William D. Smart Seminars
In 2005, the William D. Smart Seminar Series in Chemistry was established at the University of West Florida thanks to an endowment gift of $100,000 from William and Mary Smart of Pensacola. The endowment allows the Department of Chemistry to host distinguished scientists to campus to present and discuss cutting-edge scientific research.
Smart Seminars in Chemistry
In 2005, the William D. Smart Seminar Series in Chemistry was established at the University of West Florida thanks to an endowment gift of $100,000 from William and Mary Smart of Pensacola. The endowment allows the Department of Chemistry to host distinguished scientists on campus to present and discuss cutting-edge scientific research. In the last decade, we have hosted some of the most prominent chemists in the world. This list includes Sir Harry Kroto (1996 Nobel Prize in chemistry) and Sir Fraser Stoddart (2016 Nobel Prize in chemistry).
Dr. Timothy M. Swager
This year's speaker, Dr. Timothy M. Swager, is the John D. MacArthur Professor of Chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. A native of Montana, he received a BS from Montana State University in 1983 and a Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology in 1988. After a postdoctoral appointment at MIT he was on the chemistry faculty at the University of Pennsylvania 1990-1996 and returned to MIT in 1996 as a Professor of Chemistry and served as the Head of Chemistry from 2005-2010. He has published over 550 peer-reviewed papers and holds more than 130 issued/pending patents. Swager’s honors include: Election to the National Academy of Sciences, an Honorary Doctorate from Montana State University, National Academy of Inventors Fellow, The Pauling Medal, The Lemelson- MIT Award for Invention and Innovation, Election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, The American Chemical Society Award for Creative Invention, The American Chemical Society Award in Polymer Chemistry, The Christopher Columbus Foundation Homeland Security Award, and The Carl S. Marvel Creative Polymer Chemistry Award (ACS).
Swager’s research interests include the design, synthesis, and study of organic-based electronic, sensory, energy-harvesting, membrane, high-strength, liquid-crystalline, and colloid materials. His liquid crystal designs demonstrated shape complementarity to generate specific interactions between molecules and included fundamental mechanisms for increasing liquid crystal order through a new mechanism referred to as the minimization of free volume. Swager’s research in electronic polymers has primarily focused on demonstrating new conceptual approaches to the design of sensory materials. These methods are the basis of the FidoTM explosives detectors (FLIR Systems Inc.), which have the highest sensitivity of any explosives sensor. Other areas actively investigated by the Swager group include radicals for dynamic nuclear polarization, applications of nano-carbon materials, organic photovoltaic materials, polymer actuators, separation membranes, and luminescent molecular probes for medical diagnostics. He has founded five companies (DyNuPol, Iptyx, PolyJoule, C2 Sense, and Xibus Systems) and has served on a number of corporate and government boards.
SMART Lecture with Tim Swager:
Thursday, November 6 at 3:00 pm in Building 58, Room 101.
Magneto-Optics of Molecular and Polymeric Materials
Thursday, November 6 at 5:30 pm Reception followed by a seminar at 6:00 pm at the
Institute for Human and Machine Cognition, 40 S Alcaniz St, Pensacola, FL
| Year | Speaker and Topic |
|---|---|
| 2025 | Dr. Lucian Boldea, Honeywell Industrial Automation |
| 2024 | Professor Steven P. Nolan, Ghent University |
| 2023 | Dr. Angela K. Wilson, Michigan State University |
| 2023 | Dr. Karen L. Wooley, Texas A&M University (Polymer) |
| 2019 | Dr. Jeffrey S. Moore, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (Materials) |
| 2018 | Dr. Richard D. McCollough, Harvard University (Materials) |
| 2017 | Dr. Monica Olvera de la Cruz, Northwestern University (Inorganic) |
| 2016 | Dr. John Hartwig, University of California, Berkeley (Organic) |
| 2015 | Dr. Anthony J. Ryan, OBE, University of Sheffield (Polymers) |
| 2014 | Dr. Geraldine L. Richmond, University of Oregon (Organic) |
| 2011 | Dr. Ken Raymond, University of California (Inorganic) |
| 2011 | Dr. Michael Summers, University of Maryland (Organic) |
| 2010 | Dr. Daniel Nocera, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Materials) |
| 2009 | Sir Fraser Stoddart, Northwestern University (Inorganic) |
| 2007 | Sir Harry Kroto, Florida State University (Inorganic) |