The Robert W. Murray Lecture is an endowed lecture series established in 1998 to honor the the distinguished research career and many contributions to the UMSL campus during the more than 30-year career of the late Dr. Robert W. Murray, Curators' Professor Emeritus 1928 - 2012.
2023
Dr. Rachel Segalman (Chair of the Department of Chemical Engineering and Warren and Katherine Schlinger Professor of Chemical Engineering at UC Santa Barbara).
"Charge-neutral polymer complexes as batttery components"
2022
Dr. Omar M. Yaghi ( James and Neeltje Tretter Professor of Chemistry and Co-Director of the Kavli Energy NanoSciences Institute at the University of California-Berkeley)
"Harvesting Water from Desert Air"
This lecture was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
2019
Professor James C. Paulson , Cecil H. and Ida M. Green Chair of Chemistry, Co-Chair and Professor, Department of Molecular Medicine, Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA.
"Glycan Recognition of Self and non-Self".
2018
Lucy Zuirys. Professor of Chemistry and Professor of Astronomy and the Steward Observatory at the University of Arizona in Tucson, AZ.
″Chemistry Among the Stars: The Unexpected Molecular Environment Beyond Earth”
2017
Karen L. Wooley, W. T. Doherty-Welch Chair in Chemistry, University Distinguished Professor at Texas A&M University where she holds appointments in the Departments of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science & Engineering.
"Functional Polymer Materials Designed for Environmental Remediation and Sustainability" .
2016
Michael J. Krische, Professor of Chemistry at the University of Texas-Austin, Director, Center for Green Chemistry and Catalysis, Robert A. Welch Chair in Science and a faculty member in the Environmental Science Institute.
″Formation of C-C Bonds via Catalytic Hydrogenation and Transfer Hydrogenation″
2015
R. Graham Cooks, Henry Bohn Hass Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at Purdue University
"Chemical Analysis in Situ using Mass Spectrometers: Operating Rooms, Crime Scenes, Grocery Stores and Factory Floors"
2014
Joanna Aizenberg, Amy Smith Berylson Professor of Materials Science and Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University.
″New materials: When chemistry meets optics and surface science″
2013
David W. C. MacMillan, James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor of Chemistry, Chairman, Department of Chemistry and Director of the Merck Center for Catalysis at Princeton University
"Photoredox catalysis in organic synthesis"
2012
Valentino Stella, University Distinguished Professor of Pharmaceutical Chemistry at the University of Kansas.
"The Case for Prodrugs".
2011
Steven V. Ley
BP Professor of Chemistry, Head of Organic Chemistry and Fellow of Trinity College at the University of Cambridge.
"New Tools for Molecule Makers"
2010
Daniel G. Nocera
Henry Dreyfus Professor of Energy and Professor of Chemistry at Massachusette Institute of Technology
"Personalized Energy for 1 (x 6 Billion)"
2009
Philip P. Power
Professor of Inorganic Chemistry at the University of California-Davis
"Direct Hydrogenation of Main Group Compounds"
2008
William R. Roush
Executive Director, Medicinal Chemistry, Associate Dean, Kellog Graduate School
Professor of Chemistry, Scripps, Florida
"Recent Studies in Organic Synthesis: Applications of the Double Allylboration Reaction in the Synthesis of Natural Products"
2007
Chad A. Mirkin
George B. Rathmann Professor of Chemistry at Northwestern University
"Nanoparticles in Diagnostics and Therapeutics"
2006
Fredric M. Menger
Charles Howard Candler Professor of Organic Chemistry at Emory University
"An Alternative View of Enzyme Action"
2005
Peter F. Bernath
Professor of Chemistry and Physics at the Guelph-Waterloo Center for Graduate Work in Chemistry and Biochemistry
"Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment (ACE): Spectroscopy from Orbit"
2004
Jacqueline K. Barton
Arthur and Marian Hanisch Memorial Professor of Chemistry at the California Institute of Technology.
" DNA Charge Transport Chemistry and Biology"
2003
T. Don Tilley,
Professor of Chemistry at the University of California Berkeley
"Zirconocene-Coupling Routes to Macrocycles, Oligomers, Polymers and Conducting Polymers.",
2002
J. Fraser Stoddart
Winstein Chair Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
University of California, Los Angeles
"An Integrated Systems-Oriented Approach to Molecular Electronics"
2001
Robert H. Grubbs
Victor and Elizabeth Atkins Professor of Chemistry
California Institute of Technology
"Making Molecules with Metathesis Catalysts"
2000
Harry H. Wasserman
Eugene Higgins Professor Emeritus and Senior Research Scientist
Yale University
"The Chemistry of Vicinal Tricarbonyl Compounds. Applications in the Synthesis of Bioactive Products"
1999
Christopher S. Foote
Professor of Chemistry
University of California, Los Angeles
"Singlet Oxygen, Buckyballs and DNA"
1998
Robert W. Murray
Curators' Professor of Chemistry
University of Missouri-St. Louis,
"Ubiquitous Oxidation Chemistry"
About Robert W. Murray
Robert W. Murray joined the faculty at UMSL in 1968 after a very successful career at Bell Labs. He was born in Brockton, Massachusetts, and received degrees from Brown University, Wesleyan University and Yale, where he completed his Ph.D. with Professor Martin Saunders. He served as chair of the Chemistry Department at UMSL from 1975 to 1980. In 1981 he was the first chemist in the University of Missouri system to be appointed Curators' Professor and has been a visiting scholar in Karlsruhe and Cork. He has received the American Chemical Society St. Louis Award in 1974, the ACS Midwest Award in 1989, the University of Missouri Presidential Award for Research and Creativity in 1990 and the I. H. Weldon Medal of the Canadian Pulp and Paper Association in 1994. Professor Murray is well known for his research in the area of oxidation chemistry, particularly that involving ozone, singlet oxygen, hydrotrioxides and dioxiranes. His many contributions have helped demonstrate the relevance of oxidation chemistry to environmental and health issues. Dr. Murray's more recent work has centered on the chemistry of dioxiranes. He devised an experimental procedure for producing solutions of methyldioxiranes. Dimethyldioxirane, DMD, referred to in the literature as "Murray's Reagent", is a remarkable reagent and has found substantial applications by others around the world. He has received federal funding for his research at UMSL every year since 1968, and has given about 300 invited lectures in the U.S. and Europe. Over the years, he has been known as a compassionate and understanding teacher of organic chemistry to graduate students, chemistry majors and health science majors. Dr. Murray assumed Curators' Professor Emeritus status in 1999.
