Nobel laureate Sir Harry Kroto to give chemistry talk at UTEP

Kroto (Courtesy photo)

Nobel laureate in chemistry Sir Harry Kroto will give a free public speech at the University of Texas at El Paso at 4 p.m. Tuesday, UTEP officials announced.

Kroto will give a lecture titled "Chemistry in Nano and Outer Space" in the Undergraduate Learning Center, Room 106, on campus.

He shared the 1996 Nobel Prize in chemistry with Robert Curl and Richard Smalley for discovering "fullerenes," according to the Nobel Prize website. They uncovered the first fullerene molecule, called buckminsterfullerene or "buckyball," in 1985.

The nanoparticles are being studied for use in solar energy and drug delivery, according to a UTEP news release.

In 1996, Queen Elizabeth knighted Kroto, who is currently the Francis Eppes Professor of Chemistry at Florida State University.

Kroto's visit is part of UTEP's Centennial Lecture Series that brings noteworthy speakers to campus as part of the 100th anniversary of UTEP's founding as the Texas State School of Mines and Metallurgy, according to the release.

UTEP President Diana Natalicio and the school's Department of Chemistry are sponsoring the lecture.

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Nobel laureate Sir Harry Kroto to give chemistry talk at UTEP