by Phoebe Billups '19

Dr. Marsha Lester, Edmund J. Kahn Distinguished Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania School of Arts and Sciences, will deliver the Phi Beta Kappa Distinguished Lecture on Monday, October 24, at Knox College. 

Her lecture, "Climate Change: Chemistry, International Assessment, and Policy," will take place at 7 p.m. in the Trustees Room of Alumni Hall. The talk, which is open to the public, will focus on the underlying chemistry associated with climate change, including the sources of greenhouse gases and how they trap heat in Earth's atmosphere.

Lester will examine the impacts of global warming on the environment to date, like melting ice caps and rising sea levels, and explore future predictions. The environmental and energy policies proposed by presidential and congressional candidates, as well as steps individuals can take to reduce their carbon footprint, will be discussed.

She will visit several Knox classes on October 24 and 25, and hold a lunch seminar to discuss careers in science, overcoming obstacles, and preparing for graduate or medical school with students in the McNair Scholars Program and COAST Program, groups that support first-generation college students.

Lester's visit coincides with the 100th anniversary of Phi Beta Kappa at Knox College. Phi Beta Kappa is the nation's most prestigious academic honors society, with chapters at 286 colleges and universities and more than half a million members across the country. Its mission is to champion education in the liberal arts and sciences, recognize academic excellence, and foster freedom of thought and expression.

Lester is one of 15 academics participating in the Phi Beta Kappa Society's Visiting Scholar Program this year. Since 1956, the program has sent 648 scholars on 5,288 visits to colleges and universities with Phi Beta Kappa chapters. It offers undergraduate students the opportunity to meet and exchange ideas with nationally acclaimed scholars.

Lester's numerous accolades include her recent election to the National Academy of Sciences, the Garvan-Olin Medal of the American Chemical Society, a John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, the Bourke Lectureship of the Faraday Division of the Royal Society of Chemistry, the Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award, and an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship. In 2008, Lester was appointed editor of the Journal of Chemical Physics. She has served on the National Research Council on Physical Sciences, Mathematics, Applications, and its board on Chemical Sciences and Technology. She is also a founding member of the Penn Forum for Women Faculty.