You are invited to this special event featuring presentations from Tao Xu, Board of Trustees Professor in NIU’s Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, and Aaron Fogleman, Board of Trustees Professor and Distinguished Research Professor in NIU’s Department of History.
Xu’s presentation, “If the Answer is General Chemistry, What are the Questions?” will look at how wildfires, hurricanes, and floods remind us that rapid changes in our ecosystem are deeply connected to energy, matter, and chemistry. What if the keys to understanding and addressing these challenges lie in the principles taught in General Chemistry? For undergraduate students, research, and teaching, these examples illustrate the power of fundamental chemical concepts. Across catalysts for CO₂ conversion and energy conversion in solar cells, General Chemistry unites teaching, training, and chemical materials innovation, showing how a strong foundation equips students to explore, create, and solve real-world problems.
Fogleman’s presentation, “Immigrant Voices: Forced and Free Migrations to the Americas, 1492-1867,” is the culmination of a long career of studying and teaching early America and the Atlantic World, to include the themes of immigration, revolution, slavery, religion and gender. His talk will include the role of NIU students in this project, the impact the project has in his classrooms, and the current relevance of what thousands of European and African immigrants wrote long ago about their forced and free transatlantic migration experiences to the Americas.
