AmericanChemicalSociety.com

The solid-state NMR symposium at the 50th Rocky Mountain Conference (RMC) on Analytical Chemistry was a tremendous success. Not only was the NMR symposium the largest in the 50th Rocky Mountain Conference, the NMR symposium also exceeded its own ten year record with a total of 191 attendees, and 66 oral and 79 poster presentations. The NMR symposium at the RMC is the only annual solid-state NMR meeting in the world. It provides opportunities for North American and international scientists and students with a diverse range of solid-state NMR applications to meet, share their results, and discuss recent advances in the field. The RMC often provides the first opportunity for many students of solid-state NMR to present their research to the scientific community. The 2008 NMR symposium had 21 invited speakers, one award lecture, and 45 contributed talks from a total of 12 countries. Six of the contributed talks were from students. Complimentary registrations were given to 21 invited speakers and travel expenses were given to 7 Foreign invited speakers and 11 North American invited speakers. Additionally, 11 student travel award were distributed based on merit and need. ACS PRF SE funds were used to support the travel of four speakers:

(1) Dr. Mark E. Smith, from the University of Warwick in the UK, who spoke on solid-state NMR characterizations of amine templated mesoporous niobium oxides: potential candidates for battery applications, fuel-cell fabrication, and hydrogen storage materials.

(2) Dr. Kay Saalwachter, from Martin-Luther-University in Germany, who spoke on recent work on the microstructure and dynamics in (nano-filled) elastomers, the observation of reptation motion in polymer melts in bulk and nanoscopic confinement, and the intracrystallite chain dynamics in semicrystalline polymers, such as polyethyleneoxide and polyethylene.

(3) Dr. Paul Callaghan, from Victoria University in New Zealand, who spoke on developments in NMR methodologies for studying molecular dynamics and molecular organization in soft matter and porous materials, including their relevance towards understanding dynamics of flowing hydrocarbons.

(4) Dr. Hsien-Ming Kao, from the National Central University in Taiwan, who spoke about his solid-state NMR studies of new types of nanostructured composite materials designed and synthesized to have specific electrochemical and catalytic properties, many of which are relevant to the petroleum industry.

Additionally, the annual Vaughan award lecturer was Dr. Clare Grey, from the State University of New York at Stony Brook, who also described new approaches for investigating structure and function in energy-related materials: NMR studies of materials for batteries, fuel cells, and gas separations. In addition to these energy related topics, the symposium also included talks describing new solid-state NMR methods and theory as well as applications of solid-state NMR to protein structure determination, pharmaceutical polymorph characterization, thermodynamics of oxide melts, and polymer physics. Participants also enjoyed a presentation at the conference banquet by Todd W. Onderdonk, a senior energy advisor at ExxonMobil Corporation, on the long-term global energy outlook, including the identification of potential implications for energy markets and ExxonMobil's strategic plans.