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News Release

Last modified: Monday, October 5, 2009

Change of time for IU's Sonneborn Lecture, faculty awards program

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Oct. 5, 2009

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- The time has changed for an Indiana University Bloomington program recognizing the winner of the Tracy M. Sonneborn Award and the inaugural IU Provost's Professor.

The program will start at 5:30 p.m. Thursday (Oct. 8) in the Frangipani Room of the Indiana Memorial Union, 900 E. Seventh St. A previous news release said it would start at 5 p.m.

David E. Clemmer, the Robert and Marjorie Mann Chair of Chemistry at IU Bloomington, is the 2009 recipient of the Sonneborn Award. Lisa Pratt, IU professor of geological sciences, is the first Provost's Professor.

Clemmer will present the Sonneborn Lecture, "Measurements for the Masses," shortly after 5:30 p.m. The lecture and a reception afterward are free and open to the public.

Clemmer's lecture will provide a brief history of how measurements of mass evolved and impacted the fields of physics and chemistry, including the positioning of such measurements to provide key information in the fields of biology and medicine.

Clemmer was selected as the Sonneborn recipient due to his exceptionally creative and high-impact research. According to James P. Reilly, chair of chemistry at Indiana University Bloomington, Clemmer's research "integrates fundamental studies of molecular structure, stability and reactivity in complex, low-symmetry systems with an eye toward advancing measurement technologies."

Lisa Pratt's research is likewise well known by fellow scientists and scholars. She studies global biogeochemical cycles of carbon and sulfur in sedimentary rocks, focusing on integrated geochemical and microbiological recognition and characterization of biota in extreme environments. Currently, her research concentrates on evidence that can help answer fundamental questions about the origin and extent of life on Earth and the potential for life to exist on Mars.

About the Sonneborn Award and Provost's Professors

The Sonneborn award was established in 1985 by the Dean of the Faculties office to honor an IU professor who has achieved distinction as a teacher and as a scholar or artist. The award is named for the late Tracy M. Sonneborn, an IU biologist who distinguished himself in both teaching and research.

The Provost's Professorship recognizes faculty who have achieved local, national and international distinction in both teaching and research, and who display beneficial interactions between the two. Previously known as the Chancellor's Professor award, it was renamed to reflect an administrative reorganization on the Bloomington campus. .

For more information about the lecture or induction ceremony, contact Cyndi Connelley-Eskine, Office of the Vice Provost for Faculty and Academic Affairs, at cyconnel@indiana.edu or call 812-855-9973.

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