Likening traditional chemistry to classical music, a pioneering “green chemist” urged University of Toledo chemistry students Wednesday to inject jazzlike improvisation and creativity into their future endeavors.

Such innovative thought is needed to drive discovery of new chemical compounds that can be substituted economically for hazardous or toxic chemicals upon which many manufacturing sectors, from medicine to cosmetics to highway construction, now depend, chemist John Warner told an audience of hundreds in UT’s Doermann Theatre.

Traditional chemistry has a well-stocked “toolbox” of research methods, Mr. Warner said, and creative thinking is needed to help build a similar wealth of “green chemistry” knowledge.

“I hope I’m looking at people in this room who are going to dedicate part of their lives to filling some of those drawers,” Mr. Warner said.

Mr. Warner’s speech was the keynote to a celebration at UT of its chemistry and biochemistry department’s centennial. He praised the university for being one of just a few higher-learning institutions so far to have adopted “green” principles in its chemistry program.

He and Paul Anastas, with whom he cowrote Green Chemistry: Theory and Practice in 1998 also are scheduled to speak during the department’s centennial banquet today at the Toledo Museum of Art’s GlasSalon.

Of all chemistry undertaken today, Mr. Warner said Wednesday, only about 10 percent involves benign materials, and alternatives involving nontoxic, nonhazardous materials exist only for about another 25 percent.

But ways to reduce, if not eliminate, the chemical hazards and toxins in modern industry can be found and can be developed as cost-effective alternatives to existing methods, he told his audience.

Mr. Warner cited several examples from his own career in industry, academia, and now as the co-founder, president, and chief technological officer of the Warner Babcock Institute for Green Chemistry in suburban Boston.

Warner Babcock scientists have developed several promising, nontoxic drugs for cancer, Parkinson’s disease, Lou Gehrig’s disease, and Alzheimer’s disease, Mr. Warner said.

At the same time, he said, others there have come up with an additive for asphalt that counteracts the photochemical brittleness that affects it over time, allowing old asphalt to be reused as an aggregate in repaving projects instead of being dumped in landfills.

The company, which he described as a “technology greenhouse,” has also identified formaldehyde-free wood composites, a nontoxic material to restore gray hair to its original color, and “green” technologies to boost the textiles industry and promote reclamation and recycling of plastic waste from the oceans, he said.

Mr. Warner, who intended to major in music, discovered a passionate interest in research chemistry only because of a graduation requirement that he take a science course in college and two untimely deaths.

One of those deaths was of a fellow musician in the rock band that, until then, was a driving force in his life. The other was of his first son, who succumbed to a rare liver disorder when he was a toddler, prompting Mr. Warner to wonder if his work in chemistry had somehow been a factor.

Natural chemical processes, by contrast, generally involve harmless ingredients and occur at normal air pressure and ambient temperatures, Mr. Warner said. Replicating those processes on an industrial scale, he explained, is what “green chemistry” is all about.

“There is no magic button to have it happen overnight ... but it’s unacceptable to not try,” he said.

Contact David Patch at: dpatch@theblade.com or 419-724-6094.

First Published October 1, 2015, 4:00 a.m.