Talk to Dissect the Periodic Table

Eric Scerri, a chemist and philosopher of science, explores the history and philosophy of the period table in a free, public lecture Saturday, April 21, at 12:30 p.m. in Winter Hall’s Darling Foundation Lecture Hall (Room 210) at Westmont. The lecture, “The Periodic Table: Its Story and Significance,” is co-sponsored by the California Los Padres Section of the American Chemical Society and the Westmont Department of Chemistry.

He founded and is editor-in-chief of the international journal Foundations of Chemistry and wrote the book “The Periodic Table: Its Story and Significance.” Scerri, a full-time lecturer at UCLA, earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of London, a Certificate of Postgraduate Study from the University of Cambridge, a Master of Philosophy degree from the University of Southampton and a doctorate from King’s College, University of London. He has been a postdoctoral fellow at the London School of Economics and the California Institute of Technology.

His research includes chemical education and historical-philosophical questions, including the reduction of chemistry to quantum mechanics. He also continues to work on the foundations of the periodic table, whether it makes more sense to use an optimal table and what form it might take.

A light lunch will be served in the Winter Hall foyer preceding the lecture, beginning at noon.