Professor Gerald Meyer and Dr. Nancy Ryan Gray, on behalf of the Gordon Conference, are supported by the Chemical Catalysis Program in the Division of Chemistry to organize a first time Gordon Research Seminar (GRS) for graduate students and postdoctoral fellows in Photochemistry: Solar Photochemistry and Catalysis. The seminar will be convened for two days in July 2011 immediately preceding the Gordon Conference on the same subject in Stone Hill College, Boston, MA. The seminar will give the participating young scientists a chance to exchange talks and posters, and to be seamlessly integrated into the full Gordon Conference meeting. Junior scientists entering the important area of solar photochemistry and catalysis will have an opportunity to present and discuss their research results with peers and leading experts in the field. The participation of a diverse group of young scientists in such an activity will contribute to the development of the future U.S. workforce in this important area of research that is relevant to energy sustainability.
The Gordon Research Conference on PHOTOCHEMISTRY was held at Stonehill College, Easton, Massachusetts, July9-10, 2011. The Conference was well-attended with 44 participants (attendees list attached). The attendees represented the spectrum of endeavor in this field coming from academia, industry, and government laboratories, both U.S. and foreign scientists, senior researchers, young investigators, and students. Of the 44 attendees, 18 voluntarily responded to a general inquiry regarding ethnicity which appears on our registration forms. Of the 18 respondents, 5% were Minorities – 0% Hispanic, 4% Asian and 1% African American. Approximately 25% of the participants at the 2011 meeting were women. In designing the formal speakers program, emphasis was placed on current unpublished research and discussion of the future target areas in this field. There was a conscious effort to stimulate lively discussion about the key issues in the field today. Time for formal presentations was limited in the interest of group discussions. In order that more scientists could communicate their most recent results, poster presentation time was scheduled. Attached is a copy of the formal schedule and speaker program and the poster program. In addition to these formal interactions, "free time" was scheduled to allow informal discussions. Such discussions are fostering new collaborations and joint efforts in the field. Thank you for your support of this Conference. As you know, in the interest of promoting the presentation of unpublished and frontier-breaking research, Gordon Research Conferences does not permit publication of meeting proceedings.
