The Department of Chemistry at Tennessee Tech University has been named one of only eight institutions in the United States to be awarded the prestigious Jean Dreyfus Lectureship for Undergraduate Institutions Award.

The award is given by The Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation in New York, a foundation created by chemist and investor Camille in honor of his brother Henry and dedicated to the advancement of the chemical sciences. The award is named for Jean Dreyfus, Camille’s wife, who served as the president of the foundation after her husband’s death.

As one of the recipients of this annual award, Wilson Gichuhi, Ph.D., an associate professor of chemistry at Tech, was awarded an $18,500 grant to both support summer research for two of his undergraduate students at Tech as well as to bring a leading expert in chemical sciences to campus to give two lectures to all interested students.

Gichuhi has invited Dan Neumark, the chancellor's professor of chemistry at the University of California Berkeley and Chemical Science Division’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, to speak on campus at the end of this September.

“Dr. Neumark is doing cutting-edge research in physical chemistry,” Gichuhi explained. “I wanted to motivate our students and expose them to this new research in the field, while also making connections with California Berkeley.”

Neumark's research involves studying molecules at temperatures close to absolute zero, mimicking conditions found in interstellar space. His work has applications across various scientific fields, including physics, engineering and chemistry. He has received numerous prestigious awards throughout his career, including the ACS Nobel Laureate Signature Award, the Peter Debye Award in Physical Chemistry, the Dudley R. Herschbach Medal and the Herbert P. Broida Prize.

His first lecture at Tech will be geared toward university chemistry students and will be held at 3 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 26, in Lab Science Commons 1211 with the topic of "High-Resolution Photoelectron Spectroscopy of Vibrationally Excited Anions." This lecture will focus on cutting-edge research in physical chemistry, specifically discussing anions – negatively charged molecules –  and spectroscopy at extremely low temperatures.

A lecture open to the general public will be held at 3 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 27, in Stonecipher Lecture Hall 126 with the topic, “Chemistry Under the Arrow.” This lecture will address various aspects of chemistry, making it accessible to a wide range of attendees, including high school, middle school and elementary school teachers and students.

In addition to the lectures, Tech will host the Jean Dreyfus Lectureship Symposium where students from various STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics) disciplines can present academic posters and interact with Neumark one-on-one.

“It is a great honor to be the first university in the state of Tennessee to receive such an award and bring such a preeminent chemist to the campus to give talks,” Gichuhi said.

For more details on Neumark’s research, visit http://bromine.cchem.berkeley.edu/.