Symposium to mark Buhro’s receipt of St. Louis Award

St. Louis section of the American Chemical Society recognizes outstanding contributions to the profession of chemistry.

William Buhro

The St. Louis section of the American Chemical Society (ACS) and Washington University will hold a symposium from 2-5 p.m. Friday, Oct. 15, to celebrate William E. Buhro’s receipt of the St. Louis Award, which is presented to an individual who has made outstanding contributions to the chemistry profession.

Buhro, PhD, the George E. Pake Professor in Arts & Sciences, is chair of the Department of Chemistry at Washington University in St. Louis and a Fellow of the American Chemical Society.

The symposium, which is free and open to the public, will be held in the Laboratory Sciences Building, Room 300. The St. Louis Award is sponsored by the Monsanto Co. and administered by the St. Louis section of the ACS.

Technical talks will be delivered by colleagues and a former student. Among the speakers are:

  • Richard A. Loomis, PhD, associate professor of chemistry and associate director of the Center for Materials Innovation, will deliver a talk on colloidal semiconductor nanowires.
  • Sara E. Skrabalak, PhD, a former student of Buhro’s who is now assistant professor of chemistry at Indiana University, will speak on the aerosol synthesis of shape- and architecturally controlled particles.
  • Daniel R. Gamelin, PhD, of the University of Washington, will describe unusual photoluminescence phenomena in colloidal doped semiconductor nanocrystals.

The symposium will be followed by a reception in the Rettner Gallery, adjacent to the lecture hall.

Buhro was raised in Portage, Mich., near Kalamazoo. He earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry in 1980 at Hope College and a doctorate in organic chemistry from University of California, Los Angeles, in 1985.

Buhro joined WUSTL’s chemistry department as an assistant professor in 1987. He was named a National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator (1991-1996), and has received three teaching awards. Since 2002, he has served as an editor of the ACS journal Chemistry of Materials.

Buhro’s interests are materials chemistry and nanoscience. His research group is best known for discovering the solution-liquid-solid synthesis of semiconductor quantum wires. He also has studied molecular routes to materials, nanocrystalline and nanocomposite materials, and the growth mechanisms of nanoparticles, nanowires and nanotubes.