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* C.N.R. Rao Web page

June 12, 2008

Symposium marks launch of new center at Purdue and partnerships with neighboring universities

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Purdue University's regional and international role in analytical instrumentation will be the focus of a Wednesday (June 18) symposium to launch the Center for Analytical Instrumentation Development.

The daylong symposium at Discovery Park's Burton D. Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship will initiate the development of new partnerships with the universities of Notre Dame and Illinois, and Indiana University.

C.N.R. Rao
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Speakers include C.N.R. Rao, chairman of the Science Advisory Council to India's prime minister, and Karl Koehler, a deputy director for the Indiana's 21st Century Fund.

"Analytical instrumentation underlies much of the research and commercial activity in drug discovery, clinical diagnostics, environmental monitoring, and the fight against chemical and biological terrorism," said Fred Regnier, the John H. Law Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and co-director of the analytical instrumentation development center. "The center will be a forum for collaborative projects among the top analytical chemistry programs in the nation and will build on our relationships with leading research institutions in India, China, South Korea and Australia."

Rao, the Linus Pauling Research Professor and honorary president of the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research in Bangalore, will give the keynote presentation as part of the College of Science Centennial Lecture Series.

Rao, who received his doctorate in philosophy from Purdue in 1958, will present "Some Important Aspects of the Chemistry of Nanomaterials" from 11 a.m. to noon in the Morgan Center, Room 121.

"New frontiers are rapidly developing within the science fields, and new technologies will be required to carry out this frontier research," Rao said. "Analytical instrumentation is critical to the advancement of burgeoning sciences such as nanotechnology. Instruments that can precisely evaluate atomic structures are imperative as technology becomes smaller and smaller."

Koehler will present "A Convenient Fiction: The Indiana Academic-Commercial Interface" at 3:15 p.m. The talk will be followed by a question-and-answer session on the topic of regional economic development.

Other faculty researcher presentations include:

* Paul Bohn of the University of Notre Dame, "Advanced Diagnostics and Therapeutics - Molecules to Nanostructures to Cells and Beyond."

* Rashid Bashir of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, "Interfacing Biology and Silicon at the Micro and Nanoscale."

* Stephen Jacobson of Indiana University "Integrated Micro and Nanofluidic Devices: Moving to Smaller Dimensions."

Leading government, industrial and academic leaders will participate in a roundtable discussion of analytical chemistry and instrumentation.

A retirement celebration for one of the pioneers in the
Fred E. Lytle
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field, Fred E. Lytle, a Purdue professor of analytical chemistry, will include presentations titled "The Lytle Legacy: Information Theory and Analytical Chemistry" by Joel Harris, professor of chemistry at the University of Utah; and "Mass Spectrometry of Polymers" by David Hercules, Centennial Professor of Chemistry Emeritus at Vanderbilt University.

"Lytle has been a driving force in the development of the field of analytical instrumentation," said R. Graham Cooks, Purdue's Henry Bohn Hass Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and co-director of the center. "He has made major contributions to the field both in the development of instrumentation to solve critical measurement problems and in the education of students. He also encouraged interaction with industrial partners and recognized the importance of seeing advancements through to commercialization. He has paved the way for a new generation of instrumentation scientists."

The symposium is free and open to the public, but registration will be required for those who attend the luncheon. More information is available online at https://www.purdue.edu/dp/caid/

Writer: Elizabeth Gardner, (765) 494-2081, ekgardner@purdue.edu

Sources: Fred Regnier, (765) 494-3878, fregnier@purdue.edu

R. Graham Cooks, (765) 494-5263, cooks@purdue.edu

C.N.R. Rao,  91-80-2365-3075, cnrrao@jncasr.ac.in

Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu

Note to Journalists: The abstract and some prepared comments from C.N.R. Rao's presentations are available upon request.

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