This free conference in English will be followed by a wine reception.

For security reasons, please register by December 11th, 2011.

Parking available on Reservoir Road and in the Georgetown Hospital garage.

PARKING NOT AVAILABLE INSIDE THE EMBASSY

About Prof. Laszlo's conference:

Many of us feel such an ambivalence, and Pierre Laszlo’s answer to this dilemma is nuanced. Debris in the form of plastic bags and bottles pollutes the oceans. Hormono-mimetic chemicals affect both human health and biodiversity. How did this come about? What can we do to solve such problems? Consumerism is the main reason for the proliferation of dangerous chemicals. Chemical science, on the other hand, not only is able to make carbon copies of any natural product, but also comes up with novel molecules as drugs and as machines at the nanometer scale. It allies itself with biology to open up computational futures. Prof. Laszlo's lecture will arbitrate between risks and benefits of a science, which remains too underrated in public perception.

Pierre Laszlo, Professor Emeritus of organic chemistry at the University of Liege and the Ecole Polytechnique, uses his writing skills to contribute to the popularization of science. 

He was “genetically” expected to become a writer and scientist. His father - a brilliant mathematician and hydraulic engineer - and his mother, poet and dancer, led him to both paths. 

He received a PhD from the Sorbonne (1965) and after a first academic appointment at Princeton University as a teaching assistant, he was appointed professor at the University of Liege. He worked there from 1970 to 1999, while teaching chemistry at the Ecole Polytechnique. 

Author of more than 200 primary publications in the field of organic chemistry and ten scientific monographs, he also has written many books that are popular with the general public: "Drôle de chimie", "Les odeurs nous parlent- elles", "Citrus: a history”, "Pourquoi la mer est-elle bleue?" "Peut-on boire l'eau du robinet?" and "Salt: Grain of life". 

Pierre Laszlo has received many French and foreign scientific awards, including the prize of the Academy of Sciences in honor of the French scientists who were killed by the Nazis in 1940-1944 (1981), and the Prix Maurice Perugia from the Fondation de France (1999) as a reward of all his work in popular science.