Wednesday, May 10, 2006 Retzer Nature Center S14 W28167 Madison Street Waukesha, WI

DIRECTIONS

At the dawn of the space age in the 1960s, a handful of molecules were known to exist off Earth. Since those days of early robotic exploration of the Moon and Mars, fly-bys with spectroscopy of the outer planets, and radio astronomy of distant areas of our own galaxy and parts of the universe have brought forth a burst of molecular information. About 120 molecules, some new and some known, have been identified to date. What types and kinds of molecules exist? What varieties of molecular species have been found? How did they form, where do they occur, and what mechanisms exist for molecular formation? Can we model and predict what other molecules may occur? How has interstellar organic chemistry evolved? The content of the talk varies and the level of the talk is adaptable to the audience present.

Yorke Rhodes received a B. S. in soil chemistry from the University of Delaware in 1957, and then earned an M.S. in organic chemistry in 1959. After completing his Ph.D. at the University of Illinois in 1964 with Prof. James C. Martin, he was an NIH Postdoctoral Fellow with Kenneth B. Wiberg at Yale University. He joined the faculty of New York University in 1965 and developed research areas in SO2 solvent chemistry, electrocyclic reactions, small ring chemistry, and carbocations. He was a State Department exchange visitor to Prague, Czechoslovakia, and Zagreb, Yugoslavia, in 1977 and was also Gastprofessor with Ivar Ugi at the Technische Universitat Munchen (TUM) in 1977, followed by a stay in 1978 as Alexander von Humboldt U.S. Senior Scientist Awardee at the TUM with Ugi. Nasa/IEEE Summer Fellowships were held at the Jet Propulsion Laboratories with Wes Huntress in 1980 and 1981 (astrochemistry). In 1987, he was professor associe at the Centre d'Astrophysique, Universite de Grenoble, France, with Alain Omont (astro-polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon chemistry). Rhodes was awarded the Golden Dozen Award for Teaching Excellence in the College of Arts and Science in 1991, and again in 1996. Professor Rhodes is director of the Dual Degree Program in Science and Engineering at New York University and Stevens Institute of Technology, resides as Professor in a Residence, and is very active in the New York Academy of Sciences and American Chemical Society local section activities, sponsoring a variety of symposia, poster sessions and other activities for students. He was chair of the ACS New York Section for 1998. As an ACS Councillor he is also a member of the Local Section Activities Committee and welcomes discussions about local sections. He has served on Department of Education review panels and is an educational consultant/evaluator for several undergraduate and high school research mentoring programs.