Richard N. Zare, professor of physics and chemistry at Stanford University, will give a speech titled “What Can Chemists Tell Us About The Origin of Life?” at 7:30 p.m., Thursday, Sept. 19, in McCrary Theatre on the campus of Elon University. His speech, which is free and open to the public, is part of Elon’s Voices of Discovery science speaker series.
A chemist who has worked in all of the natural sciences, Zare has developed instruments and techniques to probe individual molecules in an effort to better understand how they function. He has applied these techniques to a variety of topics, such as studying quantum changes during chemical reactions and developing probes to study changes in DNA molecules.
Zare has also used lasers to assess Martian meteorites for traces of organic material that may represent ancient life on that planet.
Zare received his doctorate in chemical physics from Harvard University and serves in the physics and chemistry departments at Stanford University. In 1987 he was named the Marguerite Blake Wilbur Professor in Natural Science at Stanford, and in 1999 he received the Welch Award in chemistry, a prestigious honor that recognizes scientists for significant lifetime achievements.
In addition to his research contributions, Zare has served as chairman of the governing board for the National Science Foundation.