Anyone who has ever wondered about the process used to create wines or beers can learn all about the role chemistry plays in fermenting and brewing in a special lecture Thursday evening.
The lecture, "Wine, Beer, Scotch and Chemistry," given by Northwestern University chemistry professor Mark Ratner, is promised to be a "light-hearted talk" meant to entertain and inform about the history and chemistry of alcohol, event sponsors said.
"The lecture will show the common ground that exists between alcohol and chemistry," said Professor Harjit Ahluwalia, president of UNM's chapter of Sigma Xi. "It will provide several examples of just how big of a role chemistry plays in our everyday lives."
The lecture will be Thursday at 5 p.m. in Room G of the UNM Continuing Education Center.
Sigma Xi, the international honor society of science and engineering, which formed in 1886, has nearly 75,000 members in more than 500 chapters across the United States
According to the Sigma Xi Web site, its mission is to honor scientific accomplishments, to encourage and to enhance the worldwide appreciation and support of original investigation in science and technology and to foster worldwide a creative and dynamic interaction among science, technology and society.
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Since 1937 Sigma Xi has presented its annual Distinguished Lecturers series, which, according to its Web site, is an opportunity for individual chapters to sponsor visits from outstanding individuals who are at the leading edge of science, thereby allowing them to communicate their insights and excitement to a broad range of scholars and to the local community at large.
Ratner's lecture will be the fifth and final talk of the UNM chapter's Public Talk series, which had earned them the national organization's 2001 Chapter Program Award.
He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Physical Society. He received the 2001 Feynman Prize in Nanotechnology for contributions to the development and success of nano-meter electronic devices. He has been listed on the Faculty Teaching Honor Roll at Northwestern University eight times and received the University's Distinguished Teacher Award.
The lecture is also sponsored by the Office of the Vice Presidents for Research and for Health Sciences, the School of Engineering, the College of Pharmacy, the College of Arts and Sciences, the Physics and Astronomy Department, the Division of Continuing Education and the Albuquerque Section of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers.
