KU News Release

Noted Penn State chemist visits KU to give public lecture on research ideas

LAWRENCE — Stephen J. Benkovic, professor of chemistry at Pennsylvania State University, will present the 2007 Richard L. Schowen Lecture in Bioorganic Chemistry at 4 p.m. Thursday, Sept 6, at 110 Budig Hall at the University of Kansas. The event is free and open to the public.

Presented by the Department of Chemistry, Benkovic’s lecture is titled “The Evolution of a Research Idea: Prospecting for a Novel Antibiotic”

“It will be a little different from a formal lecture,” said Benkovic. “It should be entertaining but with a healthy dose of science, or it wouldn’t be true to my stripes. I’m going to tell the story of how a research idea is born and how it eventually produces something quite interesting.”

Benkovic holds a doctorate from Cornell University. Following postdoctoral research at the University of California-Santa Barbara, Benkovic joined the chemistry department at Penn State in 1965. He became a full professor of chemistry in 1970 and was named the Eberly Chair in Chemistry in 1988. Benkovic’s work has merited an Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship, an NIH Career Development Award and a Guggenheim Fellowship.

The Schowen lecture is funded by former students, colleagues and friends of Richard L. Schowen, who retired in July 2000 after 37 years of teaching chemistry at KU. Schowen’s scholarship encompassed the chemical, biological and pharmaceutical sciences. His numerous awards included the Summerfield Distinguished Chair in Chemistry, the Midwest Award of the American Chemical Society and an honorary doctorate from Martin Luther University in Germany.

-30-

The University of Kansas is a major comprehensive research and teaching university. University Relations is the central public relations office for KU's Lawrence campus.