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Doha Today / Campus

Texas A&M at Qatar to host Nobel laureate for virtual lecture series

Published: 29 Sep 2020 - 01:35 pm | Last Updated: 11 Nov 2021 - 08:38 pm
Peninsula

The Peninsula

Doha: Texas A&M University at Qatar, a Qatar Foundation partner university, will host Nobel laureate Dr. Ben L. Feringa for its next seminar in the Al Maerifa Public Seminar Series 1 Oct. at noon via Zoom.

Feringa’s talk, “The Joy of Discovery,” is presented in partnership with the Qatar chapter of the American Chemical Society.

Feringa is the second Nobel laureate to be featured in the university’s virtual seminar series, which was designed to share knowledge with the community in Qatar through 45-minute seminars on topics centered around Qatar’s grand challenges and research pursuits.

In his talk, Feringa will discuss the creative power of synthetic chemistry provides, which unlimited opportunities to realize our own molecular world as we experience every day with products ranging from drugs to displays that sustain modern society. Moving from molecules to dynamic molecular systems, the fundamental challenge is how to control and exploit motion at the nanoscale. Feringa’s talk will focus is on his journey through the world of molecular switches and motors, the process of discovery, and his personal experiences throughout his scientific career.



Feringa is the Jacobus H. van’t Hoff Distinguished Professor of Molecular Sciences at the University of Groningen (Netherlands) and received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2016. He is a Foreign Honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences and the European Research Council. In 2008 he was appointed Academy Professor and was knighted by the Queen of the Netherlands.

Al Maerifa series started in spring 2020 as another initiative to continue the university’s core mission of disseminating knowledge locally and internationally, said Dr. César Octavio Malavé, dean of Texas A&M at Qatar.

“At Texas A&M at Qatar, our vision is to be the premier provider of engineering education in the region, a significant contributor to knowledge internationally and an essential resource to the State of Qatar,” Malavé said. “Sharing knowledge created by renowned scholars worldwide with the community in Qatar through the Al Maerifa Public Seminar Series helps us achieve that mission. We are privileged to be able to bring a scholar of Dr. Ben Feringa’s caliber to Qatar to enrich and enlighten the community.”

Anyone who would like to watch the talk should visit https://knowledge.tamu.qa for more information and registration.