Speaker Biography
Dr. Lawrence W. Potts was born in Buffalo NY in 1945. He graduated with a BA degree in Chemistry from Oberlin College in 1967 and earned his Ph.D. at the University of Minnesota in 1972, working under the direction of Harold Swofford in electroanalytical chemistry. In 1972 he joined the faculty at Gustavus Adolphus College in Saint Peter, Minnesota, where he taught courses in Quantitative Analysis, Instrumental Methods, and Advanced Inorganic in the Chemistry department, as well as interdisciplinary courses in more than 15 other areas, including several freshman seminars. In the mid 1980s he spent summers at 3M research laboratories and the laboratories of Matthew Tirrell and John Evans in Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Minnesota. During the decade of the 90s, his work involved analysis of polymer sorption onto metal oxide surfaces using electron spectroscopy and infrared spectroscopy, and also the development of a fledgling undergraduate program in Materials Science. Over the course of his career, Prof. Potts worked with more than 100 undergraduates on lab research projects in a host of diverse areas. He has published seven research papers and two textbooks, and he and his students have given numerous research presentations.
In the early part of the current decade, Prof. Potts developed an interest in the separation and analysis of environmental contaminants using GC/MS, and most recently LC and LC/MS. After retiring in 2008, he accepted a postdoctoral research appointment in Peter Carr’s laboratory at the University of Minnesota studying ways to optimize separations in fast comprehensive two dimensional liquid chromatography. He is currently Emeritus Professor and Research Professor at Gustavus Adolphus College.
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Gustavus's Nobel Conference and Some Chemical Characters
Lawrence Potts
Emeritus Professor of Chemistry
Gustavus Adolphus College
April 17, 2012
Three Crowns Dining Room of the Johnson Campus Center
Gustavus Adolphus College
In January,1965, Gustavus Adolphus College started a series of annual academic scientific conferences called “Nobel Conference" that honor the memory of Alfred Nobel and the spirit of scientific inquiry. The first conference, “Genetics and the Future of Man”, featured as speakers the renowned Nobel Prize physicists William Shockley (discoverer of the transistor effect), and Polycarp Kusch (measured the magnetic moment of the electron), as well as Edward Tatum and Philip Hench (Medicine, 1958 and 1950), Kingsley Davis, sociologist from U Cal Berkeley, and Paul Ramsey, religious ethicist from Princeton University. the first conference was held for two days in Christ Chapel and Alumni Hall, campus venues that could provide space for 1000 attendees. The original idea was to offer a popular-level presentation of important scientific and technological issues and connect those issues to the realms of humanitarianism, social sciences, ethics and theology. Since the beginning, the conferences, unlike the Prizes they celebrate, have been future-oriented, especially to appeal to students. Conferences have become more and more like academic festivals than large-scale seminars, with the addition of music, theater performances, and art shows.
The goal of bringing the best and brightest scientific minds to campus in an interdisciplinary and layman-accessible format has been realized for 47 conferences; the 48th Conference, “Our Global Ocean”, will be held on October 2nd and 3rd 2012, in Lund Center, a venue capable of holding more than 5000 attendees.
Over the years a number of chemists and physicists familiar to members of the Minnesota Section of the American Chemical Society have served as speakers. Some of the most familiar names are Seaborg, Lipscomb, Onsager, Mullikan, Libby, Pauling, Prigogine, DeGennes, Hoffman, Gray, and Rowland. Some accounts of their visits and talks at Gustavus, as well as some recollections, photos, and (true) stories, will be presented.
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Salad: Fresh Fruit Salad, Romaine and Strawberry Salad
Entrée: Chicken Breast with white wine mushroom sauce or Soy Ginger Salmon
Potato: Wild Rice pilaf
Vegetable: Fresh Asparagus
Bread: Assorted Artisan Breads
Beverage: Water, coffee, milk (soda upon request)
Dessert: Assorted desserts to include: Chocolate Gateau, Turtle cheesecake and Lemon raspberry torte
- Meal Price: $18 in advance, $20 at the door
- Bldg. room/locations:
5 - 6 PM: Executive Committee Meeting in the Saint Peter Room of the Johnson Campus Center (on the second floor)
6 - 7 PM: Dinner and Social in the Three Crowns Dining Room of the Johnson Campus Center (also on the second floor)
7 - 8 PM: Presentation by Prof. Larry Potts - "Gustavus' Nobel Conference and some Chemical Characters"
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