August 2013

In this issue:

Important Dates

November 8, 2013: Deadline for abstracts of invited and contributed talks for the March Meeting. Applications for contributed talks (12 minutes) from postdocs and graduate students are particularly encouraged.

March 3-7, 2014: APS March Meeting, Denver, CO

Resources and Awards for participants in the March Meeting

Graduate Student and Postdoctoral Researcher Travel Award  

APS Division of Chemical Physics New Investigator Travel Awards of up to $500 are available for graduate students and postdoctoral researchers within two years of their Ph.D. who present a paper at one of the DCP Symposia at the APS March Meeting. Applications for contributed talks (12 minutes) from postdocs and graduate students are particularly encouraged. This is an excellent opportunity for young scientists to present their work at an international meeting.  

Dependent Child Care Award  

The Dependent Child Care Award (DCCA) provides dependent child care awards for DCP members attending APS National Meetings. Awards from the fund may be used by recipients for dependent care at a conference, or at an alternative location (including at home), and may include those expenses incurred in transporting a caregiver. 

More information about both of these awards may be found on the Prizes & Awards web page.

Symposia planned for the March 2014 APS Meeting

Listed below are descriptions of the DCP Focus Sessions for the March 3-7, 2014 Meeting in Denver and a list of all the invited speakers. The program chair for these sessions is Gilbert Nathanson, University of Wisconsin-Madison (nathanson@chem.wisc.edu)

Quantum Control of Molecular, Nano, and Plasmonic Materials
Co-Organizers: Robert Gordon, University of Illinois at Chicago (rjgordon@uic.edu), and Maxim Sukharev, Arizona State University (maxim.sukharev@asu.edu)

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)

Surface Chemistry and Catalysis
Co-Organizers: J.R. Schmidt, University of Wisconsin-Madison (schmidt@chem.wisc.edu), and Charlie Sykes (charles.sykes@tufts.edu), 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)

Solvation, Dynamics, and Reactivity in Complex Environments
Co-organizers: Amber T. Krummel, Colorado State University (amber.krummel@colostate.edu), and Valeria Molinero, University of Utah (valeria.molinero@utah.edu)

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)

Recent Advances in Density Functional Theory
Co-Organizers: Weitao Yang, Duke University (weitao.yang@duke.edu), and Adrienn Ruzsinszky, Temple University (aruzsin@tulane.edu)

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)

Charge and Energy Transfer for Renewable Energy
Co-Organizers: Xiaoyang Zhu, Columbia University (xz2324@columbia.edu), and Nathaniel Gabor (nathaniel.m.gabor@gmail.com), 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)

Upcoming conferences of possible interest to DCP Membership

Gordon Research Conference on Atomic and Molecular Interactions, Stonehill College, Easton Ma, July 13-18, 2014

Gordon Research Conference on Vibrational Spectroscopy, University of New England, Biddeford, ME August 3-8, 2014

The American Conference on Theoretical Chemistry (ACTC2014), Telluride CO during July 21-24, 2014, under the auspices of the Telluride Science Research Center. Support will be provided for a large number of students and postdocs. A complete list of confirmed invited speakers and conference and registration information will be available at http://www.telluridescience.org/for-scientists/for-participants/actc

The articles in this newsletter represent the views of their author(s) and are not necessarily those of the Unit or APS.