Scientists Developing Green Energy Solutions To Speak At ACS Meetings

Two scientists who are developing sustainable energy sources for the 21^st century will deliver the next two lectures in the American Chemical Society’s (ACS) Kavli Foundation Innovations in Chemistry Lecture series.

Daniel Nocera will deliver the Kavli lecture on April 8 at 5:30 p.m. at the 245th ACS National Meeting & Exposition in New Orleans, which will focus on the theme of chemistry of energy and food. Nocera is currently the Henry Dreyfus Professor of Energy and professor of chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Harry Gray will deliver the Kavli lecture on Monday, Sept. 9 at 5:30 p.m. at the 246^th ACS National Meeting & Exposition in Indianapolis, which will focus on chemistry in motion. Gray is the Arnold O. Beckman professor of chemistry at the California Institute of Technology and founding director of the Beckman Institute.

Both scientists are working toward green solutions that could produce clean, inexpensive energy. The solutions rely on harnessing the energy from the sun, instead of fossil fuels.

Nocera has developed an “artificial leaf” that produces energy from sunlight. It mimics the process called photosynthesis that green plants use to convert water and sunlight into energy.

Gray is developing ways to make clean energy from sunlight and water in much the same way as a green plant does. He is designing solar-driven molecular machines that, on a global scale, could store energy from the sun by splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen.