Frank Whitmore Lecture

2028 Quadrennial Whitmore Lecture - 

Abstract: Imagine a world where all segments of society demanded environmentally benign climate neutral products! Imagine if all consumers, all retailers and all manufacturers insisted on buying and selling only non-toxic truly sustainable materials! The unfortunate reality is that, even if this situation were to occur, our knowledge of materials science and chemistry would allow us to provide only a small fraction of the necessary products and materials that our economy is based upon. Unfortunately, the way we learn and teach chemistry and materials science in academia is for the most part void of any information regarding mechanisms of toxicity and environmental harm. Green Chemistry is a science that seeks to reduce or eliminate the use of hazardous materials at the design stage of a materials process. It has been demonstrated that materials and products CAN be designed with negligible impact on human health and the environment while still being economically competitive and successful in the marketplace. This presentation will describe the history and background of Green Chemistry and discuss the opportunities for the next generation of materials designers to create a safer and more sustainable future.

About Dr. Warner:  John Warner is one of the founders of the field of green chemistry. He wrote the book that provides the definition and 12 principles of green chemistry with Paul Anastas in 1998. As an industrial chemist, he has over 350 patents and has worked with hundreds of companies worldwide. He received the Perkin Medal in 2014 from The Society of Industrial Chemistry. As an academic, he was a tenured full professor of chemistry and a tenured full professor of plastics engineering at the University of Massachusetts where he started the world’s first PhD program in Green Chemistry. He has over 120 publications in synthetic methodologies, noncovalent derivatization, polymer photochemistry, metal oxide semiconductors and green chemistry. In 2004 he received the Presidential Award for excellence in science mentoring (PAESMEM) from the US National Science Foundation (NSF) and President George W Bush and in 2022 he received the August Wilhelm von Hofmann Medal from the German Chemical Society. As an inventor, John’s inventions have led to the founding of many companies in the fields of photovoltaics, neurochemistry, construction materials, water harvesting and cosmetics. In 2016 he received the Lemelson Invention Ambassadorship from the Lemelson Foundation and the American Association for the Advancement of the Sciences (AAAS). John is a member of the Club of Rome, and holds academic appointments at Monash University in Australia, Chulalongkorn University in Thailand, Somaiya University in India, University of Birmingham in the UK, Rochester Institute of Technology in the US, and Technical University of Berlin in Germany where they have named the “John Warner Center for Start Ups in Green Chemistry.” John currently serves as President and CEO of The Technology Greenhouse.

Past Whitmore Lectures:

2024 - Dr. John Warner, President & CEO of The Technology Greenhouse & co-founder of Green Chemistry
"Green Chemsitry: The Missing Elements"

2016 - Dr. Richard Alley, Evan Pugh Professor of Geosciences, Penn State University
"Climate and Energy: Big Challenges and Bigger Opportunities"

2012 - Dr. Bassam Z. Shakashiri, Professor of Chemistry, William T Evjue Distinguished Chair, University of Wisconsin-
Madison "Chemistry: A Key to Human Progress"

2008 - Dr. Richard Zare, Marguerite Blake Wilbur Professor in Natural Science, Stanford University
"Cars: Chemistry in Motion"

2004 - Dr. Ronald Breslow, Samuel Latham Mitchill Professor of Chemistry, Columbia University
"Chemistry: Challenges and Opportunities for the Future"