STEM Ed Announcement: 12/7 Distinguished Faculty Lecture: Bret E. Jackson

[Morton Sternheim <mort@k12s.phast.umass.edu>]

The campus community is invited to attend the second 2009-2010
Distinguished Faculty Lecture on Monday, December 7 at 4 pm in the
Massachusetts Room, located on the third floor of the Mullins Center.
Professor Bret E. Jackson of the Chemistry Department will present ?How
Catalysts Make it Happen.? The lecture is free and open to the public
and a reception will immediately follow the talk.  Professor Jackson
will receive the Chancellor?s Medal, the highest honor bestowed by the
campus.

Catalysts?substances that significantly speed up chemical reactions
without themselves being consumed?play a vital role in laboratories,
industrial plants, and even our own bodies. Professor Jackson will
describe how his research aims to understand what?s happening during
catalysis on the molecular level, focusing on transition metal-based
catalysts used in catalytic converters and in producing ammonia for
fertilizers or hydrogen from methane, and on what makes a particular
metal a good or bad catalyst.

Additional information on the lectures, including biographies, is
available at http://www.umass.edu/umhome/future/faculty.html.