2005 Press Releases

04 Apr 2005

Annual Chemistry Award Lecture - University College Cork


Annual Chemistry Award Lecture to be delivered at University College Cork

"Tooling Up for Nanoworld:  The 'Magic' of Molecular Machines" is the title of a lecture to be delivered at UCC on Wednesday next, 6 April.  Hosted by the Chemistry Department UCC in conjunction with the Institute of Chemistry of Ireland, this award lecture will be delivered by Professor David Leigh, Department of Chemistry, University of Edinburgh who is the 2005 recipient of Institute of Chemistry of Ireland Annual Award for Chemistry.  The award recognised the major contribution of individuals to the area of chemistry.

The Institute of Chemistry is the professional body representing chemists in Ireland. Its members are chemists who satisfy the requirements of the Institute with regard to qualifications and experience. The Institute promotes the study of chemistry, sets professional standards and organises lectures, meetings and social events for its members. It offers advice and comment to Government in areas relevant to the profession. Irish Chemical News, the official journal of the Institute is published twice yearly.

The lecture takes place on Wednesday next, 6 April at 4pm, in G18 Kane Building, UCC.   All those interested are most welcome to attend.

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NOTES

About Prof. Leigh's lecture
The machines we use in everyday life are made up of ordered assemblies of moving parts (cogs, wheels, spindles, pistons etc), the movement of each of which is used to perform a task necessary for the overall function of the machine. One of the hottest current areas of chemistry is making molecules with moving parts, with the goal that they can be built up into ordered assemblies that function as nanoscopic machines carrying out tasks that single molecules are unable to do. We will discuss the latest developments scientists have made in this field including approaches to 'smart' materials, whether nanobots are science fact or science fiction, and the possibility of computers based on 'molecular electronics'. We shall also investigate whether, as Arthur C Clarke once suggested, 'sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic'!
For recent papers from the Leigh research group see: Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 42, 5886-5589 (2003); Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 42, 3379-3383 (2003); Nature, 424, 174-179 (2003); Science, 306, 1532-1537 (2004).

About Prof. David A. Leigh
Prof. Leigh studied at the University of Sheffield, receiving his Ph.D. degree in 1987. After a postdoctoral stay at the Canadian National Research Council in Ottawa, he was appointed to the academic staff at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST) as a lecturer in organic chemistry, and was promoted to reader in 1996. In 1998 he took the chair of synthetic chemistry at the University of Warwick and was awarded an EPSRC advanced research fellowship. He is currently the Forbes Professor of Chemistry at the University of Edinburgh. Prof. Leigh's research interests lie in the area of nanotechnology, supramolecular chemistry (chemistry 'beyond the molecule') and the synthesis of molecular machines,  Prof. Leigh is widely regarded as a gifted communicator of his ideas and research result and is the author of over 110 research publications, many of which have received international acclaim. He has been honoured with several awards, including the Royal Society of Chemistry's award for Supramolecular Chemistry in 2003.


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