Purdue University
School of Chemical Engineering
Graduate Seminar Series
Dr. Joseph S. Francisco
Department of Chemistry and Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences
Purdue University
“Structure and Reactivity of Radical-Molecule Complexes:
New Frontier in Atmospheric Chemistry”
January 18, 2011
3:30 - 4:30 p.m.
FRNY G140
Abstract:
The chemistry in our atmosphere governs phenomena such as ozone depletion, acid rain, and climate change. Having a firm understanding of all chemical processes at the molecular level in the atmosphere will allow for the development of accurate global climate models. This talk will discuss some of the more traditional chemical reactions, and challenge our fundamental understanding of how these reactions occur under low temperature conditions which are characteristic of the atmosphere. Even the simplest atmospheric reactions involve novel mechanisms linked to radical-molecule complexes. The effects that radical-molecule complexes will have on the landscape of the atmosphere in terms of accounting for the abundance of radical species will be discussed. The chemistry role of radical-molecule has been largely unexplored. The influence and impact of radical-molecule complexes on both the mechanisms and kinetics on atmospheric reactions will be discussed.
Bio:
Joseph S. Francisco completed his undergraduate studies in Chemistry at the University of Texas at Austin with honors, and he received his Ph.D. in Chemical Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1983. Francisco spent 1983-1985 as a Research Fellow at Cambridge University in England, and returned to MIT as a Provost Postdoctoral Fellow. He is the William E. Moore Distinguished Professor of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences and Chemistry at Purdue University.
Francisco has received a National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator Award, an Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship, and a Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation Teacher-Scholar Award. In 1993, Francisco was a recipient of a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, which he spent at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology. In 1995, he received the Percy L. Julian Award for Pure and Applied Research, the highest research award from the National Organization for the Professional Advancement of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers. He was selected to be a Sigma Xi National Lecturer from 1995 to 1997. In 2007, he was the recipient of the Purdue University McCoy Award; this is the highest research award given to a faculty member for significant research contributions. He is an honorary life member of the Israel Chemical Society. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 2010, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Francisco was awarded an Alexander von Humboldt U.S. Senior Scientist Award by the German government, as well as being appointed a Senior Visiting Fellow at the Institute of Advanced Studies at the University of Bologna, Italy. He is Professeur Invite at the Universite de Paris-Est, France. As well as being a Visiting Professor at Uppsala Universitet, Sweden. He has been a member of the Naval Research Advisory Committee for the Department of Navy (appointed by the Secretary of the Navy, 1994-1996).
President Barack Obama appointed him as a member of the President’s Committee on the National Medal of Science serving the term from 2010-2012.
He was appointed Atmospheric and Ocean Science Editor for Pure and Applied Geophysics from 1998-2001. He has also served as a member of the Editorial Advisory Boards of Spectrochimica Acta Part A, Journal of Molecular Structure Theochem, and the Journal of Physical Chemistry. He is a co-author of the textbook Chemical Kinetics and Dynamics, published by Prentice-Hall, and translated in Japanese. He has also published over 400 peer-reviewed publications in the fields of atmospheric chemistry, chemical kinetics, quantum chemistry, laser photochemistry and spectroscopy.
He served as President for the National Organization for the Professional Advancement of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers from 2005-2007, and served on its Board of Directors from 2003-2007. Francisco currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Council for Chemical Research, on the Executive Board of the Council of Scientific Society Presidents, and on the Board of Directors for the American Chemical Society from 2009-2011. He was elected President of the American Chemical Society for 2010.
Tuskegee University awarded him an honorary degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa, in 2010.
Debbie Luedtke
Deborah P. Luedtke, Secretary
School of Chemical Engineering
Purdue University
Forney Hall, Room 1144
480 Stadium Mall Drive
West Lafayette, IN 47907-2100
Tel: 765-494-4365 / Fax: 765-494-0805
Email: dpmcdani@purdue.edu