Past Meetings

Co-Organizers: Robert Gordon (University of Illinois at Chicago) and Maxim Sukharev (Arizona State University)

Quantum control utilizes the coherent interaction of light and matter to control a broad range of phenomena from the atomic to the mesoscopic scales. This focus session brings together chemists and physicists with interest in coherent responses of matter to photoexcitation, such as chemical reactivity and carrier dynamics, as well as optics of hybrid systems comprised of ensembles of molecules optically coupled to plasmonic materials. Both experimental and theoretical advances will be emphasized.

Invited Speakers:

• Phil Bucksbaum (Stanford University)
• Regina de Vivie-Riedle (Ludwig-Maximilians University, Munich)
• Christoph Lienau (Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenberg, Germany)
• Margaret Murnane (University of Colorado-Boulder)
• Daniel Neuhauser (University of California-Los Angeles)
• Yossi Paltiel (Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
• Tamar Seideman (Northwestern University)
• Jelena Vuckovic (Stanford University)
• Gary Wiederrecht (Argonne National Laboratory)
• Tom Weinacht (Stony Brook University)

Co-Organizers: J.R. Schmidt (University of Wisconsin-Madison) and Charlie Sykes (Tufts University)

Solid-vapor and solid-liquid interfaces provide unique chemical environments that facilitate novel molecular reactivity and dynamics. This focus session will explore the adsorption, dynamics, and reaction of adsorbates at surfaces (including metals, oxides, semiconductors, and even liquids) with a particular emphasis on systems of catalytic relevance. The session will bring together chemists, physicists, and engineers from diverse backgrounds, including surface science and catalysis, emphasizing both state-of-the-art experimental and computational approaches.

Invited Speakers:

• Charlie Campbell (University of Washington)
• Cynthia Friend (Harvard University)
• Jeff Greeley (Purdue University)
• Graeme Henkelman (University of Texas-Austin)
• Sulio Linic (Michigan)
• Manos Mavrikakis (University of Wisconsin-Madison)
• Jill Millstone (University of Pittsburgh)
• Anders Nilsson (Stanford University/SLAC)
• Feng Tao (University of Notre Dame)
• Jason Weaver (University of Florida)

Co-organizers: Amber T. Krummel (Colorado State University) and Valeria Molinero (University of Utah)

The heterogeneous chemistry and structure of materials at different length scales have a strong influence in their dynamics and reactivity. This focus session will provide a platform to bring together theoretical, computational and experimental approaches used to describe and probe solvation, dynamics, and reactivity in complex environments including multiphase, nanosegregated and crowded systems. Contributions to this symposium that will promote discussions of dynamics and reactivity in confinement, at interfaces, and across multiple length scales are encouraged.

Invited Speakers:

• Dor Ben-Amotz (Purdue University)
• Michael Fayer (Stanford University)
• Laura Kaufman (Columbia University)
• Alenka Luzar (Virginia Commonwealth University)
• Gil Nathanson (University of Wisconsin-Madison)
• Francesco Paesani (University of California-San Diego)
• Christine Payne (Georgia Institute of Technology)
• Eric Potma (University of California-Irvine)
• Markus Raschke (University of Colorado-Boulder)
• Joan-Emma Shea (University of California-Santa Barbara)
• Ward Thompson (University of Kansas)

Co-Organizers: Weitao Yang (Duke University) and Adrienn Ruzsinszky (Temple University)

Kohn-Sham density functional theory (DFT) has been widely used in computations and simulations throughout engineering and sciences, because of its high computational efficiency and useful accuracy with available approximations to the exchange correlation energy functional. However, commonly used DFT approximations often fail to describe reliably band gaps of materials, weak interactions, strongly-correlated systems, and certain excitation energies. The aim of this focus session is to address these challenges.

Invited Speakers:

• Paul Ayers (McMaster University, Canada)
• Axel Becke (Dalhousie University, Canada)
• Kieron Burke (University of California-Irvine)
• Aron Cohen (University of Cambridge)
• Erin Johnson (University of California-Merced)
• John Perdew (Temple University)
• Adrienn Ruzsinszky (Temple University)
• Matthias Scheffler (Fritz-Haber Institut, Berlin)
• Don Truhlar (University of Minnesota)
• Helen van Aggelen (Duke University)
• Adam Wasserman (Purdue University)

Co-Organizers: Xiaoyang Zhu (Columbia University) and Nathaniel Gabor (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

This symposium aims to advance our understanding of charge and energy transfer in molecular and nano-material systems that are being explored for future renewable energy. We will focus on novel photophysics and optoelectronic properties of these materials and strategies for the implementation of new photophysical mechanisms for solar to electric power conversion.

Invited Speakers:

• David Beljonne (University of Mons, Belgium)
• Louis Bruce (Columbia University)
• Victor Klimov (Los Alamos National Laboratory)
• Tim Lian (Emory University)
• Paul McEuen (Cornell University)
• Jiwoong Park (Cornell University)
• Eran Rabani (Tel Aviv University, Israel)
• Carlos Silva (University of Montreal, Canada)
• Arend van der Zande (Columbia University EFRC Fellow)
• Feng Wang (University of California-Berkeley)
• Xiaodong Xu (University of Washington)