February 27, 2006

NORMAN – This March, two professors visiting the University of Oklahoma Norman campus will hold discussions as part of the Karcher-Barton Seminar series. Each free, public presentation is sponsored by the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry in the College of Arts and Sciences and will begin with refreshments at 3:30 p.m. in 108 Physical Sciences Center, 601 Elm Ave.

“Function and Form in Enzyme Superfamilies” will be presented by Karen Allen, professor in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics at Boston University School of Medicine, on Thursday, March 2.

Allen earned her bachelor of science degree from Tufts University and her doctoral degree from Brandeis University. Allen’s research focuses on the diverse aspects of protein structure, function and design. Her lab uses a multidisciplinary approach involving state-of-the-art X-ray crystallography and spectroscopy, molecular modeling, enzymology and molecular biology to address fundamental problems at the interface of enzymology and structural biology.

The second lecture of the month, “Patterned Bilayers and Tethered Vesicles: Soft Nanoscience,” will be presented by Steven Boxer, professor in the Department of Chemistry at Stanford University, on Thursday, March 9.

Boxer earned his bachelor of science degree in chemistry in 1969 from Tufts University and his doctoral degree in 1976 from the University of Chicago. His research interests include the mechanism of light-driven long-distance electron transfer in photosynthetic reaction centers, electrostatics in proteins and how electrostatics affects function, and the use of supported lipid bilayers as mimics for cell surfaces and as tools in biotechnology.

The Karcher-Barton seminars are named for J. Clarence Karcher, a 1916 OU alumnus who was the primary developer of the reflection seismographic method of oil exploration nearly 70 years ago, and Rosetta Briegel Barton, who became the first woman faculty member in OU’s Department of Chemistry in 1916. The seminar series brings prominent chemists and biochemists to OU to discuss their current research projects.

For more information and accommodations on the basis of disability, contact Ann West at (405) 325-1529 or awest@ou.edu. For a complete schedule of lectures in the Karcher-Barton Seminar series, visit http://cheminfo.chem.ou.edu.