Abstract:     The development of synthetic methodology for the production of targeted actinide metal materials is critical to the safe and efficient production of potentially important materials such as proliferation-resistant borides, carbides, nitrides, and other complex main-group and intermetallic materials.   The exciting materials science surrounding the actinides, especially plutonium, will be presented and the weird behavior of metals like plutonium and neptunium will be explored.

Synthetic strategies for actinide science are currently being developed to solve critical problems in the DOE complex.   These synthetic strategies, that have been successfully applied to conventional materials synthesis to prepare new and targeted compounds, represent strategies that can be easily incorporated into the synthesis of new and potentially relevant nuclear materials.   The possibility to safely and conveniently prepare materials for study as fundamentally new solids or for proliferation-resistant compounds represents new challenges for actinide science.

Biography:     Peter Dorhout received his B. S. in chemistry from the University of Illinois in 1985 and his Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Wisconsin in 1989.   He also worked as a graduate student at Los Alamos National Laboratory in actinide materials chemistry.   He continued his studies in f-element chemistry with Prof. John Corbett at Iowa State University and Ames Laboratory as a postdoctoral fellow until 1991.

Dr. Dorhout is a Professor of Chemistry at Colorado State University, where he has been on the faculty since 1991.   He has an active program in solid-state f-element chemistry and nanomaterials science.   His current research interests include heavy metal detection and remediation in aqueous environments, ferroelectric nanomaterials, actinide and rare-earth metal solid-state chemistry, and nuclear non-proliferation.   He currently maintains a collaboration in nuclear materials with Los Alamos National Laboratory and a collaboration in peaceful materials science development with the Russian Federal Nuclear Center - VNIIEF, Sarov, Russia, through ISTC-U. S. State Department projects.

 Dr. Dorhout currently serves as Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Education for the College of Natural Sciences at Colorado State University.   He is also a member of the Board of Directors for the Research Corporation, Inc., a philanthropic organization supporting advances in science in chemistry, physics, and astronomy.