Physical Sciences Dean and professor of organic chemistry Miguel García-Garibay gave the Andrew Steitwieser lecture at UC Berkeley on February 11, 2020.
In García-Garibay’s lecture titled “Crystalline Molecular Machines: Gearing Interactions by Mechanic and Dipolar Forces”, he illustrated the development of smart materials and molecular machines as a result of considering the relation between internal molecular motion and order in condensed phase matter, their realization using several structural platforms, and the tools used to determine rotational dynamics that range from static to the fastest motion that is possible, which is limited by the moment of inertia.
Professor Emeritus Andrew Streitwieser and Dean of Physical Sciences Professor Miguel Garcia-Garibay.
García-Garibay has earned worldwide recognition in the fields of organic photochemistry, solid-state organic chemistry and physical organic chemistry. He studies the interaction of light and molecules in crystals. Light can have enough energy to break and make bonds in molecules, and his research team has shown that crystals offer an opportunity to control the outcome of these chemical reactions. García-Garibay has served as Dean of the Division of Physical Sciences in the UCLA College of Letters and Sciences since July 2016. To learn more about García-Garibay’s research, visit his group’s website.
The lecture honors one of the greats of physical organic chemistry, Professor Emeritus Andrew Streitwieser of UC Berkeley, who turns 93 this year.
The Andrew Streitwieser Lecture in Physical Organic Chemistry was established in 2012 by his students, friends and colleagues to honor Streitwieser and his creativity, enthusiasm, love of discovery and spirit of collaboration. Previous Andrew Streitwieser lecturers have been 2012-13 Robert G. Bergman, 2013-14 Charles Perrin, 2014-15 UCLA alumnus Dean Tantillo (PhD ’00, Houk), 2015-16 Colin Nuckolls, 2016-17 Dennis Dougherty, 2017-18 Chris Hunter, 2018-19 UCLA’s Professor Ken Houk.
Article by Penny Jennings, UCLA Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, penny@chem.ucla.edu.
