POTSDAM -- Clarkson University's 22nd Shipley Distinguished Lectureship series will be held this Thursday and Friday, Oct. 20 and 21 as a tribute to the late Prof. Egon Matijevic.

Matijevic, who established the lecture series, passed away in July at the age of 94.

This year’s Shipley lecturer is Professor of Physical Chemistry Michael Grätzel, director of the Laboratory of Photonics and Interfaces at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Lausanne, Switzerland, a world-renowned scientist and one of the 10 most highly cited chemists in the world.

Grätzel, who is co-inventor of the Grätzel Cell and a leader in the advancement of solar cell development for use in renewable electricity generation, will present the two Shipley Lectures, which are both free and open to the public.

His lecture "The Magic World of Nanocrystals, from Batteries to Solar Cells" will be delivered on Thursday, October 20, at 3 p.m. in Science Center Room 360.

The presentation will be followed by a reception and campus tribute to Egon Matijevic at 4:30 p.m. in the Schuler Educational Resources Center .

For students, faculty and the more technically inclined, Grätzel's lecture "The Amazing Rise of Perovskite Solar Cells" will be presented Friday, October 21, at 10 a.m. in Bertrand H. Snell Hall Room 213.

Grätzel pioneered research in the field of energy and electron transfer reactions in mesoscopic systems and their use in energy conversion systems, in particular photovoltaic cells and photo-electrochemical devices for the splitting of water into hydrogen and oxygen and the reduction of carbon dioxide by sunlight as well as the storage of electric power in lithium ion batteries.

He discovered a new type of solar cell based on dye sensitized nanocrystalline oxide films, which successfully mimic the light reaction occurring in green leafs and algae during natural photosynthesis.

The Shipley Lectures are sponsored by the Shipley Family Foundation, with support from Clarkson's Center for Advanced Materials Processing (CAMP).

Info: Elizabeth McCarran at 268-6658 or emccarra@clarkson.edu.