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Probst Lecture 2010


Dr. Gary M. Hieftje



        Gary M. Hieftje is Distinguished Professor and Mann Chair of Chemistry at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana.  His research interests include the investigation of basic mechanisms in atomic emission, absorption, fluorescence and mass spectrometric analysis, and the development of instrumentation and techniques for atomic methods of analysis.  He is interested also in the on-line computer control of chemical instrumentation and experiments, the use of time-resolved luminescence processes for analysis, the application of information theory to analytical chemistry, analytical mass spectrometry, near-infrared reflectance analysis, and the use of stochastic processes to extract basic and kinetic chemical information.  He has won numerous awards in the fields of analytical chemistry and spectroscopy, has held major offices in several scientific societies, and has served on the editorial boards of many major journals.  He is the author of over 500 publications, 10 books, and 15 patents.  More than 65 students have received doctorates under his direction.


Probst Lecture 2009



Dr. William A. Eaton


March 31, 2009
“Protein Folding Dynamics”
“Searching for a Cure for Sickle Cell Disease”

         William A. Eaton is the distinguished investigator and the Chief of Laboratory of Chemical Physics at National Institute of Diabetics and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) of National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the scientific director of intramural AIDS Targeted Antiviral Program of the Office of the director at NIH. Dr. Eaton received both M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Pennsylvania in 1964 and 1967. He was an NIH Postdoctoral Fellow from 1968 to 1972. His research focuses on kinetics, dynamics, and mechanisms of protein folding using pulsed laser methods, single molecule spectroscopy, theoretical models, and computer simulations; physical chemistry of sickle cell hemoglobin polymerization and high through-put screening for the drugs for sickle cell disease; cooperative interactions in multi-subunit proteins. Among the awards Dr. Eaton has received are the Founders Award of Biophysical Society (2006) and Gordon G. Hammes ACS Biochemistry Lectureship (2009). He has been the Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and American Biophysical Society, and member of National Science of Academy.  Dr. Eaton has served on a number of editorial boards, including Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS), Chemical Physics, and Journal of Physical Chemistry. He has published more than 140 prestigious publications, given hundreds of seminars, and has received recognition from chemistry, biochemistry, and biophysical societies.


Probst Lecture 2008



Dr. C. Dale Poulter

         C. Dale Poulter is the John A. Widtsoe Distinguished Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Utah. He earned his B.S. in 1964 from Louisiana State University and his Ph.D. in 1967 from the University of California, Berkeley. He was an NIH Postdoctoral Fellow from 1967 to 1969 with Saul Winstein at the University of California, Los Angeles. Dr. Poulterπs research combines synthetic and mechanistic organic chemistry with biochemistry and molecular biology to study the chemistry of enzyme catalysis. This work has focused on enzymes in the isoprenoid biosynthetic pathway, including those in sterol biosynthesis and protein prenylation. 

         Among the awards Poulter has received are an Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship (1975), the American Chemical Society Ernest Guenther Award (1991), an ACS Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award (1998), the ACS Repligen Award (2002), and the ACS James Flack Norris Award (2004).  He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.  Dr. Poulter has served on a number of ACS committees, NIH review panels, and editorial advisory boards. He has held several different offices in the Organic and Biological Divisions of ACS and served as an Associate Editor for the Journal of Organic Chemistry and for Organic Letters. Dr. Poulter is currently Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Organic Chemistry. He has consulted in the pharmaceutical industry and is a founding scientist of two start-up companies.



The Probst Lecture Series

The Department of Chemistry of Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE) initiated the Probst Lecture series in 1975 as a memorial to one of its founding faculty members, Professor William J. Probst.  Each year a noted chemist is invited for a visit that features several lectures.  An evening lecture usually consists of a topic that is broad in scope to attract the interest of alumni, faculty, and students throughout the arts and sciences, while a second afternoon lecture focuses on the guest's contributions to chemical research.  In recent years, the lecture series has been planned to coincide with the Chemistry Senior Assignment Poster Session and the Student Research Symposium.

2009 Dr. William A. Eaton, Searching for a Cure for Sickle Cell Disease
2008 Dr. Dale C. Poulter, The Terpenome. A Cornucopia of Natural Molecules for Life, Health, and Commerce
2007 Ms. Susan Marie Frontczak, Manya: A Living History of Marie Curie
2006 Dr. René Roy, Carbohydrates and Biological Recognition: Impact on the Development of Vaccines
2005 Dr. Robert F. Curl, The Discovery of the Fullerenes and the New World of Carbon Chemistry
2004 Dr. Bassam Z. Shakhashiri, Science is Fun
2003 Dr. George B. Richter-Addo, Small, Versatile, and Potent: NO and You
2002 Dr. William R. Heineman, Chemistry Sensors: Why They Are Important to You
2001 Dr. Purnendu K. Dasgupta, Science and Scientists: Culpability and the passage of innocence
2000 Dr. Allen J. Bard, Cold Fusion and Pathological Science
1999 Dr. Janet Osteryoung, Research: Who Pays and Who Benefits
1998 Dr. Ronald Breslow, The Chemistry of Tomorrow will Change Our World
1997 Dr. Fred Basolo, The Early History of Metal Complexes to Illustrate How Science Works
1996 Dr. Alfred Bader, The Adventures of a Chemist Collector
1995 Dr. Roald Hoffmann, The Same and Not the Same: the Rift Between the Sciences and Humanities
1994 Dr. Terence C. Owen, Pretty Colored Chemistry for Biology and Medicine: Better Things for Better Living
1993 Dr. Frederick Hawthorne, Boron Neutron Capture Therapy
1992 Dr. Harold Kroto, C60, Buckminsterfullerene, The Celestial Sphere Which Fell to Earth
1991 Dr. James L. Dye, Electride Structures
1990 Dr. Lawrence K. Montgomery, Organic Superconductors? You Must Be Kidding
1989 Dr. Norman R. Farnsworth, Prospects for Finding Anticancer Drugs from Plants and Marine Organisms
1988 Dr. Peter Kollman, Use of Computer Simulations in Chemistry
1987 Dr. John William Birks, Nuclear Winter - Ultraviolet Spring
1986 Dr. Jacqueline K. Barton, Molecular Travels Along the DNA Strand
1985 Dr. Paul Gassman, How to Bend a Carbon-Carbon Bond
1983 Dr. Michael Kasha, A New Look at the History and Design of String Instruments: Guitar, Viola, Violin
1982 Dr. Leo A. Paquette, The Dodecahedron Story
1981 Dr. Mildred Cohn, Nuclear Probes of Enzymatic Reactions
1980 Dr. William N. Lipscomb, How Do Enzymes Work?
1979 Dr. Carl Djerassi, The Future of Human Birth Control
1978 Dr. Melvin S. Newman, New Chemistry Involved in Studies on Synthesis of Carcinogenic Compounds
1977 Dr. Paul D. Bartlett, Competing Reaction Mechanisms in Organic Oxidation
1976 Dr. Robert E. Buckles, Halogen Addition Reactions: Simple Reactions Which Are Not So Simple

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