June 30, 2015

The 50^th anniversary Kelly Lectures were presented April 28 – 29, 2015 by Professor Nicholas Peppas, the Cockrell Family Regents Chaired Professor in the Departments of Chemical Engineering, Biomedical Engineering and Pharmacy, and Chairman of the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin.

Professor Peppas presented two lectures, “Multiresponsive Nanogels for the Delivery of Small Interfering RNA and Advanced Protein Therapeutic Agents” and “Intelligent Polymer Hydrogels: From Obscure Molecular Structures to Useful Multifunctional Systems,” during the event.

Over the past 40 years, Professor Peppas has set the fundamentals and rational design of drug delivery systems and developed models of drug and protein diffusion in controlled release devices and biological tissues. A significant portion of this work was performed at Purdue University (1976-2002) where he was Professor of Chemical Engineering as well as the Showalter Distinguished Professor of Biomedical Engineering.

A plaque including the names of all Kelly Lecturers to-date was commissioned to commemorate the 50^th anniversary of the lectures.  Dr. Arvind Varma, the R. Games Slayter Distinguished Professor of Chemical Engineering and Jay and Cynthia Ihlenfeld Head of Chemical Engineering, Dr. Arthur Westerberg of Carnegie Mellon University, the 1993 Kelly Lecturer, and Dr. Peppas unveiled the plaque.  

The Kelly Lectures were established by a grant from alumnus Arthur Kelly (BSChE ’24).  Kelly was a retired Executive Vice President and Director of B.F. Goodrich Company, and received an honorary doctorate from Purdue in 1961. The Kelly Lectures are presented annually by outstanding engineers and scientists from the broad areas of chemical engineering.  The recipients are selected by the faculty in recognition of their contributions to research and education.  Past Kelly lecturers include legendary figures in chemical engineering and two Nobel laureates.