Report on the Gordon Research
Conference, Dynamics at Surfaces, New Hampshire USA, August
2005
by Rideal Bursar Dr Helen
Fraser
The Gordon Research Conference, Dynamics at Surfaces, is
held every two years, at the Proctor Academy in New Hampshire
USA, and this year was held from August 14 - 19. I have attended
this conference before, as a post-doc in 2001, and as an invited
speaker in 2003.
This year I attended this meeting in my new role as a Lecturer
in the Department of Physics, at the University of Strathclyde,
not only to highlight my latest research (in a poster presentation),
but also to keep my hand in with the community, and ensure
everyone was aware of my move and the new group I am building.
As a new academic, the funds from the Sir Eric Rideal Travel
Bursary scheme were vital in assisting me with the trip. The
conference sessions ran each day from 9.00am until 12.30 pm,
and then from 5pm to 11.30pm, leaving time in the afternoons
for sports activities, scientific discussions, or sleeping
off jet-lag. This format is particularly open, allowing plenty
of time to catch up with colleagues, enter scientific discussions
and also be approached by younger members of the community
for advice and discussions.
This year's conference was certainly the best of this series
of meetings that I have so far attended, and I found many
of the sessions of awe-inspiring interest. This may reflect
either the programme, or my own emerging understanding of
the field, and deeper involvement in surface dynamics.
A talk in the liquid-liquid interfaces session on molecular
dynamics at liquid-liquid interfaces by Ilan Benjamin (University
of California Santa Cruz) was a fascinating insight into the
power of modern computing in MD 'experiments'. The remaining
sessions focused on Adsorption and Reaction at Surfaces, Motion
at Surfaces, Gas-Liquid Interfaces, Interfacial Electron Dynamics
and Catalysis. I would single out the talks by Prof Bengt
Kasemo (Chalmers & Gotenburg University, Sweden), on 'Catalysis
and photochemistry on nanofabricated model structures' which
was very enlightening; Martin Wolf (Free University of Berlin)
on 'Electron Solvation at the Ice/Metal Interface'; and Pavel
Jungwirth (Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic) on 'Specific
Ion Effects at the Air/Water Interface'.
After an evening discussion, Prof Kasemo and I plan to collaborate,
and next year hope to share a Masters Research student to
be based in Chalmers who will fabricate and characterise nano-templated
surfaces of astrophysical interest. This will subsequently
be used in my experiments here in Strathclyde. Further to
a recent sabbatical I undertook in University of Provence,
France, I also admired the multitude of posters and talks
on hydrogen-bonding dynamics at the liquid - air interface,
as studied in water. Many of the ultra-fast non-linear spectral
features closely resemble some unusual effects we observed
in our ice experiments. Consequently this conference has opened
doors to new literature and contacts which may help to resolve
our new experimental data.
I also presented two posters on my research. These were available
for comment over two days of poster sessions and attracted
great interest from many students and academics, who had many
interesting ideas and helpful comments. In particular, a few
people enjoyed the novel way that I had presented some temperature
dependant data - who knows I may have just started a trend
for articles to come!
All in all, my visit to the USA was highly enjoyable and
I am grateful to the trustee for their assistance in enabling
me to attend this meeting.
Dr Helen Fraser
Department of Physics
University of Strathclyde
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