Geneva College welcomes Dr. Roald Hoffmann

BEAVER FALLS, PA (10/19/2012)(readMedia)-- Nobel-prize-winning chemist Dr. Roald Hoffmann will be coming to Geneva, speaking at John White Chapel in Old Main for a 7:30 p.m. lecture on Thursday, October 25, and at again at 10:10 a.m. on Friday, October 26.

He will be speaking on "Beauty and the Sublime," based on the book he recently edited, Beyond the Finite: The Sublime in Art and Science. In the book, scholars explore the sublime experience from perspectives as varied as neuroscience, chemistry, astronomy, physics, film, painting and music.

A Polish Holocaust survivor, Hoffmann immigrated to the U.S. at 11 years of age. He entered Columbia College in New York as a Pulitzer Free Scholar and received his B.A. in chemistry. He then and went on to earn an M.A. in physics and a Ph.D. in chemical physics at Harvard University. In 1981, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded jointly to Roald Hoffmann and Kenichi Fukui for "their theories, developed independently, concerning the course of chemical reactions," according to the Nobel Prize website.

From 1962–65, Dr. Hoffman was a Junior Fellow in the Society of Fellows at Harvard. Since 1965, he has taught at Cornell University, where he is now the Frank H.T. Rhodes Professor of Humane Letters Emeritus.

Dr. Hoffman also participated in the production of The World of Chemistry, a series of 26 half-hour television programs about chemistry. He is the presenter for the series, which has been aired on PBS beginning in 1990.

In addition to his career as a prize-winning chemist, Dr. Hoffmann is a published poet; a vocation that he has stated is far more difficult. His first collection, The Metamict State, was published by the University of Central Florida Press in 1987, and was followed with a second collection, Gaps and Verges, in 1990. He received the 1988 Pergamon Press Fellowship in Literature at the Djerassi Foundation, Woodside, CA, where he was in residence for three years.

Dr. Hoffmann is coming to the college as part of the Geneva Visiting Artist and Lecture Series. His appearances are free and open to the public.

Geneva College is a comprehensive Christian college of the arts, sciences and professional studies. Founded in the tradition of the Reformed Christian faith, Geneva prepares students to serve Christ in all areas of society: work, family and the church. Geneva College's philosophy of education is based on the Foundational Concepts of Christian Higher Education. Geneva is a founding member of the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities (CCCU).