Canada Research Chairs in magnetic resonance

Government of Canada has announced today (external link) an investment of $165.5 million to fund 187 new or renewed Canada Research Chairs in 44 Canadian universities. This includes renewal of two Chairs involved in magnetic resonance research.

Gary Shaw (University of Western Ontario) Canada Research Chair Tier 1 in Structural Neurobiology

Vladimir Ladizhansky (University of Guelph) Canada Research Chair Tier 2 in Biophysics

Our sincere congratulations to Gary and Vladimir with this well-deserved recognition!

6th Annual McGill Biophysical Chemistry Symposium

Tuesday, May 13, 2010: This one-day, on-site Symposium aims to bring together research groups interested in using physical/chemical tools to study biological systems. This will be a great opportunity to interact with other biophysical/biochemical labs in Eastern Canada. This year's program is very exciting, with talks from researchers at Montreal, Ottawa, Sherbrooke, and Kingston, and a plenary lecture from Prof. Mike Summers (HHMI).

For more information, click here

http://www.chemistry.mcgill.ca/

CSC 2010: Solid-State NMR Workshop

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.

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.

Workshop program

Session 1

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) Title TBA

15:00-15:15 Coffee Break

Session 2

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 David Bryce & Victor Terskikh "National Facility user survey results and overview of application procedures"

17:15 Reception sponsored by Bruker Biospin Ltd.

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

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

Bibliometrics as Weapons of Mass Citation

Dear colleagues and friends of the magnetic resonance community,

A recent paper that appeared in Chimia, accompanied by a post-face written by Richard Ernst, attracted much interest and generated some passionate responses. Since the journal is not widely accessible, I asked the Editor to provide pdf files that you can upload and forward if you wish. Our paper can be found at:

http://www.chimie.ens.fr/Resonance/bibliometrics_1.pdf

The post-face can be uploaded from

http://www.chimie.ens.fr/Resonance/bibliometrics_2.pdf

Sincerely,

Geoffrey Bodenhausen

http://www.chimie.ens.fr/Resonance/geoffrey_bodenhausen.html

Pacifichem 2010: Call for Papers closes on April 5

The 2010 International Chemical Congress of Pacific Basin Societies (Pacifichem), will take place in Honolulu, Hawaii, December 15 - 20, 2010 and will be hosted by the Canadian Society for Chemistry (CSC).

The Call for Papers will close on April 5, 2010.

Submit your abstract via the Pacifichem 2010 website. Details are available at http://pacifichem.abstractcentral.com/

NMR Symposia at Pacifichem 2010

NMR Spectroscopy of Polymers - Innovative NMR Strategies for Complex Macromolecular Systems (Symposium #12) Peter Macdonald, University of Toronto

Biomolecular Structure and Dynamics - Recent Advances in NMR (Symposium #43) Mitsuhiko Ikura, Ontario Cancer Institute

Advances in Solid-State NMR of Biological Molecules (Symposium #58) Michèle Auger, Université Laval

Solid-State NMR Methods and Applications in Inorganic Materials (Symposium #228) Scott Kroeker, University of Manitoba

To view the full list of symposium visit http://www.pacifichem.org/symposia/

Interview with Ronald Gillespie

Ronald J. Gillespie, Professor Emeritus at McMaster, is a world-renowned chemist who has made many significant contributions to our understanding of the molecular structure and geometry. He was also one of the first to use NMR spectroscopy in chemical research. Read an interview with this fascinating Canadian personality in the upcoming issue of the Journal of Chemical Education.

Liberato Cardellini "Modeling Chemistry for Effective Chemical Education: An Interview with Ronald J. Gillespie," J. Chem. Educ. (2010) ASAP. http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/ed800166f

Related story

50 years of NMR at McMaster University (April 28, 2008)

Alex Bain (McMaster)

"It started with a chance remark from one of our senior colleagues, that it was 1958 when McMaster received its first NMR spectrometer, a Varian DP60. That seemed to be a good reason for a celebration, so on Friday May 2, we are having a one-day symposium. Two of the pioneers, Ron Gillespie (who ordered the instrument) and Russell Bell will be there. However, we will miss two other central figures: Don Eaton and Brian Sayer, who have both passed away. The symposium also will be the day before a memorial in Winnipeg for Ted Schaefer, who was a great father figure for many of us.

The 50th anniversary event has led to lots of discussion and a number of themes. One is the progress of the field since that time..."

Read the full Guest Editorial by Alex Bain in the Spring 2008 issue of the Canadian NMR Research News Bulletin

52nd Rocky Mountain Conference

The Solid-State NMR Symposium of the 52nd Rocky Mountain Conference on Analytical Chemistry will take place August 1-5, 2010 at the Snowmass Conference Center in Snowmass, Colorado.

Abstracts are now being accepted for both oral and poster presentations. Deadline to submit an oral presentation abstract is May 1, 2010. Deadline to submit a poster presentation abstract is June 15, 2010. For information on submitting an abstract, or to submit your abstract online

http://rockychem.com/callforpapers.htm

This year’s Vaughan lecturer is Ago Samoson (Tallin, Estonia). Other confirmed invited speakers are

Michele Auger (Laval, Canada), Brad Chmelka (UC Santa Barbara), Paul Ellis (Pacific Northwest), Phil Grandinetti (Ohio State), Gina Hoatson (William & Mary), Christopher Jaroniec (Ohio State), David Doty (Doty Scientific), P.K. Madhu (Tata Institute, India), Dominique Massiot (Orleans, France), Eric Munson (Kansas), Niels Nielsen (Aarhus, Denmark), Hartmut Oschikinat (Berlin, Germany), Guido Pintacuda (Lyon, France), Linda Reven (McGill, Canada), Asher Schmidt (Haifa, Israel), Klaus Schmidt-Rohr (Iowa State), Hans Spiess (Mainz, Germany), Chad Rienstra (Urbana-Champaign), Pei Tang (Pittsburg), Piotr Tekely (Paris, France), Robert Tycko (NIH)

Funds are available to offset the travel cost for students and postdoctoral fellows. For more information about conference registration, hotel and travel arrangements, please see

http://www.rockychem.com/

We look forward to welcoming you in beautiful Snowmass, Colorado.

Rocky Mountain Conference SSNMR Organizing Committee

Review in Progress in NMR Spectroscopy

P.T. Eles, C.A. Michal, "Two-photon excitation in nuclear magnetic and quadrupole resonance," Progress in Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy 56 (2010) 232-246. (Invited Review) http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pnmrs.2009.12.002

2009-2010 NSERC Strategic Project Grants

In February NSERC awarded $53.5 million to 122 applications in the 2009 Strategic Project Grants competition. The competition attracted the highest number of applications in recent years (465 in total), yielding a success rate of 26 per cent. Among successful applications was the research proposal "The development of comprehensive multiphse NMR spectroscopy to understand environmental contamination at the molecular level" by Andre Simpson and Myrna Simpson (University of Toronto Scarborough) in collaboration with Bruker BioSpin and Environment Canada. They have been awarded $450,000 over three years.

Web: Andre Simpson's Group at the University of Toronto Scarborough