April 20, 2006

NORMAN – Robert M. Williams, University Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at Colorado State University, will give a free, public presentation titled “Total Synthesis of Biologically Intriguing Alkaloids” Thursday, April 27, at the University of Oklahoma.

The lecture – part of the Karcher-Barton Seminar series sponsored by the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry in the College of Arts and Sciences – will begin with refreshments at 3:30 p.m. in 108 Physical Sciences Center, 601 Elm Ave.

Williams’ research interests include the total synthesis of natural products, studies on drug-DNA interactions, design and synthesis of antibiotics and DNA-cleaving molecules, combinatorial phage libraries and biosynthetic pathways.

Over the years, Williams has received several honors and awards, including the NIH Research Career Development Award; The Eli Lilly Young Investigator Award; Fellow of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation; and the Merck Academic Development Award. He serves on the editorial board of the journal Chemistry & Biology and is an editor for Amino Acids.

Before joining the faculty at Colorado State University in 1980, Williams completed a post doctoral fellowship at Harvard University. He received his doctoral degree in 1979 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his bachelor of arts degree in 1975 from Syracuse University.

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.