The Catherine H. Bone lecture will be held at the Stark Learning Center Room 101 on Oct. 18. Headlining the lecture will be Roald Hoffmann, Nobel Laureate and professor emeritus at Cornell University.

This is the second year the chemistry department is hosting this lecture. It was made possible by the endowments left by Catherine H. Bone, which also funded $400,000 for  pieces of equipment.

The Catherine H. Bone lecture started in 2011, and being that she left endowments to Wilkes University, where she taught chemistry from 1946-1965. The department attaches her name to the lecture every year as an honor for her contributions.

This year’s speaker has a range of qualifications. Hoffmann’s honors include winning the Nobel Prize for Chemistry with Kenichi Fukui of Kyoto University for their joint theories concerning the course of chemical reactions. Hoffmann is the only person to have ever received the American Chemical Society’s award for three different concentrations in chemistry.

Hoffmann received his doctorate from Harvard University and has been awarded more than 25 honorary degrees in his career.  In addition, Hoffmann has written and published poetry and playwrights extensively.

He was a presenter on “The World of Chemistry,” which was a series of 26 to 30 minute programs held at the University of Maryland and PBS broadcasted the event.  He is also a poet and playwright.

The event is free and open to the public.