Title: Innovations and Opportunities in Chemistry
Abstract
Chemistry is a vibrant field with many inventions and new findings reported in meetings and journals. Over the years, quite a few of these reports have been shown to be valuable in advancing knowledge and/or generating new products. In this talk, the speaker will provide some examples of research and development efforts to illustrate their potential opportunities and applications. Thus, a lot of ongoing activities can be found in the interdisciplinary space, by combining chemistry with biology to generate new products or processes. The same can be said about the combination of chemistry and nanotechnology. Another example is the conversion of industrial or agricultural waste materials into value-added products. Yet another example is to use microwave (instead of conventional heat) to carry out chemical processes. All these innovations are exciting and may provide promising future opportunities for younger scientists and students. The speaker will also briefly describe his own journey as a chemist and offer some advice and suggestions on the preparations for a productive chemistry career and the search for jobs.
Biography
H. N. Cheng (B.S., UCLA; PhD, Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) is the recipient of the 2022 Herty Medal as awarded by the Georgia Section of the American Chemical Society, recognizing outstanding work and service by a chemist in the Southeast. He retired in May 2022 after a productive tenure working at USDA Southern Regional Research Center in New Orleans. He has been active in developing green polymer chemistry as a platform to producing eco-friendly and sustainable products. He has authored or co-authored 300 papers and 26 patent publications and edited 23 books. Dr. Cheng was also ACS President in 2021. Prior to his election as President, he served in several ACS leadership positions at the national level, in local sections, and in technical divisions. During his presidential year, he championed the cause of chemistry, emphasizing the importance of innovation, disciplinary growth, sustainability, and digitization. Moreover, he was active in organizing symposia and webinars to benefit ACS members and the chemistry enterprise.