Nanoscience pioneer and Penn State alumnus Chad Mirkin to present the Spring 2025 Harold Kohn Endowed Distinguished Chemistry Alumni Lecture
Chad A. Mirkin, director of the International Institute for Nanotechnology and the George B. Rathmann Professor of Chemistry at Northwestern University and Penn State alumnus, will present the Harold Kohn Endowed Distinguished Chemistry Alumni Lecture at 4:45 p.m. on Monday, April 21, 2025, in Berg Auditorium (100 Huck Life Sciences Building) on the Penn State University Park campus. The lecture, titled “Exploring the ‘Matterverse’ Through Nanomaterial MegaLibraries and AI,” is free and open to the public.
Alumnus Harold L. Kohn and his wife, Carol K. Kohn, established this lectureship to honor and celebrate the contributions of distinguished Penn State alumni, foster a broad interest in the chemical sciences, and provide opportunities for engagement with students, faculty, and the community.
In this lecture, Mirkin will present his group's revolutionary high-throughput scanning probe lithography approach that overcomes traditional limitations in discovering advanced multi-elemental materials. Their technique creates "megalibraries" of diverse nanomaterials, enabling the rapid synthesis and screening of billions of nanoparticles. By incorporating machine learning-driven workflows, the group has been able to efficiently analyze vast datasets, identifying promising materials for catalysis, energy, electronics and more, while advancing the exploration of the "matterverse" and driving breakthroughs in materials discovery.
Mirkin is renowned for pioneering nanoparticle-based biodetection technologies, inventing dip-pen nanolithography — recognized as a groundbreaking scientific advancement — and making significant contributions to supramolecular chemistry, nanoelectronics, nanooptics and materials discovery. He is consistently ranked among the most highly cited researchers in chemistry and nanomedicine, reflecting his profound impact on the field. He has authored over 870 manuscripts, filed more than 1,200 patent applications (with over 430 issued) and founded multiple companies, including Nanosphere, TERA-print, Azul 3D, Flashpoint Therapeutics and Mattiq. A recipient of over 250 national and international awards — such as the Kavli Prize in Nanoscience, King Faisal Prize, IET Faraday Award and Dan David Prize — Mirkin has also served on the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology and is among the few scientists elected to all three U.S. National Academies and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has played a significant role in scientific publishing as the founding editor of the nanotechnology journal Small, an associate editor of Journal of the American Chemical Society, and a Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences editorial board member. Additionally, he has delivered over 900 invited lectures and mentored more than 320 graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, with over 130 now holding faculty positions at leading institutions worldwide.
Mirkin received his bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Dickinson College in 1986 and a doctoral degree in inorganic and organic chemistry from Penn State in 1989. He was an NSF Postdoctoral Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology prior to becoming a professor at Northwestern University in 1991.