The Department of Chemistry at the University of Illinois

Throughout the academic year, there are many special lectures and symposia sponsored by the chemistry department. Listed below are those affiliated with organic chemistry.  Special Lectureships in Organic Chemistry provides more detailed information about the lectures series presented here.

Frontiers in Organic Chemistry Symposium

This biennial symposium is organized by a committee of graduate students representing each organic research group. The symposium celebrates research at the frontiers of organic chemistry in the general areas of synthesis, bioorganic and materials chemistry. Graduate students serve as the hosts of the speakers, which are chosen after consultation with all organic students. The symposium is sponsored since 2000 by R.W. Johnson Pharmaceutical Research Institute. Previous programs have included:

R.C. Fuson Visiting Professor Lectureship Series

Presented annually in the Fall semester. Reynold C. Fuson was born in Wakefield, Illinois, and received his degrees in chemistry from the University of Montana, the University of California at Berkeley, and the University of Minnesota. He held a postdoctoral appointment with Professor E. P. Kohler at Harvard, after which he served as an instructor for a brief period. He joined the Department of Chemistry at the University of Illinois in 1927 where he was a distinguished member for 35 years before retiring in 1963. He was a visiting professor at the Rice Institute during 1947-48 and at the University of Nevada in 1963-64. He then spent several years at Reno before returning to Champaign-Urbana for his final years.

Carl Shipp Marvel Lectures in Organic Chemistry

Presented annually in the Spring semester. C. S. Marvel was born in Waynesville, Illinois on September 2, 1894. Marvel was first introduced to chemistry while a freshman at Illinois Wesleyan on the recommendation that "the next generation of farmers was going to need scientific knowledge to get the most out of their work". After receiving his B.S. degree, he entered graduate school in 1915 at the University of Illinois.

Organic Reactions Lectureship Series

Sponsored by Organic Reactions, Inc, this lectureship series features distinguished foreign speakers. Organic Reactions was created around 1939 as the brainchild of Roger Adams and some of the Organic Syntheses editorial board members. Whereas Organic Syntheses dealt with the optimized and reproducible preparation of a specific chemical compound (or illustrative of a general method), Organic Reactions was intended to be a collection of articles about specific reactions with which the selected authors had first hand experience. The unique feature of Organic Reactions that would distinguish it from other review vehicles would be to provide exhaustive literature surveys, complete compilation of extant examples and some detailed experimental procedures.

Organic Syntheses Lectureship Series

Like Organic Reactions, Organic Syntheses is another landmark publication that originated at the University of Illinois. The story of the Illinois "preps labs" and the evolution of Organic Syntheses represents one of Roger Adams most enduring legacies. During the summer of 1914 a few graduate students were hired to work preparing organic compounds that would be needed during the next year in teaching and research. With the outbreak of World War I in August of 1914, this project assumed new significance and the urgent national situation caused an expansion of the Illinois preps labs in 1915.

Novartis Seminars in Organic Chemistry

Presented annually in the Spring semester.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Lectures in Synthetic Organic Chemistry

Nelson J. Leonard Distinguished Lecturers in Chemistry

Department-wide lecture series. This lecture series is sponsored by the Nelson J. Leonard Distinguished Lecturer Fund, set up in 1986 by the late Mrs. Louise Leonard, Eli Lilly and Company, the Monsanto Company, Organic Syntheses, Inc., and Professor Leonard's colleagues and students. At the time of his retirement in 1986, Professor Leonard had been at the University of Illinois for 44 years, directed 120 graduate students, and published over 400 papers.
Nelson J. Leonard obituary

Lectureships in Other Areas

Ada Dosiy Lectures in Biochemistry
This distinguished lectureship series has included fifteen Nobel laureates, ten of whom received their Nobel Prize after serving as Doisy lecturers. Recent lecturers include Peter Moore, Harry Noller, Janos Lanyi, Sir John Walker, Pim Stemmer, Ron Davis, Carl Woese, and Norman Pace.

John C. Bailar Lectures
Inorganic Chemistry lectureship, with recent speakers including Robert Crabtree, Karl Wieghardt, James Ibers, Richard Schrock, Konrad Seppelt, and Joan Valentine.

Willis H. Flygare Memorial Lectures
Physical Chemistry lecture series that has included Rudolph Marcus, Yuan T. Lee and A. David Buckingham.

G. Frederick Smith Memorial Lecturers
Analytical Chemistry lecture series with recent visitors including Leroy Hood, Masuo Aizawa, Fred Anson, Franz Hillenkamp, and Joel M. Harris.

Sylvia M. Stoesser Lectures
This lecture highlights one of the early pioneers for women in chemistry, Sylvia Stoesser.  It features an individual who has made outstanding contributions to the chemical community and provides new perspectives in the chemical field outside academia. Recent speakers have included Madeleine Jacobs, Sarah Kelly and Ellen Stechel.