri University of Science and Technology, “Enzymatic Bioelectrocatalysis for Electrosynthesis”
The symposium will also host a poster competition in the atrium of the Jacobs Science Building. It will showcase the work of undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral researchers. There is a limit of 30 presenters and submissions must be received by March 22. Submission guidelines and a registration link can be found online here.
You can find more information about the symposium online here.
The annual Naff Symposium is held in honor of Anna S. Naff, a 1944 UK graduate, through the support of her late husband Benton Naff, Ph.D., of the National Institutes of Health. Learn more here.
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