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Workshops & seminars

DDT: Alternative Facts and the Comparative Lethality of Crystalline Polymorphs
Dr. Bart Kahr (New York State)


Date & time
Friday, March 31, 2017
2:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.
Speaker(s)

Dr. Bart Kahr

Cost

This event is free

Website

Where

Hingston Hall, wing HC
7141 Sherbrooke W.
Room HC-157

Wheel chair accessible

No

Abstract:  A newly discovered polymorph of DDT described here provokes questions about how the most famous contact insecticide functions. While DDT is a persistent environmental pollutant, it is still important in some malaria endemic countries for battling mosquitoes when used in rotation with other compounds to prevent insect resistance. Questions arise concerning the extent to which crystal engineering can be used prepare more effective organochlorine crystals that can be used with smaller application. Meanwhile, the recent American presidential election has provoked a reappraisal of DDT, particularly with respect to the normalization of this most famous insecticide by interests committed to abrogating environmental regulations. The misuse of some chemical science by political operatives is reviewed herein. Rachel Carson, an American hero and mother of all modern environmental sensibilities, has been charged by with mass murder for malaria deaths that would otherwise been prevented by DDT. The awful charges and the reasons for their proliferation on the internet are evaluated.                                  

Bio: Bart Kahr was born in New York City in 1961. He studied chemistry with I. D. Reingold at Middlebury College, with Kurt Mislow at Princeton University (Ph.D., 1988), and with J. M. McBride at Yale University. He was a faculty member at Purdue University from 1990 to 1996 and at the University of Washington, Seattle from 1997 to 2009. After which, he returned to his hometown where he is currently Professor of Chemistry in the Molecular Design Institute at New York University. Kahr's research group studies the growth, structure, and physical properties of complex organized media. Current projects emphasize: 1. Polycrystalline pattern formation. 2. Development of new methods of metrology using polarized light. 3. Analysis of chiroptical anisotropy structure-property relationships. He also practices the experimental history of chemistry and crystallography, that is those aspects of the development of science of can only be informed by contemporary laboratory experiments. In recent years, he has been advocating for the changes in the way that universities and government agencies manage scientific misconduct.  

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