Marc A. Hillmyer will discuss “How sustainable polymers can shape the future of plastics” at 7 p.m. on Tuesday,  Feb. 5, in the Forum of James F. Dicke Hall at Ohio Northern University. He will give a second, technical lecture, “Renewable, degradable and high-performing aliphatic polyester elastomers,” at 11 a.m. on Feb. 6 in Meyer Hall 204.

Both talks are part of the Kritzler Lectureship in Chemistry Series at ONU, and they are free and open to the public.

Hillmyer holds the McKnight presidential endowed chair in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Minnesota. He is also director of the university’s Center for Sustainable Polymers. Hillmyer earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Florida and his Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology. He was a post-doctorate research associate at the University of Minnesota.

The Kritzler Lectureship in Chemistry seeks to highlight fundamental new developments in the science of chemistry and biochemistry and afford students access to these developments presented by a scientist recognized as a masterful communicator of ideas. The series was named in honor of Dr. James H. Kritzler, an Ohio Northern University alumnus. 

After graduating from ONU and completing his doctoral work in osteopathic medicine at Kansas City College of Osteopathy in 1944, Kritzler began a medical career that ranged from family practice in Amarillo, Texas, to medical radiology in hospital practice in Houston. He retired in 1983 and continued to volunteer in various civic, service and professional groups. He passed away on Feb. 28, 1998, at the age of 78.