This week, we dive into the heart of UVA’s chemistry department with Jill Venton, its chair and the Thomas Jefferson Professor of Chemistry. She tells us about the fascinating study and synthesis of the molecular building blocks of our universe: from star formation to nanoparticles for clean energy applications, and borrowing fluorescent molecules from fireflies to illuminate our own biological processes. We also discuss her lab’s research on brain chemistry and the future of neurochemical treatments for disease.
- Transcript
“Welcome to Hoos in STEM. I'm Ken Ono, your host, and the STEM Advisor to the Provost, and the Marvin Rosenblum Professor of Mathematics at UVA. This is the first episode of our third season, the 34th episode, and this is an episode that I'm really excited about, because it reminds me of my youth.
Our goal is to evoke flights of imagination and wonder by showcasing the cornucopia of all that is STEM at UVA, the marvelous world of UVA science, technology, engineering and mathematics. We're going to begin this episode with a special tribute to one of my first scientific heroes, Carl Sagan, master astronomer, planetary scientist, and science communicator extraordinaire.
We inhabit a universe of galaxies. There are unstructured blobs, the irregular galaxies, globular or elliptical galaxies, and the graceful blue arms of spiral galaxies. We've been investigating the galaxies, their origins, evolution and motions, for less than a century.
These studies extend our understanding to the farthest reaches of the universe. Our ship of the imagination carries us to that ultimate frontier. We view the cosmos on the grandest of scales, the majesty of the galaxies is revealed by science.
Sagan was one of my heroes[…]”
From Hoos in STEM: Cosmic Simulations with Dr. Paul Torrey and his AI Copilot, Jan 31, 2025
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/cosmic-simulations-with-dr-paul-torrey-and-his-ai-copilot/id1671045329?i=1000687495282
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