Chemistry Seminars

Weekly Seminars

The chemistry department hosts a weekly seminar, presented by visiting speakers, students who have completed research, and faculty members. Chemistry seminars are open to everyone. Topics range from academic lectures to discussions about careers and research opportunities in chemistry.

Seminars for the Fall 23 Semester

Sept. 21: Gregory LeFevre, Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Iowa

Sept. 28: Research Opportunities for the spring semester

Oct. 26: Jeffrey Wilson ’92, Chemical Abstracts Service

Nov. 2: Elizabeth Trimmer, Department of Chemistry, Grinnell College

Nov. 16: Danforth Lecture: Richard Robinson, Materials Science and Engineering, Cornell University

Nov. 30: Student Research Presentation

Dec. 7: Student Research Presentation 

For more information, please contact the department chair.

Danforth Lectureship Series

Since 1979, the Danforth Lectureship has brought a distinguished chemist to Grinnell each year for a seminar or convocation and interactions with students. The lectureship honors Joseph D. Danforth, who served on the Grinnell chemistry faculty from 1947–79. After earning his doctorate from Purdue University, Danforth was an industrial research chemist for ten years before joining the Grinnell faculty. During his time at the College he taught and mentored scores of students who have become distinguished students in their own right.

Featured Danforth Lecturers

Danforth Lecture Series Presented by the Chemistry Department

Molecular architects find inspiration from nature for clues to designing new chemical compounds. Danforth lecture: Putting Atoms in their Place One Bond at a Time.

2019 Danforth Lecture Explores Chemistry's Place As "The Central Science"

Jochen Autschbach will provide a personal perspective on why chemistry deserves a central place in science, and provide some important, some entertaining, and some curious facts at 11 a.m. April 30, 2019.
Scholars Convocation 2016-17 lecture series Deborah Swackhamer '76
Alumni

Water Sustainability: Can it be achieved?

Environmental sciences expert Deborah Swackhamer ’76 discusses water sustainability for the Oct. 27, 2016, Scholars’ Convocation.

Select a decade tab to view a list of Danforth Lecturers during that time period

Institutional affiliations are relative to the time when the lecturer spoke at Grinnell College. 

2022– Andy Borovik, University of California-Irvine

2021– Héctor D. Abruña, Cornell University

  • Chemistry seminar: Energy Conversion and Storage: Novel Materials and Operando Methods
  • Scholars' Convocation: The Energy Landscape in the Age of Sustainability

Subdisciplines and themes

There are five chemistry subdisciplines recognized by the American Chemical Society: analytical chemistry, biochemistry, inorganic chemistry, organic chemistry, and physical chemistry. We also recognize several interdisciplinary themes that connect the science to society: computational chemistry, environmental chemistry, medicine, chemical education, and the chemical industry. 
Select a category to explore Danforth lecturers in these fields. Institutional affiliations are relative to the time when the lecturer spoke at Grinnell College. 

2011– R. Graham Cooks, Purdue University

  • Chemistry seminar: Chemical Analysis in Situ: Operating Rooms, Crime Scenes, Grocery Stores, & Factory Floors

1990– R. Stephen Berry, University of Chicago

  • Scholars’ Convocation: Guiding Policy for a Technological Future

2013– Harry Gray, California Institute of Technology

  • Scholars’ Convocation: The 21st Century Solar Army
  • Chemistry seminar: Electron Flow through Metalloproteins

2013– Judith P. Klinman, University of California, Berkeley

  • Scholars’ Convocation: After Science, There’s Laundry
  • Chemistry seminar: A Family of Copper Proteins that Perform Oxidative C-H Activation at a Water Interface

2006– Peter C. Agre, Duke Univ. Medical Center, 2003 Nobel Laureate in chemistry

  • Chemistry seminar: Blueprints for Cellular Plumbing System
  • Scholars’ Convocation: My Life in Science: From Lake Wobegon to Stockholm
  • HHMI Symposium Keynote Lecture: Aquaporin Water Channels - The Nobel Lecture

2004– Stephen J. Lippard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  • Scholars’ Convocation: Platinum Complexes: From DNA Damage to Curing Cancer
  • Chemistry seminar: Hydrocarbon Oxidation at Non-Heme Iron Centers

1993– Jacqueline K. Barton, California Institute of Technology

  • Scholars’ Convocation: Travels Along the DNA Helix
  • Chemistry seminar: Targeting DNA with Transition Metal Complexes

1986– Thomas R. Cech ’70, University of Colorado, 1989 Nobel Laureate in chemistry

  • Scholars’ Convocation: Catalysis by RNA

2009– Jonas C. Peters, Mass. Inst. of Technology

  • Scholars’ Convocation: The quest for earth abundant hydrogen evolution catalysts
  • Chemistry seminar: Multi-electron transformations at low-coordinate iron centers

1999– Doug Blanchard, NASA

  • Scholars’ Convocation: (Creation)2: Life on Mars
  • Chemistry seminar: Isotopic Dating of Geological Materials

1999– Angelica Stacy, University of California, Berkeley

1988– Clair Patterson ’43, California Institute of Technology

  • Scholars’ Convocation: Effects of 7000 Years of Lead Technology on Human Cultures and Health

2018– Robert G. Bergman, University of California, Berkeley

  • Scholars’ Convocation: Irreproducibility in the Scientific Literature, or How Often Do Scientists Tell the Truth, the Whole Truth and Nothing but the Truth?
  • Chemistry seminar: Selective Stoichiometric and Catalytic Reactions in Water-Soluble Host-Guest Supramolecular Systems

