Reports: SE
49678-SE The 11th International Symposium on Spin and Magnetic Field Effects in Chemistry and Related Phenomena, August 9-14, 2009, ON, Canada
The 11th International Symposium on Spin and Magnetic Field Effects in Chemistry and Related Phenomena was held August 9-14, 2009 at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada. This meeting also known as the Spin Chemistry Meeting (SCM) was first held Tomakomai, Japan in 1991 and subsequent meetings have been in Konstanz, Germany (1992), Chicago (1993), Novosibirsk, Russia (1995), Jersusalem, Israel (1997), Emmetten, Switzerland (1999) Tokyo, Japan (2001), Chapel Hill (2003), Oxford, UK (2005) and Venice, Italy (2007). The spin chemistry community seeks to understand the role of spin in chemical systems, largely as it relates to light induced processes. Initially, the field was dominated by studies of light induced electron and nuclear polarization generated by radical reactions in solution and photosynthetic reaction centres. However, it has expanded tremendously over the past decade or so and now includes topics as diverse as bird navigation, spintronics, para hydrogen induced nuclear polarization and quantum computing. For the SCM 2009 we made an effort to bring in speakers that are using the knowledge gained from earlier work to expand the field into new areas such as petroleum-based magnetic materials. The meeting was well supported by a number of instrument, chemical and publishing companies. However, the ASC-PRF SE grant was the main source of travel funding for our prominent speakers from abroad. This funding is very important to the SCM, because the trip to North America is very far for many of the top researchers in the field. In particular, the funds were used to support Osamu Sato, Yoshio Teki and Hisao Murai from Japan and Elena Bagryanskaya from Russia. The meeting attracted approximately 110 participants from 15 countries and there were a significant number of graduate students and postdoctoral fellows in addition to the senior researchers who attended. Highlights from the lectures included the sessions on cryptochromes, para-hydrogen and valence tautomers. The discussions were very lively and the general consensus among participants was that it was an excellent opportunity to exchange ideas and broaden their perspectives on the field of spin chemistry.
