October 23, 2015, by Rose Bramwell

75th Sir Jesse Boot Foundation Lecture 2015

This year marks the 75^th Sir Jesse Boot Foundation lecture, the first dating back to 1922 where Professor Frederic Kipping FRS gave a talk on “Evolution in Chemical Industry – Oil of Vitriol”.

For those who are unaware who Jesse Boot is, perhaps you’ve bought something from one of his 2500 stores scattered across the UK? Yes, Jesse’s father John Boot started the now multi million pound company way back in 1849 which opened as a small herbalist store on Goose Gate.

So what’s the connection between the School of Chemistry and Jesse Boot? Well, Sir Jesse Boot donated 35 acres to the University of Nottingham which is now known as University Park campus where we are currently situated. Every year we recognise the impact that Sir Jesse Boot had on the University to make it what it is today whilst celebrating today’s great minds in Chemistry.

Over the years, we have had many eminent lecturers who have given talks on topics from Walter Morgan’s talk on ‘Chemistry and our Defence against Disease’ in 1939 to Professor Dan Eley, OBE’s talk on ‘The Evolution of Catalysts’.

Here is a cover sheet from the 21^st Sir Jesse Boot Foundation Lecture:

This year’s lecturer is The University of Strasbourg’s Professor Luisa De Cola, who during her career has accumulated several awards for her contribution to Chemistry and to women in Science, her latest award being the IUPAC award as one of the Distinguished Women in Chemistry and Chemical Engineering. In 2014, Professor De Cola was nominated “Chevalier de la Legion d’Honneur” by the French president, François Hollande, which is the recognised as the highest decoration in France. The title of her talk will be ‘Stimulus Responsive Soft and Hard Molecular Systems’.

This year’s Sir Jesse Boot Foundation lecture will be the 75^th lecture at the School of Chemistry and will take place 19^th November, in Chemistry’s X1 theatre.

• Share on Facebook
• Share on Twitter
• Share on Google+
• Share on LinkedIn