April 28 - 30, 2008

The 33rd Annual

David M. Mason Lecturers

in

Chemical Engineering

Will be presented by

Alice P. Gast

President

Lehigh University

Alice P. Gast, a world-renowned scholar, researcher and academic leader, became the president of Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa., in 2006.

Before her appointment, Gast served as the vice president for research and associate provost at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she was also the Robert T. Haslam chair in chemical engineering. Prior to joining MIT in 2001, she spent 16 years as a professor of chemical engineering at Stanford University and at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory.

An active researcher, Gast studies surface and interfacial phenomena, in particular the behavior of complex fluids. Her areas of research include colloidal aggregation and ordering, protein lipid interactions, and enzyme reactions at surfaces. She is the co-author of Physical Chemistry of Surfaces, a classic textbook on colloid and surface phenomena, and has presented named lectures at several of the nation’s leading research institutions.

Gast leads a number of national advisory committees and boards, including the Board of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the Academic Research Council for the Singapore Ministry of Education and the National Research Council Committee for Science Technology and the Law. She is a member of the AAAS, the American Chemical Society, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and the American Physical Society.

In recognition of her achievements, Gast has received numerous awards and honors including the National Academy of Sciences Award for Initiative in Research, the Colburn Award of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Teacher Scholar Award and a Guggenheim Fellowship. She was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2001 and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2002. She was named an AAAS Fellow in early 2007.

After earning a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from the University of Southern California, Gast was a Hertz Fellow while earning her doctorate in chemical engineering from Princeton University. She spent a postdoctoral year completing a NATO fellowship at the École Supérieure de Physique et de Chimie Industrielles in Paris.

Monday, April 28, 2008

"Why Complex Fluids Are So Simple and Interesting"

4:15 p.m.

Munzer Auditorium Beckman Center

279 Campus Drive

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

"The American Research University in a Flat World"

4:00 p.m.

David Packard Auditorium 101

David Packard Electrical Engineering Building

350 Serra Mall

Reception and dinner following Wednesday’s lecture

at the Sheraton Palo Alto Hotel

625 El Camino Real

Palo Alto, CA 94301

Reception at 6:00 p.m. – Dinner at 7:00 p.m.

For additional information and dinner reservations:
Mrs. Pam Juanes
DEPARTMENT OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING
Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305-5025
Tel: (650) 725-3132 Fax: (650-723-9780
E-mail: pjuanes@stanford.edu

LECTURES ARE FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

David M. Mason
1921 - 1988

THE DAVID M. MASON LECTURES IN CHEMICAL ENGINEERING are named in honor of the late David M. Mason, who was Professor of Chemical Engineering and Chemistry at Stanford University.  Born in Los Angeles, Dave Mason did both his graduate and undergraduate work at the California Institute of Technology, receiving the Ph.D. degree in 1949 and the Distinguished Alumni Award in 1966.  He was elected a Fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, and in 1984 was presented the Institute's Founders Award for outstanding contributions in chemical engineering. His research interests lay in the field of applied chemical thermodynamics and kinetics. 

Dave joined the Stanford faculty in 1955 as an associate professor in the Chemistry Department's division of chemical engineering.  The relationships forged during those years have endured and have shaped the ties that still exist between the Departments of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering.  In 1960, David Mason seized the opportunity to create an autonomous Department of Chemical Engineering as a result of a Ford Foundation grant to Stanford.  The most notable aspect of the succeeding events is the rapidity with which Dave built the department to a position of excellence and national prominence, hired senior and junior faculty, and provided the department with its first home, the John Stauffer Building, third of the buildings in the Stauffer complex.  He served as Chair of the Department from 1960-72, and then as Professor from 1972 until his retirement in 1986.  Dave Mason passed away in August, 1988.

Past David M. Mason Lecturers: