Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Renaissance of DNP


Dynamic Nuclear Polarization (DNP) effect is based on the transfer of the large electron spin polarization to nuclear spins, thus DNP has a potential of significantly boosting NMR sensitivity, both in solids and in the liquid state. There has been recently a surge of interest in DNP mostly driven by advances in instrumentation. It was very timely, that Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics had decided to put together a special DNP-themed issue, which is now available online. This issue, guest-edited by leading experts in DNP, Robert Griffin and Thomas Prisner, represents a comprehensive overview of the modern state-of-the-art DNP instrumentation and research.
Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys, 12 (2010) issue 22

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Student Recognition


Fred Perras (Bryce Group, University of Ottawa) has been awarded the CSC prize for his poster entitled "Exploring the Validity of Common Assumptions Made in the Characterization of J Coupling Tensor Anisotropies" which was presented at the Ottawa-Carleton Chemistry Institute Day on May 28, 2010.

Rob Attrell (Bryce Group, University of Ottawa) has been awarded the 2010 Hypercube Scholar prize for his honours thesis entitled "A Solid-State Halogen NMR and Computational Study of Quadrupolar and Chemical Shift Tensors in Anilinium Halide Salts Exhibiting Halogen Bonding".
About the prize: Hypercube Inc. provides an award to the student whose prospective graduate studies program entails significant molecular modelling. The award consists of a framed certificate and a copy of the HyperChem software package.

Share your students success with the Canadian NMR community (E-mail).

Monday, May 24, 2010

David Cory awarded Canada Excellence Research Chair


David Cory, formerly a professor of nuclear engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has been appointed Canada Excellence Research Chair in Quantum Information Processing at the University of Waterloo (official announcement). Cory’s research at IQC is expected to contribute toward the world’s first generation of practical quantum devices (IQC).

At the MIT David Cory was leading development of innovative nuclear magnetic resonance methods for quantum information processing and advanced engineering (MIT's Francis Bitter Magnet Laboratory).

About CERC: "The Canada Excellence Research Chairs (CERC) Program supports Canadian universities in their efforts to build on Canada's growing reputation as a global leader in research and innovation. The program awards each of the some 20 chairholders and their research teams up to $10 million over seven years to establish ambitious research programs in Canada."

Saturday, May 22, 2010

Radio-Canada: interview with David Bryce


Les Chercheurs

Dans le cadre de notre série sur les Chercheurs, nous recevons cette semaine David Bryce, professeur agrégé au Département de chimie et chercheur au Centre de recherche et d'innovation en catalyse de l'Université d'Ottawa (Radio-Canada).

Monday, May 17, 2010

World Wide Magnetic Resonance Conference 2010

Dear Colleague,

The WWMR2010 Conference (joint EUROMAR 2010 and 17th ISMAR Conference) in Florence (Italy, July 4th-9th) is approaching fast. Registered attendees are growing daily! Please visit http://www.cerm.unifi.it/wwmr2010/ to see the list of the invited speakers, the titles of their talks, and all the details about the activities going on around the Conference.

Abstract submission ends May 31st and a number of poster abstracts will be selected for upgrade to short oral presentations. If you wish to be considered for an upgrade, register at http://www.cerm.unifi.it/wwmr2010/ and tick the option box on the "Abstract submission" form. If you are 41 years old or younger you are eligible to apply for the ISMAR Award or if you are 40 years old or younger, you may apply for the Wiley Prize. You may find additional information on these awards on the web-site.

We strongly suggest booking accommodations as soon as possible.
Florence is a popular tourist destination and there are a number of events going on at the same time as the WWMR2010 Conference.

Newtours SpA has reserved a number of accommodations at special WWMR2010 conference rates located throughout the centre of Florence and within walking distance from the Conference venue. For more information please register at their web page at http://meeting.newtours.it/meeting_nwt/main.jsp

We look forward to seeing you in Florence.

Arrivederci!

Roberta Pierattelli
WWMR2010 Advertising Committee

Saturday, May 15, 2010

Agilent Completes Acquisition of Varian


Agilent Technologies has finalized its acquisition of Varian. Following the announcement Varian, Inc. (VARI) was delisted from NASDAQ and ceased to exist as an independent company. Varian's MR business will be housed within Agilent's Life Sciences Group (LSG).

For more details on this merger see Stan's NMR Blog, who has been following this story since July 2009.
http://www.ebyte.it/stan/blog.html

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Memorial Service for Don Hughes

Dr. Donald W. Hughes (1949 – 2010)

Dear friends,

Below is a message sent out from Brian McCarry, Chair on the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology. This notice provides details of the upcoming memorial service to remember Don Hughes.

In order to help us plan for the event, I ask you to kindly send an RSVP via email to: nmr "at" chemistry.mcmaster.ca

Many of you have already sent kind words of support to us. We are preparing a commemorative booklet that will be on display at the memorial on June 3. May I have permission to include excerpts from your messages in the booklet?
Also, if any of you have photographs of Don that you wish to share, please forward them as well.

Thank you.
Bob Berno
----------------------------

Dear Chemistry Department and Friends of Don Hughes:

The department will be holding a memorial service to remember Don Hughes on Thursday, June 3 from 3-5 p.m. in the Great Hall of the University Club.

It has been truly gratifying to receive messages of condolence from many former students, postdocs and industrial partners who worked with or interacted with Don over the past 25 years. For those of you attending the CSC in Toronto, this memorial service is being held the day after the conference concludes; it is our hope that this arrangement will be convenient for those collaborators and friends of Don who may be attending the conference.

A small, private funeral will be held this Saturday; however, the family wishes are that only family and a few close friends be in attendance.

An autopsy was performed last week and the coroner reported that there was no obvious cause of death. The coroner reported that Don was in excellent health. A number of samples were taken for analysis in the hope of determining a cause of death. If I receive any conclusive information on this matter, I will be sure to pass it on to you.

Please feel fee to pass this message on to anyone you know, near or far, who may be interested in attending the service or in knowing about the service.

All the best,

Brian McCarry

http://www.chemistry.mcmaster.ca/index.php

Monday, May 10, 2010

"Canadian NMR Research" News Bulletin


the Spring 2010 Issue of the "Canadian NMR Research" news bulletin is now available for download.

You are welcome to share it with your colleagues and students.

Thanks for reading!

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

NSERC 2010 Grants Competition Results (updated)


Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) has announced results of the 2010 NSERC competition in the Discovery Grants Program (DG), Research Tools and Instruments Grants (RTI) and Scholarship programs. Among grant recipients

Michèle Auger (Université Laval) has her NSERC Discovery Grant renewed for five years, "Biophysical studies of membrane-peptide interactions and silk proteins"

Vladimir Michaelis (University of Manitoba, graduate student of Scott Kroeker) has been awarded an NSERC Post-Doctoral Fellowship.


Myrna Simpson's (University of Toronto Scarborough) NSERC Discovery Grant was renewed. Myrna has also been awarded an NSERC Discovery Accelerator Supplement.

Darren Brouwer (Redeemer University College) has been awarded a NSERC Discovery Grant for five years, "New Methods for Structure Determination of Materials by Solid-State Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy".

David Bryce's (University of Ottawa) NSERC Discovery Grant has been renewed at $61000 per year for 5 years.

The National Ultrahigh-Field NMR Facility for Solids has received NSERC RTI funding for a cryogen-free cooler for the 900 MHz NMR spectrometer. Once installed, the sample cooler will provides powerful, stable and reliable cryogen-free cooling down to -80oC to samples in existing MAS and static NMR probes. This successful application to NSERC was a collaborative effort of three of the Facility users, David Bryce (University of Ottawa), Roderick Wasylishen (University of Alberta), and John Ripmeester (Carleton University).

Share your success with the Canadian NMR community (E-mail).

Saturday, May 1, 2010

Solid-State NMR Workshop at CSC 2010


The National Ultrahigh-Field NMR Facility for Solids and Bruker Canada are pleased to present the 5th Annual Solid-State NMR Workshop at the 93rd Canadian Chemistry Conference and Exhibition in Toronto (CSC 2010). The workshop will take place on Saturday afternoon, May 29, 2010 in the Metro Toronto Convention Centre MTCC.

This annual Canadian solid-state NMR event focuses on the latest developments in solid-state NMR spectroscopy with emphasis on practical aspects and applications in materials and life sciences. The workshop will be of interest not only to NMR spectroscopists, but also to students and other researchers interested in using modern NMR techniques in their research practice.

Download the Workshop Program and Abstracts (PDF)

Workshop program

Session 1 (MTCC, room 203B)
Chair John Ripmeester (NRC Canada)

13:00-13:30 Scott Kroeker (University of Manitoba) "Further Adventures with 73Ge NMR of Solids: Halides and Oxides"

13:30-14:00 Andre Sutrisno (University of Western Ontario) "Natural Abundance Solid-State 73Ge and 67Zn Wideline NMR Studies at Ultrahigh Magnetic Field"

14:00-14:30 Leigh Spencer (McMaster University) "Materials for Lithium Ion Batteries: A Solid-State NMR Analysis"

14:30-15:00 Fabien Aussenac (Bruker France) "Solid-State NMR Dynamic Nuclear Polarization at 263 GHz"

15:00-15:15 Coffee Break

Session 2 (MTCC, room 203B)
Chair Roderick Wasylishen (University of Alberta)

15:15-15:45 Alex Bain (McMaster University) "Probing Spectra of Big Quadrupoles"

15:45-16:15 Cory Widdifield (University of Ottawa) "Solid-State 127I NMR Spectroscopy and GIPAW DFT Calculations of Inorganic Iodide Systems: Structure, Symmetry, and 'Beyond Second-Order" Quadrupole-Induced Shifts"

16:15-16:45 Peter Pallister (Carleton University) "33S Ultrahigh-Field Solid-State NMR and First Principles Calculations in Various Sulfate Systems"

16:45-17:15 Faciliy Users Meeting David Bryce & Victor Terskikh "National Facility user survey results and overview of application procedures"

17:15 Reception sponsored by Bruker Canada

Registration for the NMR Workshop is free but space is limited. To register please forward your name and affiliation to Victor Terskikh

Email: Victor.Terskikh@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca

Note that the NMR Workshop registration is separate and independent from the CSC 2010 conference registration.