Outreach Programs
MRL Distinguished Lecturer Series

Sir Harold Kroto presented his lecture "TV is Dead - Long Live the WEB" on May 20th 2003. He is internationally recognized as a leading expert in the area of fullerene science. In 1996 Harry was jointly awarded, with Richard Smalley and Robert Curl of Rice University, Texas, the Nobel Laureate for Chemistry for the discovery, in 1985, of the molecule C60, now known as Buckminster Fullerene or colloquially Buckyball. In the same year Harry Kroto became Sir Harry when he was knighted for his lifetime record of contributions to chemistry. Prior to receipt of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry, Professor Kroto had already received a number of international awards in materials and chemistry, including the prestigious International Prize for New Materials from the American Physical Society and the Hewlett-Packard Europhysics Prize. He had also been appointed to a Royal Society Research Professorship, an unusual position granted to the most innovative scientists in Great Britain, which frees them from teaching and administrative responsibilities. He is Chairman of the board of the Vega Science Trust, which is produces science programs for network television. 35 have been made and so far 20 have been broadcast on the BBC Learning Zone.

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Professor C.N.R. Rao gave his lecture "Science in the Developing World" on August 6th 2003 Professor Rao is a world renowned authority in the field of Chemistry. He is the Linus Pauling Research Professor and Honorary President of the Jawarharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of London, as well as the Indian Academy of Sciences, and the Indian National Science Academy. He is a Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Sciences and a Founding Fellow of the Third World Academy of Sciences. Professor C.N.R. Rao's contributions to the field of solid state chemistry and materials science are remarkable for their enormous diversity, their originality, and their extraordinary prolificity. He has published over 1000 research papers and edited or written 35 books in a career spanning over 40 years.

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View video of Professor Rao's lecture, August 6th 2003 Windows, Quicktime