The Ott lecture for Fall 2022 has been cancelled due to illness

The Arnold C. Ott Lectureship in Chemistry was created and endowed by a generous gift from Dr. Arnold C. Ott and Marion Ott. Dr. Ott received his Ph.D. in 1943 from Michigan State University in Chemistry/Physics/Bacteriology and is a leading chemist and entrepreneur in West Michigan. He is one of the co-founders of Grand Valley State University and served on the GVSU Board of Trustees for 28 years.

Dr. Kent Kirshenbaum, New York University

The Ott lecture for Fall 2022 has been cancelled due to illness

Dr. Kent Kirshenbaum is a Professor in the Department of Chemistry at New York University. Kent obtained his Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry at Reed College in Portland, Oregon, a PhD in Pharmaceutical Chemistry, from the University of California, San Francisco, and conducted post-doctoral studies in protein chemistry at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. At NYU, Kent teaches Biochemistry and leads a research group that is studying sequence-structure-function relationships in biomimetic polymers. He is a member of the Cancer Center at NYU's School of Medicine and the Chief Scientific Officer of Maxwell Biosciences. Kent was also the co-founder of the Experimental Cuisine Collective at NYU, along with Prof. Amy Bentley (Food Studies) and Chef Will Goldfarb (Pastry). His science outreach efforts include appearances on the Food Network, the Cooking Channel, the Science Channel, Sid the Science Kid, NBC-Learn, and the Discovery Channel. In the lab, Kent enjoys cooking up new macromolecules; at home, he enjoys synthesizing guacamole.

Vernon Ehlers, Ph.D.
U.S. Congress

Michael D. Parker, M.B.A.
Dow Chemical Company

Carl Djerassi, Ph.D.
Stanford University

Robin D. Rogers, Ph.D.
University of Alabama

Virginia W. Cornish, Ph.D.
Columbia University

Richard N. Zare, Ph.D.
Stanford University

Thomas H. Lane, Ph.D.
Dow Corning Corporation

Chad A. Mirkin, Ph.D.
Northwestern University

Gregory A. Petsko, Ph.D.
Brandeis University

Harry B. Gray, Ph.D.
California Institute of Technology

Gary M. Hieftje, Ph.D.
Indiana University

Roderick MacKinnon, M.D.
Nobel Laureate in Chemistry
The Rockefeller University

Kevan Shokat, Ph.D.
University of California, San Francisco

Ada Yonath, Ph.D.
Nobel Laureate in Chemistry
Weizmann Institute of Science

W. Carl Lineberger, Ph.D.
University of Colorado, Boulder

Richmond Sarpong, Ph.D.
University of California, Berkeley

Jeffrey Moore, Ph.D.
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Wilson Ho, Ph.D.
University of California, Irvine

Geraldine Richmond, Ph.D.
University of Oregon

Sara E. Skrabalak, Ph.D.
Indiana University

Thomas J. Meyer, Ph.D.
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Brian K. Shoichet, Ph.D.
University of California, San Francisco

Daniel M. Neumark, Ph.D.
University of California, Berkeley

Stephen L. Buchwald, Ph.D.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Melanie Sanford, Ph.D.
University of Michigan

Karen Trentelman, Ph.D.
Getty Conservation Institute

Anne McNeil, Ph.D.
University of Michigan