On Tuesday, November 15, 2022, Professor Trisha Andrew from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst joined us on campus as our keynote speaker for the Dr. Frank J. Welcher Lecture, “Transforming Common Garments into Sensors for Human Health Monitoring”. In this talk, Prof. Andrew described how simple organic reactions led her to develop organic materials from sensors to light harvesting materials. Her talk showed how chemistry could impact our everyday life and the future. In her disciplinary talk, the following day she delved into more fundamental chemical reactions.
Dr. Trisha L. Andrew is a Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering and Director of the Wearable Electronics Lab, created by a multi-disciplinary research team that creates electronic devices on unconventional substrates using reactive vapor deposition. This technique exhibits unmatched flexibility in device architectures, array configurations, and product assembly.
Prof. Andrew is also a David and Lucille Packard Foundation Fellow, a National Academy of Sciences Kavli Fellow, an Air Force Office of Scientific Research Young Investigator, a L’Oréal USA For Women in Science Fellow, a 3M Nontenured Faculty Award winner, and was named on the Forbes “30 Under 30” list in Energy.
This annual lectureship honors distinguished professor of chemistry Frank J. Welcher, Ph.D. It was established in Welcher’s name by Priscilla and Erwin (Erv) Boschmann, Ph.D., IUPUI chemistry professor emeritus.
Dr. Welcher taught chemistry for more than 45 years, serving as a faculty member before IUPUI was officially established in 1969. Welcher was an influential mentor and colleague to Boschmann; his monumental work, “Organic Analytical Reagents”, made him an international expert.
“We are very thankful to Prof. Erv Boschman for having the vision to establish a lectureship in our department so that we can host amazing scientists such as Prof. Andrew here on campus each year,” said Partha Basu, Ph.D., Chair of the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at IUPUI. “Prof. Andrew’s lecture was informative and engaging and I was so pleased at the level of student engagement we saw over the two days that she was here.”