Chemical Modeling to Design a Sustainable Energy Future (Online Webinar)

Producing sustainable energy solutions is a challenge for our planet. Scientists, engineers, politicians, policy makers have all to work together towards this goal. Laura Gagliardi is a computational chemist and in her research she develops theoretical chemistry models aimed at understanding and predicting fundamental chemical phenomena. In this lecture Gaglirdi will talk about a class of materials called metal-organic frameworks that act like nanoscale sponges and selectively capture carbon dioxide and harvest air vapor to generate drinkable water.

Laura Gagliardi is the Richard and Kathy Leventhal Professor of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering at the University of Chicago. She was born and raised in Italy. She earned her Ph.D. in theoretical chemistry at the University of Bologna in 1997. She was then postdoctoral research associate at the University of Cambridge, UK. Gagliardi became an assistant professor at the University of Palermo in 2002. In 2005, she became associate professor at the University of Geneva in Switzerland, and in 2009 she joined the University of Minnesota as a professor of chemistry. In 2020, she joined the University of Chicago. Gagliardi is a theoretical quantum chemist who is internationally known for her contributions to the development of electronic structure methods and their use for understanding complex chemical systems. She is an Elected Member of the USA National Academy of Sciences (2021), American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2020), Academia Europaea (2018) and Accademia dei Lincei (2021)

Register for the online Webinar at this link.

This event is part of the series Voci della Natura: Ecologies and Nature in Italian Arts, the theme selected by the Italian Cultural Institute in Chicago for 2022. The program explores the role of Italian art and sciences in redefining the perception of nature and ecology, through new and original perspectives.