A professor of chemistry and biochemistry at Brigham Young University has received an award from the International Society for Biological
Calorimetry. Lee D. Hansen received the Lavoisier Medal for developing new techniques and a model that helps in selecting plants for improved productivity and helps people understand how plants respond to environmental
stresses.The caliometric techniques Hansen developed measure meta-bolic heat rates in plant tissues.
The mechanistic model he derived shows the relationship between respiration and plant growth.
The medal is named after French scientist Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier, who discovered oxygen and was the first to quantitatively measure metabolic heat rates and relate them to respiration rates.
This year is the 200th anniversary of Lavoisier's death.
Hansen has taught at BYU since 1977 and has published approximately 200 books and articles.
His areas of research include lifetime prediction and stability of organic materials, prediction of plant growth rates and metabolism, design of instruments for thermodynamic measurements and thermodynamic properties of liquids.