Pittsburgh, PA - The Pittsburgh Conference has announced that George M. Whitesides, Woodford L. and Ann A. Flowers University Professor, Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Harvard University, will be the Plenary Speaker at Pittcon 2009, March 8, 2009. The conference will be held March 8-13, 2009, at McCormick Place South, Chicago, IL.

 

Whitesides received an A.B. degree from Harvard University in 1960 and a Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology (with J.D. Roberts) in 1964. He was a member of the faculty of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1963 to 1982. He joined the Department of Chemistry of Harvard University in 1982. He was Department Chairman from 1986-89 and Mallinckrodt Professor of Chemistry from 1982-2004.

 

Whitesides' present research interests include physical and organic chemistry, materials science, biophysics, complexity and emergence, surface science, microfluidics, optics, self-assembly, micro- and nanotechnology, science for developing economies, catalysis, origin of life, and cell-surface biochemistry.

 

Regarding this year's Plenary Lecture, Pittcon 2009 Program Chair Mitchell Johnson commented, "Dr. Whitesides is an innovator--someone whose ideas have had substantial and lasting impact on so many areas in the natural sciences, not the least being the chemical measurement arena. We are very excited he is able to share his experience with leading analytical chemists from all over the world."