Emily Balskus at the Schneller Frontiers Lecture on Sep. 28, 2022

The 2022 Schneller Frontiers Lecture was delivered by Emily Balskus from Harvard University. Her talk titled Deciphering the Human Gut Microbiome with Chemistry, took place on Sept. 28 at 3:45 p.m. in SCC 115. The host was Rahul Banerjee.

Emily Balskus received her B.A. with highest honors in Chemistry from Williams College in 2002. After obtaining an M.Phil. in Chemistry as a Churchill Scholar at the University of Cambridge, Emily pursued graduate studies at Harvard University under the mentorship of Prof. Eric Jacobsen. She received her Ph.D. in Chemistry in 2008 and then joined the lab of Prof. Christopher Walsh at Harvard Medical School as a postdoctoral fellow. In 2011, she joined the faculty of the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University as an assistant professor and she is currently the Thomas Dudley Cabot Professor of Chemistry. She is also an Associate Member of the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, a Faculty Associate of the Microbial Sciences Initiative at Harvard, and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator.

The research program in her laboratory aims to understand how microbial metabolism in the human microbiome influences host health and disease. This involves characterizing new metabolic pathways and enzymes displaying novel chemical mechanisms. It also includes the development of biocompatible reactions that generate small molecule modifiers of microbial metabolism for investigating metabolic pathways and targeted microbiome therapeutics. Prof. Emily Balskus is the recipient of numerous awards, of which, a few include the 2019 Blavatnik Award for Young Scientists, the 2018 Eli Lilly Grantee Award, the 2018 Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award, the 2017 Pfizer Award in Enzyme Chemistry, and the 2015 Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award.

Theodor Agapie Shares Research About Synthetic Inorganic and Organometallic Chemistry at the 2019 Schneller Frontiers Lecture

Theodor Agapie is the fourth speaker in the Schneller Frontiers Lecture series in the College of Sciences and Mathematics (COSAM) at Auburn University. Dr. Agapie is a professor of chemistry at the California Institute of Technology. Agapie received his bachelor’s degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2001 and his doctorate degree from the California Institute of Technology in 2007.

Agapie’s presentation, Conversion of Oxygenated C1 Feedstocks to C2 Products: Mechanism and Electrochemistry with Molecular and Heterogeneous Systems, highlighted information about small molecule gases such as carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide, and the importance of developing chemical transformations. He discussed binding and manipulating gases for beneficial purposes including creating renewable energy and helping to move away from synthetic fertilizers that are not environmentally-friendly.

“I am pleased to see that this lecture series is bringing scholars to campus who enhance the research profile of Auburn University,” explained former COSAM Dean and professor of chemistry and biochemistry Stewart Schneller.

Previous lectures include Melanie Sanford from the University of Michigan, Sarah Reisman from the California Institute of Technology and Shannon Stahl from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

This event is made possible through an endowment by Professor and Mrs. Stewart Schneller. The Schneller Frontiers Lecture series is an opportunity for them to personally give back to the university with high-impact speakers in the field of chemistry and biochemistry.

Watch the entire lecture online from Agapie below.