Past Meetings

Organizers: Jim Lisy (National Science Foundation), Mary Rodgers (Wayne State University), Etienne Garand (University of Wisconsin, Madison)

Solvation of charged species is at the heart of a wide variety of chemical and biochemical processes, such as charge transport, oxidation/reduction, cellular function and green chemistry. This focus session will explore the spectroscopy, structure, binding energies and dynamics of solvated ions and electrons in aqueous, non-aqueous and ionic liquid solutions, in the gas-phase and at interfaces. Contributions by physicists, chemists, and biophysicists to this session, from experimental and theoretical perspectives, are encouraged.

Invited Speakers: 

• Peter Armentrout (University of Utah)
• Anne McCoy (Ohio State University)
• Marie-Pierre Gaigeot (Evry University)
• Ryan Steele (University of Utah)
• Heather Allen (Ohio State University)
• Knut Asmis (University of Leipzig)
• David Russell (Texas A&M University)
• David Bartels (Notre Dame University)
• Sean Garrett-Roe (University of Pittsburgh)
• Paul Cremer (Pennsylvania State University)

Organizers: George Schatz (Northwestern University), Emily Weiss (Northwestern University), Yuhuang Wang (University of Maryland)

The small end of the nanomaterials world is where many unusual properties arise in studies of structure, chemical, optical, magnetic and electronic effects. These unusual properties arise for many reasons, including coordinative unsaturation in bonding, quantum confinement effects, splitting of bands, high defect densities, and many others. In this symposium we highlight semiconducting and metallic materials at the interface between molecules and bulk properties, including both theory and experimental papers, with emphasis on plasmonic optical properties, semiconducting quantum dot optical, magnetic and electrical properties, and studies of carbon nanotubes/graphene and other forms of carbon.

Invited Speakers:

• William A Tisdale (MIT)
• Delia Milliron (University of Texas, Austin)
• Robert Whetten Milliron (University of Texas, San Antonio)
• Christine Aikens (Kansas State University)
• David Nesbitt, (University of Colorado, Boulder)
• Bruce Weisman (Rice University)
• YuHuang Wang (University of Maryland)
• Michael Strano (MIT)
• Libai Huang (Notre Dame University)
• Phillipe Guyot-Sionnest (University of Chicago)

Organizers: Andrei Tokmakoff (MIT), Munira Khalil (University of Washington), Jennifer Ogilvie (University of Michigan)

The development and use of ultrafast technologies encoding high temporal and spatial resolution is key to understanding and discovering complex cooperative phenomena in heterogeneous materials and molecular systems. This symposium will highlight recent developments in ultrafast science including x-ray spectroscopy and scattering, electron diffraction, optical and electron nanoscopy and microscopy, and multidimensional optical and IR spectroscopy aimed at unraveling coupled electronic, atomic and vibrational motions. Examples include experiments and theory probing correlated core and valence electron dynamics, non-adiabatic energy transfer dynamics, and spatio-temporal mapping of soft condensed matter and biological systems.

Invited Speakers:

• Mike Raymer (University of Oregon)
• Andrew Moran, (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill)
• David Jonas (University of Colorado)
• Alexander Flisch (Universite Potsdam)
• Kelly Gaffney (Stanford University, SLAC)
• Claus Ropers (University of G?ttingen)
• Naomi Ginsberg (University of California, Berkeley)
• Marcus Raschke (University of Colorado, Boulder)
• Richard van Duyne (Northwestern University)

Organizers: Barbara Wyslouzil (Ohio State University), Bruce Garrett (Pacific Northwest National Laboratory)

Clusters of atoms and molecules play critical roles in many science and technology areas such as catalysis (e.g., small metal clusters show unique catalytic behavior) and atmospheric and astrochemical sciences (e.g., small molecular complexes can play a role in chemical transformation). Clusters also mediate phase transitions leading to new particle formation and these nano- to micro-scale particles have applications in nanotechnology and form aerosols that influence atmospheric processes. Clusters in the rarefied gas-phase environments offer the opportunity to use probes not accessible in condensed phases and present models that bridge from gas to condensed phase properties and processes. The Focus Session on Chemical Physics of Clusters aims to highlight recent advances in methods to form neutral and ionic clusters, approaches to probe the structure, energetics and dynamics of clusters, and theoretical and computational approaches to gain detailed insight into these systems. Our goal is to cover approaches applicable to clusters of sizes ranging from those with just a few monomers to nanoscale particles made up of thousands to millions of components, to aerosol particles that are more representative of the condensed phase but with large surface-to-volume ratios. In addition, we seek to highlight forefront chemical physics research areas including but not limited to:

• Structure of condensed phases and how these evolve with cluster size
• Solvation of molecules and ions and the role of solvent environment on reactive nonreactive processes
• The nature of non-covalent interactions
• Reactivity of clusters of metal, metal oxide, and organometallic clusters
• Electronic and magnetic properties of clusters
• Finite size effects on thermodynamic properties
• Quantum clusters and low-temperature interactions and cooperative effects
• Nucleation and new particle formation
• Phase and morphological transitions of large particles

Invited Speakers:

• Richard Bowles (University of Saskatchewan)
• Michal Farnik (Czech Academy of Sciences)
• Shawn Kathmann (Pacific Northwest National Laboratory)
• Stefan Vajda (Argonne National Laboratory)
• Bernd von Issendorff (University of Freiburg)
• Xuebin Wang (Pacific Northwest national Laboratory)
• Mathias Weber (University of Colorado, Boulder)
• Sotiris Xantheas (Pacific Northwest National Laboratory)
• Julia Laskin (Pacific Northwest national Laboratory)

Organizers: Scott Reid (Marquette University), Spiridoula Matsika (Temple University), Richard Dawes (Missouri University of Science and Technology)

Nonadiabatic dynamics, which involves nuclear motion on multiple coupled potential energy surfaces, has long been known to play a key role in the chemical physics of processes such as vision. Recent advances in experimental and theoretical methods have provided much new insight into the timescales and pathways for these processes, and such insights are now being used to address key issues in many fields, ranging from photovoltaics and solar energy conversion, to photochemistry and photophysics, to molecular based electronics, and many more. The Focus Session on Nonadiabatic Dynamics aims to highlight some of these recent advances, broadly spanning the realm of molecular sizes ranging from atoms to small molecules to large proteins, and chemical environments from the gas-phase to solid-state. The session will include advances from both experiment and theory, highlighting the inherent synergy between them.

Invited Speakers:

• Lyudmila Slipchenko (Purdue University)
• Millard Alexander (University of Maryland)
• David Yarkony (Johns Hopkins University)
• Ahren Jasper (Sandia National Laboratory)
• Hans Lischka (Texas Tech University)
• Andrew Orr-Ewing (University of Bristol)
• Albert Stolow (University of Ottawa)
• Roseanne Sension (University of Michigan)
• Stephen Bradforth (University of Southern California)
• Kristie Boering(University of California, Berkeley)