The 2006-2007 Harold A. Iddles Lecture Series 
Mary J. Wirth
Professor of Chemistry
BIO5 Biotechnology Institute,
University of Arizona
Wednesday, May 2, 2007
Iddles L103
"Opals and Nanotechnology"
Time: 4:10 pm
Thursday, May 3, 2007
Iddles L103
"Silica Colloidal Crystals for Separations and Spectroscopy of Proteins"
Time: 11:10 am
Mary J. Wirth is currently Professor of Chemistry at the University of Arizona and a Fellow of the BIO5 Biotechnology Institute at the University of Arizona . She has previously held positions at the University of Wisconsin-Madison , Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and the University of Delaware . She received her B.S. degree from Northern Illinois University , where she first became interested in chemical separations through undergraduate research. She received her Ph.D. from Purdue University under the direction of Professor Fred E. Lytle, completing a dissertation on nonlinear laser spectroscopy. In her professional career, she has combined spectroscopy and separations.
Dr. Wirth's research interests are in the investigation of new materials for bioanalytical separations, and the use of spectroscopy to characterize the interactions of analytes with these materials. Her group was the first to measure rotational diffusion of adsorbates at chemical interfaces, which detailed how wetting of chromatographic materials affects stationary phase structure. Her group tackled the problem of strong adsorption sites on the surfaces of chromatographic silica: they invented horizontal polymerization of trifunctional silanes as a means of completely coating the surface, and they invented surface-confined atom-transfer radical polymerization to reduce protein adsorption. She is a pioneer in the field of single-molecule spectroscopy, using this technique to probe the rare defects on chromatographic surfaces. Today, her group is investigating silica colloidal crystals as new media for bioanalytical separations and spectroscopy, and this area will be the subject of her lectures.
Dr.Wirth has received the ANACHEM Award, sponsored by the Detroit section of the ACS; the Gold Medal Award, sponsored by the NY section of the Society for Applied Spectroscopy; the Spectrochemical Analysis Award of the ACS Division of Analytical Chemistry; and a Special Creativity Award from the National Science Foundation. She has been a distinguished lecturer at the University of Wyoming and Texas A&M University . She was Chair of the Gordon Research Conference on Analytical Chemistry, and Program Chair for the Analytical Division of the ACS. She is a founding member of COACh, which is the Committee for the Advancement of Women Chemists.
The Harold A. Iddles Lecture Series was established as an annual event of the Chemistry Department upon Professor Iddles' retirement in 1961. Chemistry alumni and friends established this fund to support a lecture series which includes one technical presentation and a second presentation of broader interest for the general public. This alumni gesture has served as a continuing recognition of Professor Iddles' service to the department as its head from 1929 to 1961, and of the educational and research programs he fostered. Dr. Iddles, educated at Michigan State College (B.S., 1918) and State University of Iowa (M.S., 1922), received the Ph.D. in Chemistry from Columbia University in 1925 and then studied in Austria, Germany and England. During his long tenure at New Hampshire, he was widely recognized as an outstanding teacher and tireless advisor to students. For over thirty years some of the most distinguished chemists in the world have visited the University of New Hampshire as Iddles Lecturer.
Previous Iddles Lecturers
| Arthur C. Cope | Louis P. Hammett | Gabor A. Somorjai |
| Louis F. Feiser | Paul G. Gassman | Ira W. Levin |
| Frederick E. Brinckman | Orville L. Chapman | F. Albert Cotton |
| James P. Collman | Royce W. Murray | John E. McMurry |
| William N. Lpiscomb, Jr. | Michael J. Welch | John T. Yates, Jr |
| Kenneth B. Wiberg | Dietmar Seyferth | Paul S. Anderson |
| George C. Pimentel | Clayton H. Heathcock | Richard P. Wayne |
| Kurt Mislow | Paul C. Lauterbur | Chris Enke |
| R. Bruce Merrifield | Allen J. Bard | Andrew D. Hamilton |
| Sidney H. Fox | Mark S. Wrighton | Jacqueline V. Barton |
| Francis O. Schmitt | Anders Kjaer | David Parker |
| Philip Aisen | Rudolf A. Marcus | F. Sherwood Rowland |
| Jerrold Meinwald | Vincent du Vigneaud | Peter Wipf |
| George S. Hammond | Ronald C.D. Breslow | R. Mark Wightman |
| Garry A. Rechnitz | Daryle H. Busch | Thomas V. O'Hallaron |
| Walter M. Stockmayer | Manfred Eigen | John LaMattina |
| R.M. Acheson | John D. Roberts | Pamela Björkman |
Lectures are open to the public. For more information, contact the
Department of Chemistry at 603-862-1550.