Nicholas J. Turro

Nicholas J. Turro, William P. Schweitzer Professor of Chemistry, will give a University Lecture entitled "Paradigms Lost and Paradigms Found: Examples of Science Revolutionary and Science Pathological (and How to Tell the Difference)" on Wed., Feb. 21, in the Low Rotunda.

The 8pm lecture, sponsored by the offices of the President and Provost, is free and open to the public.

Turro will examine the path of scientific research, which can be described in terms of the action of paradigms on the conduct of normal everyday science and puzzle generation and solution.

When certain research appears to create anomalies and attracts the attention of a scientific community, a scientific crisis results that may lead to a true scientific revolution and paradigm shift or to pathological science, which is then ignored by the community. Until the situation is settled by the community, it may be very difficult to distinguish revolutionary science from pathological science.

Turro will discuss some outstanding examples of science revolutionary (and science pathological) and their paths to resolution and he suggests some guidelines on how to recognize the differences.

Turro’s research interest have centered around the understanding of the interaction of light and matter. He has served as mentor and research supervisor for more than 50 Ph.D. students and 100 postdoctoral associates.

Turro received a BA degree from Wesleyan University in 1960 and a PhD in chemistry from Caltech in 1963. After a postdoctoral year at Harvard, in 1964 he joined the faculty of Columbia University where he is the William P. Schweitzer Professor of Chemistry and a joint member of the Department of Chemical Engineering and the Department of Earth and Environmental Engineering. He is the author of 2 books and more than 680 scientific publication and a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His recent awards include the Photochemistry Award from the Max Planck Institute in Mülheim, Germany, the American Chemical Society's Award in Colloids and Surface Science and the J. Willard Gibbs Medal from the Chicago Section of the American Chemical Society.