Professor Paul Falkowski
Rutgers University, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences and Marine and Coastal Sciences
Virtual Meeting of the Princeton ACS Section
Wednesday, February 9, 2022
6:00 pm via Zoom
“Searching for the LEGOS of Life”
Professor Paul Falkowski
Rutgers University, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences and Marine and Coastal Sciences
Abstract: The black hole of chemistry is the origin of life. Over the past two centuries, many chemists have attempted to understand how molecules can both become replicative and catalytic, but we have, thus far failed to understand autocatalysis that can lead to a system of reactions far from thermodynamic equilibrium. In this talk I will discuss the distance between applied and theoretical chemistry, and most importantly, what questions each of us asked, and have answered, when we were six years old.
Biography: Paul G. Falkowski is the Bennett Smith Professor in Business and Natural Resources; Distinguished Professor, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences and Founding Director of Rutgers Energy Institute, Rutgers The State University of New Jersey.
Professor Paul Falkowski’s scientific interests include evolution of the Earth systems, paleoecology, photosynthesis, biophysics, biogeochemical cycles, and symbiosis. Professor Falkowski earned his B.S. and M.Sc. degrees from the City College of the City University of New York and his Ph.D. from the University of British Columbia. After a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Rhode Island, he joined Brookhaven National Laboratory in 1976 as a scientist in the newly formed Oceanographic Sciences Division. He served as head of the division from 1986 to 1991 and deputy chair in the Department of Applied Science from 1991-1995, responsible for the development and oversight of all environmental science programs. In 1996, he was appointed as the Cecil and Ida Green Distinguished Professor at the University of British Columbia. He moved to Rutgers University in 1998.
He received a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship in 1992; the Huntsman Medal in 1998; the Hutchinson Prize in 2000; the Vernadsky medal from the European Geosciences Union in 2007; the Ecology Institute Prize in 2010; the Albert 1st Medal in 2011; and the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement in 2018. In 2001, he was elected a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union; in 2002, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; in 2007, he was elected to the United States National Academy of Sciences; in 2008, he was elected as a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology; in 2016, he was elected as section chair for Environmental Sciences and Ecology in the United States National Academy of Sciences.
Registration: Registration for the meeting is required. Prior to the meeting, all who have registered will receive information on how to join the virtual platform.
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