Nobel Laureate Lecture

On Friday 6th October, ten Chemistry students from Year 11 were invited to attend a lecture at the Florey Institute at Melbourne University.  The lecture was presented by the winner of the 2022 Nobel Prize for Chemistry, Morten Meldal.

Meldal won the Nobel Prize for his work in the development of “Click Chemistry” and bioorthogonal chemistry.  In his lecture he explained what a click reaction is - a type of reaction that was first discovered in 2001, and how he and his team have been using it to create synthetic proteins using amino acids that are not found in nature.  Throughout the lecture he explained how he uses several analytical techniques, such as Chromatography, NMR, IR and Mass Spectrometry, all of which are studied in Unit 4 Chemistry.  There was also a focus on protein chemistry which forms a big part of the Food Chemistry topic in Unit 4 Chemistry.  The work that Meldal and his team are completing in this field will, one day, hopefully help in the treatment of Alzheimer's Disease.

After the lecture, a question-and-answer session with Dr Meldal was followed by some refreshments.  A small group of students were rewarded for their patience and were able to meet Dr Meldal, speak to him about their studies of Chemistry, and get a photo with him.  Surely a highlight for any budding young Chemist (and the Chemistry teacher)!