Featuring world-renowned scientists, the University of Kentucky’s 2017 Naff Symposium will host four experts Friday, March 31, at the William T. Young Library auditorium. A poster session will be held in conjunction with the symposium at the Jacobs Science Building.

Presented by the Department of Chemistry in the UK College of Arts and Sciences, the annual symposium focuses on chemistry and molecular biology and is attended by students and faculty in the chemistry, biochemistry, biology, pharmacy, engineering, agriculture and medical fields from UK, as well as other colleges and universities in Kentucky and surrounding states.

Each year, the Naff symposium brings leading scientists, including Nobel Prize winners, to campus to share their expertise with its audience. The research that will be discussed ranges from advancements to mimic skin functionality through implantable and biodegradable sensors that interface with the brain, to using cephalopods as inspiration for the development of new materials.

The topic of this year’s symposium is "Bioelectronics: Where Chemistry, Medicine and Materials Meet." Presenters include:

• John A. Rogers, Materials Science and Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Chemistry and Neurological Surgery, Northwestern University, presenting "Materials for Biodegradable Electronics";
• Zhenan Bao, Chemical Engineering and Chemistry and Materials Science and Engineering, Precourt Institute for Energy, Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment and Bio-X, Stanford University, presenting "Skin-Inspired Organic Electronic Materials and Devices";
• George Malliaras, Bioelectronics, University of California, San Diego, presenting "Interfacing with the Brain Using Organic Electronics"; and
• Alon Gorodetsky, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science and the Department of Chemistry, University of California, Irvine, presenting "Dynamic Materials Inspired By Cephalopods."

At the conclusion of the talks, UK will host a poster session in the Jacobs Science Building. 

A full schedule of events and the presenters’ abstracts and biographies are available at https://chem.as.uky.edu/naff-symposium.  

The 2017 Naff Committee members include Department of Chemistry professors Chad Risko, Jason DeRouchey, John Anthony, Kenneth Graham and Susan Odom. For more information about the 2017 Naff Symposium, contact Chad Risko.

The Naff Symposium was established in honor of Anna S. Naff, a University of Kentucky graduate, through the generous support of Benton Naff of National Institutes of Health.