Departmental Newsletter
Colloquium Schedule
Spring 2026 Chemistry and Biochemistry Colloquium Series
The Chemistry and Biochemistry Colloquia Series is presented Wednesday afternoons at 3:30 p.m. in McKinley 224 unless otherwise noted.
| Date | Seminar Speaker, Title |
|---|---|
| 01/28 |
Prof. Bret Freudenthal (University of Kansas Medical Center), DNA Repair Search and Recognition Mechanisms |
| 02/04 |
Prof. Nicholas Riley (University of Washington), TBA |
|
02/11 |
Prof. Garry Grubbs II (Missouri University of Science and Technology), TBA |
|
02/18 |
Prof. Christopher Solis (Florida State University), Mechanisms of (Dis)assembly of Cardiac Muscle Sarcomeres: Zooming into the Z-Disc Proteins |
|
02/25 |
Dr. Cheng Li (Oak Ridge National Laboratory), Neutron Scattering for Chemistry, Materials, Science, and Biology |
| 03/11 |
Prof. Yusuke Okuno (Washington University in St. Louis), TBA |
| 03/25 |
Prof. David Miller (Oklahoma State University), TBA |
| 04/01 |
Prof. Adam Smith (Texas Tech Univeristy), TBA |
| 04/08 |
Prof. Lejla Zubcevic (University of Kansas Medical Center), TBA |
| 04/15 |
Prof. Jane Wissinger (University of Minnesota), TBA |
Watkins Visiting Lecturers
The Watkins Visiting Professorship was created in 1974 by a grant from the Watkins Foundation. E. A. Watkins was vice president of Union National Bank, Wichita, in 1936 when he acquired a small iron foundry and wholesale hardware firm that he built into Watkins, Inc., a major steel fabrication and industrial supply company.
Watkins’ son, E. Leon Watkins, a 1936 WSU alumnus, succeeded his father as president of the firm. After Leon Watkins’ death in 1971, his widow, Roberta, also a WSU alumna, announced that the Watkins’ Foundation Board of Trustees had determined that “the sole project of the foundation shall be the support of the Watkins Visiting Professorship at Wichita State University.” The departments of Biological Sciences, Chemistry, Geology and Physics share the professorship.