Conference Call

ing interdisciplinary fields such as the life sciences, man who defined new materials, medicine and pharmacy, new energy its scope and top- resources, the environment, separation technolo- ics and described gies, agriculture, and green chemistry. These are all scientific investi- extremely important issues for scientists worldwide, gations in the vast and particularly for those who are in developing or field of physical economically disadvantaged countries. The oppor- organic chemistry. tunity for face-to-face discussion and communica- This branch of the tion with scientists from developed countries was a field, which was great benefit, which will lead to further research and born in the 1930s, improved education. originally con- Thermodynamics will continue to be an important cerned the mecha- area of research for many years to come, with a wide nisms and kinetics range of applications from chemical engineering to of organic reactions Nobel Prize Winner Prof. R. Huber the biosciences. We look forward to the presentation and their depen- presenting the opening plenary and discussion of the results of further advances in dence on structural lecture. chemical thermodynamics at the next ICCT, which will and medium effects. take place in Warsaw, Poland, in 2008. The famous monograph by Louis Plack Hammett, entitled Physical Organic Chemistry and published in John H. Dymond is secretary of the International 1940, is considered a landmark in this area of research. Association of Chemical Thermodynamics. He is a research fellow at the University Early research involved empirical models, which in a of Glasgow, UK. Michael Frenkel is group leader of the quantitative form allowed the investigator to inter- TRC Group in the Physical and Chemical Properties Division at the National Institute pret qualitatively a vast amount of numerical data for of Standards and Technology in Boulder, Colorado, U.S.A. kinetics, equilibria, and, later, for other physicochemi- cal, biochemical, medical, pharmaceutical, and tech- nological properties of organic systems. Physical Organic Chemistry As a consequence of recent developments and research advancements, today the following fields all by Tadeusz Marek Krygowski and fall under the umbrella of physical organic chemistry: Krzysztof Wozniak organic chemistry, bio-organic chemistry, organo- metallic chemistry, theoretical chemistry, catalytic The XVIII International Conference on Physical chemistry, phothochemistry, supramolecular chem- Organic Chemistry, held 20–25 August 2006 in istry, reaction mechanisms, reactive intermediates, Warsaw, Poland, was organized by the Department novel structures, reactivity relationships, solvent, of Chemistry of Warsaw University and the Polish substituents, isotope and solid state effects, long- Chemical Society. The Organizing Committee was lived charges, sextet or open-shell species, magnetic, chaired by T.M. Krygowski. non-linear optical and conducting molecules, and The conference began with an address by the chair- molecular recognition. Contributions from all these

Participants at the XVIII International Conference on Physical Organic Chemistry in Warsaw, Poland.

26 CHEMISTRY International March-April 2007 Conference Call fields were presented at the XVIII ICPOC Conference in Warsaw. Undoubtedly, research breakthroughs in the above- mentioned branches of physical organic chemistry have led to the development of new technologies, which in turn have lead to improvements in our every day lives. This is one of the most important reasons for IUPAC to support these kind of conferences. Our conference is one of many IUPAC activities and we feel happy that we could contribute as organizers as well as participants. With so many distinguished sci- A Polish folk group performs during the conference banquet. entists, the meeting will likely lead to fruitful scientific developments, but it also helped to encourage new decided by the Scientific Jury and one was decided friendships and collaborations. by a public vote. The General Category Prize went to About 220 researchers from 31 countries partici- Natasza Spruta, Wrocław University, Poland for her pated in the conference, which featured eight plenary poster entitled: “Dithia- and Dioxadiazuliporphyrin: lectures: Facile Generation of Carbaporphyrinoid Cation Radical y R. Huber (Nobel laureate, Germany), “Molecular and Dication.” The Young Scientist Award was pre- Machines in Biology” sented to Teresa M. Duarte, Laboratoire de Chimie de y Yonath (Israel), “The Spectacular Ribosomal Coordination, France, for her poster “Synthesis and Architecture: Nascent Proteins Voyage towards Excited State Properties of a[60] Fullerene Derivative Folding vis Antibiotics Binding-Pockets” Bearing a Star-Shaped Multi-Photon Absorption y P. Coppens (USA), “Time-Resolved Diffraction Chromophore.” The Public Vote Prize was awarded to Studies of Molecular Excited States and Beyond” Anna Kropidłowska, Gdansk University of Technology, y K.S. Kim (South Korea), “De Novo Design Based Poland, for her poster “Metal Silanethiolates with on Nano-Recognition: Functional Molecules/ Aminopyridines as Coligands—the Role of N-H…S Materials and Nanosensors/Nanodevices” Bond.” y I.P. Beletskaya (Russia), “Mechanistic Aspects and Synthetic Application of Carbon-Carbon Tadeusz Marek Krygowski was chairman of the and Carbon-Heteroatom Bonds Formation in Program Committee and Krzysztof Wozniak was Substitution and Addition Reactions Catalyzed chairman of the Local Organizing Committee for this meeting. Both are professors by Transition Metal Complexes” in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Warsaw. y S. Fukuzumi (Japan), “New Development of Electron Transfer Catalytic Systems” y D. Braga (Italy), “Making Crystals from Crystals: High Temperature Materials A Green Route to Crystal Engineering and Polymorphism” Chemistry L. Latos-Grazynski (Poland), “Carbaporphyrinoids: y by Herbert Ipser and Adolf Mikula Exploring Metal Ion-Arene Interaction in a Macrocyclic Environment” The 12th International IUPAC Conference on High Temperature Materials Chemistry (HTMC XII), held About 220 researchers from 31 countries partici- 17–22 September 2006, in Vienna, Austria, was the pated in the conference, which featured eight plenary twelfth conference in a series of triennial meet- lectures, 17 invited talks, and 51 oral communications ings, with the previous two held in 2000 in Juelich presented during two parallel sessions. There were (Germany), and in 2003 in Tokyo (Japan). also more than 100 poster presentations. Lecture The conference, which was IUPAC sponsored, was titles are available at Inorganic Chemistry/ icpoc18/>. Materials Chemistry of the University of Vienna, the Three IUPAC Poster Prizes were awarded: Two were Austrian Chemical Society, and the Department

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