On the 12th February 2018, Clin. Prof. Udom Kachintorn, M.D., Deputy Minister, Ministry of Education, together with Prof. Banchong Mahaisavariya, M.D., Acting President of Mahidol University, and Assoc. Prof. Sittiwat Lertsiri, Dean, Faculty of Science, welcomed Sir James Fraser Stoddart, a 2016 Nobel laureate in Chemistry, in an occasion of his special lecture on “My Journey to Stockholm”. This event was organized at Lecture Building L01 Hall, Faculty of Science, Mahidol University, Phayathai Campus, in order to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the faculty.
During the ceremony, Clin. Prof. Udom Kachintorn delivered a welcome speech, which the essences were, in addition to express his gratitude towards the speaker’s presence, about education reform, some certain social expectations toward the characteristics of graduates, how teachers play a role in inspiring students to create their own sustainable development. As a Nobel Prize recipient himself, Sir James was respectfully regarded as a role model among the audiences in the lecture.
Born on the 24th May 1942, Sir James Fraser Stoddart is a Scottish chemist from Northwestern University, USA. He specializes in designing and developing molecular machines, initiated with design and synthetic of “rotaxane” – a mechanically interlocked molecular consisting of a molecular ring onto a thin molecular axle. He demonstrated that the ring was able to move along the axle by chemical reaction or when energy is added. His innovative developments (based on rotaxanes) include a molecular lift, a molecular muscle, and a molecule-based computer chip. Sir James Fraser Stoddart shared the Nobel Prize award in Chemistry in 2016 with Prof. Jean-Pierre Sauvage and Prof. Bernard L. Feringa.