2015– Dale L. Boger, The Scripps Research Institute

  • Scholars’ Convocation: Discovery of a New Therapeutic Target in an Academic Setting
  • Chemistry seminar: Redesign of Vancomycin for Resistant Bacteria

2008– Robert H. Grubbs, Calif. Inst. of Technology, 2005 Nobel Laureate in chemistry

  • Chemistry seminar: Design of efficient olefin metathesis catalysts
  • Scholars’ Convocation: Where fundamental chemistry can take you: Following the Olefin metathesis

2002– K. Barry Sharpless, Scripps Research Institute, 2001 Nobel Laureate in chemistry

  • Scholars’ Convocation: An Asymmetric Odyssey Leading Back to Its Port of Origin
  • Chemistry seminar: Searching for New Reactivity

1981– Herbert C. Brown, Purdue University, 1979 Nobel Laureate in chemistry

  • Scholars’ Convocation: From Little Acorns to Tall Oaks — From Boranes through Organoboranes

2010– Geraldine Richmond, U. of Oregon

  • Scholars’ Convocation: Going Nonlinear to Understand Environmentally Important Processes at Liquid Surfaces
  • Chemistry seminar: Oil on Water: Calming the Seas but not the Science

2000– Cynthia M. Friend, Harvard University

  • Scholars’ Convocation: Science and Technology in Society
  • Chemistry seminar: Environmental Surface Chemistry: NO Reduction on Oxidized Molybdenum

2019– Jochen Autschbach, University at Buffalo, State University of New York

1996– Peter Kollman ’66, University of California, San Francisco

  • Scholars’ Convocation: Computer Modeling in Physics, Chemistry, and Biology: Both Numbers and Beautiful Pictures Give Lots of Insight
  • Chemistry seminar: Computer Imaging, Molecular Modeling, and Video Displays

2021– Héctor D. Abruña, Cornell University

  • Chemistry seminar: Energy Conversion and Storage: Novel Materials and Operando Methods
  • Scholars' Convocation: The Energy Landscape in the Age of Sustainability

2016– Deborah L. Swackhamer ’76, University of Minnesota

2014– Joseph S. Franciso, University of Nebraska, Lincoln; 2010 President of the American Chemical Society

  • Scholars' Convocation: From Earth’s Atmosphere to Planetary Engineering of Mars: An Adventure in Chemistry
  • Chemistry seminar: New Insights into HOCO Radical Chemistry

2013– Harry Gray, California Institute of Technology

  • Scholars’ Convocation: The 21st Century Solar Army
  • Chemistry seminar: Electron Flow through Metalloproteins

2010– Geraldine Richmond, U. of Oregon

  • Scholars’ Convocation: Going Nonlinear to Understand Environmentally Important Processes at Liquid Surfaces
  • Chemistry seminar: Oil on Water: Calming the Seas but not the Science

2001– Mario Molina, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1995 Nobel Laureate in chemistry

  • Scholars’ Convocation: The Antarctic Ozone Hole
  • Chemistry seminar: Chemistry on Ice Surfaces

2000– Cynthia M. Friend, Harvard University

  • Scholars’ Convocation: Science and Technology in Society
  • Chemistry seminar: Environmental Surface Chemistry: NO Reduction on Oxidized Molybdenum

1996– Dean Martin ’55, University of South Florida

  • Chemistry seminar: The Chemistry of the Sea
  • Scholars’ Convocation: Malthusian vs. Cornucopian Views of the Environment

1993– Margaret A. Tolbert ’79, University of Colorado

  • Scholars’ Convocation: Stratospheric Ozone Depletion at the Ends of the Earth and In Between

1984– Melvin Calvin, University of California, 1961 Nobel Laureate in chemistry

  • Scholars’ Convocation: Energy Agriculture

2015– Dale L. Boger, The Scripps Research Institute

  • Scholars’ Convocation: Discovery of a New Therapeutic Target in an Academic Setting
  • Chemistry seminar: Redesign of Vancomycin for Resistant Bacteria

2004– Stephen J. Lippard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  • Scholars’ Convocation: Platinum Complexes: From DNA Damage to Curing Cancer
  • Chemistry seminar: Hydrocarbon Oxidation at Non-Heme Iron Centers

1995– Carl Djerassi, Stanford University

  • Scholars’ Convocation: Birth Control in the Year 2001
  • Chemistry seminar: Science-in-fiction is not Science Fiction — Is it Autobiography?

1992– Shirley Malcom, American Association for the Advancement of Science

  • Scholars’ Convocation: Science: Making New Connections

1991– Bassam Shakhashiri, University of Wisconsin, 2012 President of the American Chemical Society

  • Scholars’ Convocation: Enhancing the Quality of Education in America

1987– Alfred Bader, Sigma Aldrich Co.

  • Scholars’ Convocation: The Bible Through Dutch Eyes

1985– George Hammond, Allied Chemical

  • Scholars’ Convocation: Flexibility of Scientific Dilettantism

1983– Derek Davenport, Purdue University

  • Scholars’ Convocation: The Relative Unimportance of the Invective Effect in Physical Organic Chemistry

1982– Mary Good, Universal Oil Products, Inc., 1987 President of the American Chemical Society

  • Scholars’ Convocation: Science and Society

1980– Thomas Lippincott, University of Arizona

  • Scholars’ Convocation: The Boltzmann Distribution

We use cookies to enable essential services and functionality on our site, enhance your user experience, provide better service through personalized content, collect data on how visitors interact with our site, and enable advertising services.

To accept the use of cookies and continue on to the site, click "I Agree." For more information about our use of cookies and how to opt out, please refer to our website privacy policy.