Three Nobel Laureates Will Be Among Speakers At New Materials Conference At UTD Dec. 5-7

The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) will host several of the best-known names in the field of material sciences next week during a conference in honor of the accomplishments of Dr. Alan G. MacDiarmid, the 2000 Nobel Laureate in chemistry and occupant of the James Von Ehr Distinguished Chair in Science and Technology at UTD.

The theme of the conference is “Mountains to Climb: New Phenomena, Materials and Technologies for the 21st Century.”

A welcome reception will be held at the DoubleTree Hotel Dallas-Lincoln Centre at the Tollway and LBJ Freeway at 6:30 p.m. on Dec. 5. The conference will begin at 8:30 a.m. the following morning in the Galaxy Rooms in the Student Union building on campus.

Attendees will hear presentations by three Nobel Laureates – MacDiarmid, Dr. Alan J. Heeger, co-winner in chemistry in 2000, and the 1996 winner in chemistry, Dr. Richard Smalley. Other speakers on the first day of the conference will include Ray Baughman of UTD, Fred Wudl of The University of California at Los Angeles, William Salaneck of Linkoping in Sweden, Shilun Qiu of Jilin University in China, Klaus Muellen of the Max Planck Institute in Germany and Gordon Wallace of the University of Wollongong in Australia.

“It is remarkable – we have both quality and quantity at this conference,” said Dr. Da Hsuan Feng, vice president for research and graduate education at UTD. “The audience will get an overview of where material science is heading from those who will take the lead in making it happen. It is really exciting.”

A banquet will be held at the DoubleTree Hotel the evening of Dec. 6 and will feature a presentation by Zyvex Corporation President and Chief Executive Officer James Von Ehr.

The presentations will resume at 8 a.m. on Dec. 7 in the Student Union. Among the speakers that day will be Arthur Epstein of Ohio State University, Jean-Luc Bredas of The University of Arizona, Ester Conwell of Rochester University, Ananth Dodabalpur of The University of Texas at Austin, Ron Elsenbaumer of The University of Texas at Arlington, George Whitesides of Harvard University and Hai-Lung Dai of the University of Pennsylvania. The conference is scheduled to end at noon.

The conference is free and open to the public. There is a $40 fee to attend the banquet on Dec. 6. For additional information, or to register, visit http://www.utdallas.edu/research/climb.htm or call 972-883-4568.