Highlands in Chemistry
The Highlands in Chemistry seminar series is a weekly event hosted by the Department of Chemistry designed to share research ideas within the chemistry community and beyond. The series was started in 1966 by Alan Clifford, who was appointed chemistry department head the same year. Speakers from all over the world involved in academia, industry, and government come to share their research with colleagues and students.
Highlands seminars take place on Fridays throughout the semester at 2:30 p.m. This semester, Highlands seminars will take place in-person unless otherwise noted. In-person seminars will be held in Hahn Hall North 140. Virtual seminars will be held over Zoom. To attend virtual seminars, please contact Corrin Lundquist (clund5@vt.edu) for the link up to a week in advance.
Upcoming Seminars
October 22
Cynthia Dowd
George Washington University
"Hitting Malaria and Tuberculosis with the Same Bullet: Dxr Inhibitors as Antimicrobials"
Host: Paul Carlier
Location: Hahn Hall North 140 (in-person)
October 29
Archana Raja
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab
"Visualizing ultrafast lattice dynamics at 2D van der Waals interfaces using ultrafast electron diffraction"
Host: Lina Quan
Location: Zoom (virtual)
November 5
H.N. Cheng
American Chemical Society
"Future Prospects and Opportunities for Chemistry"
Host: Robert Moore
Location: Zoom (virtual)
November 12
Melanie Cooper
Michigan State University
"Evidence-Based Approaches to Curriculum Reform and Assessment"
Host: HHMI (Amanda Morris)
Location: Hahn Hall North 140 (in-person)
November 19
Marc Hillmyer
University of Minnesota
"Architectural control in high-performance sustainable aliphatic polyester block polymers"
Host: Greg Liu
Location: Zoom (virtual)
December 3
Mo Seyedsayamdost
Princeton University
"Discovering new chemistry in the microbial world"
Host: Emily Mevers
Location: Zoom (virtual)
Past Seminars
September 3
Jeff Byers
Boston College
"Capitalizing on Redox-Switching and Host-Guest Interactions in Catalysis"
Host: John Matson
Location: Hahn Hall North 140 (in-person)
September 10
Joshua Pierce
North Carolina State University
"Synthetic Chemistry at the Interface of Biology: Reactions, Natural Products and Drugs"
Host: Webster Santos
Location: Hahn Hall North 140 (in-person)
September 17
Ben Shen
Scripps Research Institute
"Leveraging a Large Microbial Strain Collection for Natural Products Studies"
Host: Andrew Lowell
Location: Hahn Hall North 140 (in-person)
September 24
Connie Lu
University of Minnesota
"Rhodium-Group 13 Catalysts for Challenging Hydrodefluorination Reactions"
Host: Diana Iovan
Location: Hahn Hall North 140 (in-person)
October 8
Natalia Shustova
University of South Carolina
"Photophysics and Electronic Structure of Metal-Organic Frameworks"
Host: Amanda Morris
Location: Hahn Hall North 140 (in-person)
October 15
Jing Gu
San Diego State University
"The Water-Energy Nexus: Microbial Photoelectrochemical Conversion for Solar Fuel Generation and Wastewater Treatment"
Host: Feng Lin
Location: Zoom (virtual)