King Abdul Aziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) hosted in its headquarters Winners of King Faisal International Prize for Chemistry for this year, Professor George Whitesides, Professor of chemistry at Harvard University and Professor Richard Zare, Professor of Natural Science at Stanford University where they were received by Dr. Mohammed Ibrahim Al-Suwaiyel, KACST President and Prince Dr. Turki Saud Mohammad Al Saud, KACST Vice President for Research Institutes.
On this occasion, the two winners gave lectures: the first was titled “Paper Diagnostics” by Professor Whitesides whose legendary career in chemistry spans nearly 50 years and covers a wide range of topics including materials and organic surface chemistry, soft lithography, molecular self-assembly, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR), organometallic chemistry, nanotechnology, microfluidics, microfabrication, catalysis, energy production and conservation and rational drug design.
Professor Whitesides is best known for his contributions towards understanding how molecules arrange themselves on a surface. Author of 1100 papers, Professor Whitesides studies have paved the way for many advances in nano-science, novel technologies, pharmaceutical sciences and medical diagnostics.
The second lecture was titled “Laser-Induced Fluorescence" and given by Professor Zare who is one of the most accomplished chemical physicists and laser chemists worldwide. His discovery of “laser induced fluorescence” has become a highly sensitive technique for studying chemical reactions and reaction dynamics at the molecular level as well as detecting trace amounts of compounds. Professor Zare's works has been cited more than 35,000 times and some of his papers have been cited more than 500 times each. Professor Zare is also involved in astrobiology; his most highly cited work involves the examination of a 4.5 billion years old meteorite sample from Mars where he speculated that it might contain traces of primitive Martian life.
The two lectures witnessed a remarkable audience of researchers of KACST’s research institutes and centers and other stakeholders and specialists in Saudi Universities. Following the lectures, the winners and accompanying delegation took a guided tour in KACST where they inspected various laboratories including laboratories of the Petrochemicals Institute, laboratories of the National Center for Nanotechnology and laboratories of biotechnology and energy where they got first- hand knowledge about the distinguished KACST’ s projects in these fields and its scientific and technological capabilities.