While my other blog posts have been far afield from chemistry, I did actually learn some things about science at the EuCheMS chemistry congress! As a reference for myself and any interested parties, I have listed a few exceptional talks I went to, along with links to representative papers. I also learned of a number of books that I want to investigate. If you have read any of them, let me know what you think!
Cool Science:
Gerhard Ertl - Nobel Laureate who uses scanning tunneling microscopy to see individual atoms moving on surfaces! See a transcript from a lecture of his here.
Han Zuilhof - a researcher from the Netherlands at Wageningen University who uses photochemistry to bind organic monolayers to various substrates. Very beautiful work. I need to read this paper of his.
Andreas Stein – a professor from my own institution, the University of Minnesota. He gave an amazing lecture summarizing his work in hierarchical porous structures. See here for a review.
Peter Heseman – a researcher from the Institut Charles Gerhardt, Montpellier, France. His gave a very clear and interesting talk about incorporating organic groups into silica precursors for functionalized silicas. One of his papers can be found here.
Helmut Schwartz – a distinguished chemist from Technische Universitat Berlin who gave what I think was the best talk of the congress. He spoke on his research in methane chemistry using hand-written slides that probably came from a transparency. I loved his lecture style and really got interested in the chemistry, even though I am not an organic chemist. Here is an author profile on him from Angew. Chem.
To Read:
“The Responsibilities of Scientists, a European View” by Richard Ernst (paper)
Selections from the “Living Ethics” books by Nicholas and Helena Roerich. See here for a full list of titles.
“Scientists Behaving Badly” by Martinson et al. (paper)
“2000 Tips for Lecturers” by Phil Race (book)
“What Got You Here Won’t Get You There” by Marshall Goldsmith and Mark Reiter (book recommended by Madeleine Jacobs)
Overall I am incredibly grateful for the knowledge (scientific and otherwise) I have gained on this trip to EuCheMS. If you are interested in keeping up with me, check out my individual blog!
