Simulation of (Bio)Organic-Inorganic Interfaces and Nanostructures Using MD, MC, and Multiscale Approaches, at the ACS National Meeting, August 16-20, 2009, Washington DC

Reports: SE 50174-SE: Simulation of (Bio)Organic-Inorganic Interfaces and Nanostructures Using MD, MC, and Multiscale Approaches, at the ACS National Meeting, August 16-20, 2009, Washington DC

Hendrik Heinz, PhD, University of Akron

The symposium "Simulation of (Bio)Organic-Inorganic Interfaces and Nanostructures Using MD, MC, and Multiscale Approaches" was held according to schedule at the ACS National Meeting, August 16-20, 2009, in Washington DC. Excluding one substitution among the invited speakers (Table 1), all agreed 27 speakers delivered their presentataions. The symposium consisted of 4 half-day sessions on Sun Aug 16, Mon Aug 17, Tue Aug 18, and Wed Aug 19. The average attendance was about 30, with a maximum attendance of 50 for some invited talks. The symposium resulted in considerable after-hour discussion, and a speakers dinner was held supported by Exxon Mobil (PMSE division). The seven international invited speakers received support by this grant towards their travel expenses. Discussions between the speakers during the symposium resulted in continuous correspondence and an on-going exchange of research ideas with potential for joint publications or joint review articles in the future.

A potential measure to increase attendance in future meetings will the location of the symposium at the PMSE hotel site. This symposium was located at the Convention center which mostly attracted the computational audience (ACS COMP division) and less of the experimental audience (ACS PMSE division) due to the distance between the convention center and the PMSE hotel site. This modification is already implemented for a similar symposium at Fall 2010 ACS.

Table 1. Invited Speakers in the Symposium. Seven international speakers partially supported by PRF are indicated with an asterisk.

Anna C. Balaczs, University of Pittsburgh
Peter Bloechl, Clausthal University of Technology (Germany), substituted by Stefan Kaestner, University of Stuttgart (Germany)*
Jean-Luc Bredas, Georgia Institute of Technology
James Elliott, University of Cambridge (UK)*
Barry L. Farmer, Air Force Research Laboratory, WPAFB
William A. Goddard III, California Institute of Technology
John H. Harding, University of Sheffield (UK)*
Kurt Kremer, Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research (Germany)*
Artem I. Masunov, University of Central Florida
Kenneth M. Merz, University of Florida
Marcus Mueller, University of Goettingen (Germany)*
Murugappan Muthukumar, University of Massachussetts−Amherst
Rajesh R. Naik, Air Force Research Laboratory, WPAFB
Yuko Okamoto, Nagoya University (Japan)*
Ras B. Pandey, University of Southern Mississippi
Mehmet Sarikaya, University of Washington
Tanja Schilling, University of Mainz (Germany)*