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CORVALLIS - John Fenn, a Nobel laureate and internationally recognized chemist at Virginia Commonwealth University, will present the Tsoo King Memorial Lecture at Oregon State University on Thursday, Oct. 21.

His presentation is titled "Electrospray Wings for Molecular Elephants," and will be at 4:30 p.m. in the Construction and Engineering Hall of the LaSells Stewart Center on the OSU campus. It is free and open to the public, and will be followed by a reception.

Fenn, an analytical chemist, is the author of more than 115 scientific papers and 19 patents. In 2002 he received the Nobel Prize for Chemistry, along with Kurt Wuthrich and Koichi Tanaka, for his work on the development of electrospray ionization.

This technology can turn relatively high molecular weight biological samples, such as proteins, into ions for structural analysis by mass spectrometry. His lecture will explore the electrospray ionization process and its implications for modern mass spectrometry and the biological sciences.

While at OSU, Fenn will also meet with student groups, including an informal open forum discussion with undergraduate students on Friday, Oct. 22, at 4 p.m. in the Agricultural and Life Sciences Building, Room 4001.

The lecture is sponsored at OSU by the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, the Department of Chemistry, and the Environmental Health Sciences Center.