Reports: SE
49314-SE 19th Inter-American Photochemical Society Winter Conference, January 2-5, 2009, St. Pete Beach, FL
The 19th Inter-American Photochemical Society Winter Conference was held on January 2 – 5, 2009, at the Sirata Beach Resort, St Pete Beach, Florida.
Meeting Outline: A total of 115 attendees participated to the meeting, with a large participation of students and postdocs (total 46 , 40%). The IAPS society views such strong participation by young scientists as an important positive indicator of the future of the conference and the field of photochemistry. In addition there were participants from three companies: Spectra Physics, Horiba and Ultrafast Systems, with scientists who illustrated and demonstrated some of their products . The three industrial sponsor provided small financial contributions to the meeting (a total of 2,200$).
There were 21 Invited Speakers (5 from Canada, 1 from Europe and 3 from South America, the rest from USA)
And 4 Awards Speakers: 4 (Cilento, Closs,Student, I-APS young investigator, I-APS Award + I-APS fellow over from a previous conference)
Cost of registration: 275$ member; 325$ non-member; 135$ student/postdoc
Other activities included a Poster Sessions, and Students lunch with IAPS officers.
The topics of the various sessions included photochemistry of nanoparticles and quantum dots, photochemistry in organized media, solar energy conversion strategies, excited state dynamics and coherent control, imaging methodologies, photoactive and conducting polymers, and mechanistic photochemistry. At the 2009 meeting the emphasis was on the latest developments in the field of photochemical processes employed as alternative energy sources, such as solar cells .
The PRF-SE grant. Funding (4,500$) had been generously granted by the ACS-PRF SE program to sponsor the participation of three speakers from South America, specifically, Prof Loeb, Dr. Lorente and Prof. Palacios. All three invited speakers attended the meeting.
The details about their presentations follows:
1. Prof. Rodrigo Palacios
Universidad Nacional de Río Cuarto, Córdoba, Argentina
Single molecule techniques to study charge transfer at organic/inorganic interfaces (presented Saturday 3 January)
The seminar described recent developments in the PI’s lab to study charge transfer processes at organic/inorganic and organic/organic interfaces. These processes are of crucial importance to the development of organic electronic devices (such as: organic solar cells, organic light emitting diodes, and field-effect transistors) and to the fields of electrochemistry and catalysis. The results from these studies are of relevance to the organic-electronics, photochemistry, and electrochemistry communities.
2. Prof. Barbara Loeb
Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile
Influence of ligand structure on the properties of polypyridinic transition metal complexes, and on their light harvesting capacity in solar cells (presented Friday 2 January)
The presentation described the work of the Loeb’s research group in the last years. A series of metal complexes with rigidity and aromatic polypyridinic ligands have been studied. The effect of the ligand structure and of the geometry of the complex on the properties of the complexes has been considered. Following these basic studies, the ligand and complex design has focused on their application as dyes in solar cells, especially in the way of improving their light harvesting capacity
3. Dr. Carolina Lorente
INIFTA (Instituto de Investigaciones Fisicoquímicas Teóricas y Aplicadas), University of la Plata, Argentina
Singlet Oxygen Production and Quenching by Pterins (Sunday 4 january)
In her presentation at the I-APS meeting Dr. Lorente described her recent development in the mechanistic studies of singlet oxygen (1O2) production by sensitization of pterins in aqueous solutions and how this process plays a role in photodamage and the photosynthetic process. The study of the reactivity of 1O2 with biomolecules is an important tool to analyze their antioxidant capability. Determination of the rate constants of 1O2 physical quenching and chemical reaction with 1O2 (kq and kr, respectively) allows evaluation of the efficiencies of these processes. Products identification provides information to elucidate oxidation mechanisms.
The funds granted by PRF-SE were equally divided between the three speakers (1,500$ each for a total of 4,500$) to partially refund their travel and lodging expenses, and the additional expenses not covered by the grant were refunded by the Society. The funds were managed by Dr. William Jenks (wsjenks@iastate.edu), the Society Treasurer at the time
The participation of the SA speakers would not have been possible without the PRF support.
Summary: The scope of the proposed activity was met, thanks to the SE grant. Based on past experience, attendance by U.S. and Canadian scientists at the Inter-American Photochemical Society Winter Conference is high, while attendance by our South America colleagues is low. The PRF grant allowed to support a more balanced program and to foster ties between the north and South American colleagues, particularly because the format of the Winter Conferences, informal and similar to a Gordon Conference, encouraged interaction and discussion between attendees and especially between attendees and students.
