October 27, 2008
MIT Nocera Delivers 24th Annual Friedman Lecture on "Artificial Photosynthesis" Breakthrough
Daniel G. Nocera, the Henry Dreyfus Professor of Energy at MIT and a leading researcher into renewable energy at the molecular level, delivered the twenty-fourth annual H. Martin Friedman Lecture at Brooklyn College on Thursday, October 23, 2008.
The lecture, titled "Powering the Planet with Artificial Photosynthesis," was held at the Room 148 Ingersoll Hall Extension.
In his talk, Nocera––who was the senior author of a paper in the July 31 issue of Science that described a revolutionary find that could turn solar power into a mainstream energy source––will present aspects of the basic science required to emulate the natural process of photosynthesis. This breakthrough has the potential to free the American economy from its reliance on foreign oil within a decade by harnessing large-scale solar power.
"This is the nirvana of what we’ve been talking about for years," Nocera declared at the conference. "Solar power has always been a limited far-off solution. Now we can seriously think about solar power as unlimited and soon."
Inspired by the photosynthesis carried out by plants, Nocera and Matthew Kanan, a postdoctoral fellow in Nocera’s lab at MIT, developed a process that allows the sun’s energy to be used to split water into hydrogen and oxygen gases. Later the oxygen and hydrogen may be recombined inside a fuel cell, creating carbon-free electricity to power a home or electric car day or night.
Professor Nocera obtained his B.S. degree with Highest Honors from Rutgers University in 1979. He moved to California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, where he received his Ph.D. in chemistry in 1984, working with Professor Harry B. Gray on electron transfer
reactions of biological and inorganic systems. He was later appointed to the faculty of the Michigan State University in East Lansing, before becoming a professor of chemistry at MIT in 1997. Currently, in addition to the Dreyfus professorship, he holds the positions of director of the Solar Revolution Project and director of the Eni Solar Frontiers Center.
The Friedman Lecture series, which is made possible by an endowment from Dr. H. Martin Friedman, Class of 1935, was inaugurated in 1984.
The distinguished scientists who have given the lecture include Nobel Prize–winners Rosalyn Yalow, Jerome Karle, David Baltimore, Mario Molina, Robert F. Furchgott, Roderick MacKinnon, and Richard R. Schrock.