(Posted February 21, 2005)

HUNTINGDON, Pa. -- Nicholas Turro, William P. Schweitzer Professor of Chemistry at Columbia University, will give a talk on how to differentiate extraordinary claims for science from outlandish scientific claims at Juniata College at 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, March 2 in Neff Lecture Hall in the von Liebig Center for Science on the Juniata campus.

The lecture is free and open to the public.

Turro also will give two professional lectures on chemistry topics. "Introduction to Molecular Photochemistry" is at noon, Thursday, March 3 in Neff Lecture Hall. Later that day, Turro will lecture on "From Molecular Photochemistry to Supramolecular Photochemistry: Making Covalent Bonds Through Noncovalent Interactions" at 5 p.m. in Neff Lecture Hall. Both professional lectures are free and open to the public.

Turro is considered an international authority on photochemistry. He wrote "Modern Molecular Photochemistry" and has published more than 740 research papers. He has taught at Columbia his entire professional career, starting as an instructor in 1964. He was promoted to assistant professor in 1965, to associate professor in 1967 and to full professor in 1969. He was named Schweitzer Professor in 1981. He received the Distinguished Teacher Scholar Award in 2002 from the National Science Foundation. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Sciences.

Turro earned a bachelor's degree from Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn. in 1960. He earned a doctoral degree from the California Institute of Technology in 1963. He also worked as a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University from 1963 to 1964.

Contact April Feagley at feaglea@juniata.edu or (814) 641-3131 for more information.