Noted chemist David J. Rakestraw will be the featured speaker at UNC Asheville’s ninth annual S. Dexter Squibb Lecture Series October 16-17. Rakestraw is the co-founder and senior scientist of Eksigent Technologies in Livermore, Calif., a pioneer in medical science applications. Rakestraw’s two talks are free and open to the public.

Rakestraw will discuss “High Technology Startup: The Path from Fundamental Science to Worldwide Commercialization” at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 16, in UNC Asheville’s Rhoades-Robinson Hall room 125. In this talk, Rakestraw will provide a chronology that follows the evolution of a fundamental science discovery to the manufacturing and sale of products that are used throughout the world by major pharmaceutical companies. The presentation will cover the development of intellectual property, including securing of venture capital funding, development of the product, and the creation of international marketing, sales and service teams.

Rakestraw will lecture on “Recent Developments in Microscale Separation Science” at 12:15 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 17, in UNC Asheville’s Rhoades-Robinson Hall room 125. This technical talk will examine the advances in miniaturized flow systems and how these have led to nanoscale high performance chromatography for proteomics and drug discovery. The presentation will focus on how fundamental chemical and physical properties of microscale systems allow superior performance over over high performance liquid chromatography systems. He will also discuss the development of precise microfludic systems that has led to new medical devices for drug delivery.

Rakestraw founded Eksigent Technologies in 2000, where his research has been focused on the development of multidimensional chromatography systems. Previously, he served as a distinguished member of the technical staff at Sandia National Labs and as associate professor of chemistry at Stanford University. Last month, Rakestraw was recruited by Livermore National Laboratory to serve as chief technologist in developing remote sensing devices for liquid explosives. He holds a doctorate in physical chemistry from Stanford University.

The S. Dexter Squibb Endowed Distinguished Lectureship brings well-known scientists to the UNC Asheville campus to give lectures and to meet with University students and faculty, as well as high school science students and administrators. The lecture series honors S. Dexter Squibb, former UNC Asheville Chemistry Department chair. Squibb joined the faculty in 1964 and was instrumental in developing UNC Asheville’s Chemistry Department into a certified four-year program.

For more information, call UNC Asheville’s Chemistry Department at 828/251-6443 or email bhenders@unca.edu.