Cornell alumna Carol K. Hall '67 will visit campus April 16-17 to deliver the 2007 J.C. Smith Lecture series, sponsored by Cornell's School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering.

A chemical engineering faculty member at North Carolina State University, Hall will give two talks, "Thermodynamic and Kinetic Origins of Alzheimer's and Related Diseases: A Chemical Engineer's Perspective" and "Self-Assembly of Dipolar Particles: Designing Smart Materials Using Computer Simulation."

The lectures, which are free and open to the public, will be held April 16 and 17 at 4 p.m. in 255 Olin Hall. A reception will precede each talk at 3:15 p.m. in the Fred H. Rhodes Lounge,128 Olin Hall.

Hall received her bachelor's degree in physics from Cornell and her Ph.D. in physics from the State University of New York at Stony Brook in 1972. A member of the National Academy of Engineering, Hall was one of the first women appointed to a chemical engineering faculty (Princeton University, 1977). She has been at North Carolina State University since 1985.

Hall's research focuses on applying statistical thermodynamics and molecular-level computer simulation to chemical, biological or engineering areas involving macromolecules or complex fluids.

Her current research activities include modeling of polymer adsorption on heterogeneous surfaces, self-assembly of dipolar colloidal particles, self-assembly of nanoparticles for the delivery of cancer drugs, solid-fluid phase equilibria, hybridization of DNA on microarrays, and the formation of fibrils and other molecular aggregates of peptides and proteins.