Author Archives: albertolesarri

Digital Einstein

Category : General News

NYT informs that papers, notes and correspondence of Albert Einstein are now freely available on the “Digital Einstein” web page. The web is part of the Einstein Papers Project, which has published 13 paper volumes edited by Diana Kormos-Buchwald. The web includes a useful English translation. As a side note Einstein got a rank of 0.5 in Lev Landau’s list, a logarithmic scale of physicists productivity (Newton was ranked 0, while Bohr, Heisemberg, Schrödinger and Dirac got 1). A translated excerpt from “The Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies” (1905) is shown below.

digital einstein

Einstein 1905


Faculty day 2014

Category : Conferences Group News

Alberto Lesarri gave a historical talk at the Faculty day last November 13, 2014. The talk explored the origins of the Faculty of Sciences in the period 1857-1923, associated to the important social and political changes of that time. The picture below shows the Main Hall (“Paraninfo”) of the University ca. 1925’s, later demolished. The talk is freely available.

San Alberto 2014

The motto on the left of the wall is “Vitam impedere vero” (“to devote life to truth”). The cross marks the former dean Arturo Pérez Martín (Source: APM family).

paraninfo uva


Landing in a comet

Category : Cosmology General News

The European Space Agency put a 98 kg space probe in the surface of the comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. The Philae probe bounced back into space a couple of times before landing, since the escape velocity from the comet is only 1.8 km/h. Science went well till Philae batteries exhausted. The Rosetta spacecraft will continue monitoring the comet for at least one year. More results to come.

The orbital approach to the comet is shown in the video below.


XI SIJ – RSEQ-Sigma Aldrich

Category : Conferences Group News

The XI Symposium of Young Researchers of the Spanish Society of Chemistry and Sigma Aldrich was organized in Bilbao on November 4-7, 2014. The meeting brings together young Chemistry researchers, including also postdocs,  Ph. D and M. Sc. students. Montse Vallejo and Elena Caballero presented an oral talk and a poster, respectively. The participation of 152 people was the largest in its history. Below Montse and Elena in front of Elena’s poster.

Congresos Jovenes RSEQ recortado

XI SIJ RSEQ


Spallation Neutron Source

Category : General News

The new European neutron spallation source will go to Lund (Sweden). Bilbao compited for this facility without success. The Swedish funding for this project is equivalent to ca. 50 km of high-speed train, but unthinkable in Spain. According to ESFRI boss Prof. John Womersley “it would have been better for Spain to build scientific facilities instead of airports and auditoriums…”. A new report from the Spanish Consortium of Scientific Societies (COSCE) recently expressed that the new 2015 national budget for Science “mantains the budget cuts and does not promote R+D“.

In the movie below coffe making is observed using a neutron source.


Montse’s Ph.D. dissertation

Category : Group News

Congratulations to Montserrat Vallejo-López, who passed her Ph.D. dissertation with top qualifications last September 26. The evaluation committee included J.-U. Grabow (Hannover), S. Melandri (Bologna), J. A. Fernández (Bilbao), J. L. Domenech (CSIC-Madrid) and S. Blanco (Valladolid). Montse spent the last four years here and left a great impression in the Department. Good luck for the future!

Tesis Montse IMAG1771


September Visits

Category : Conferences Group News

Prof. Jens-Uwe Grabow (Hannover) and Prof. Sonia Melandri (Bologna) visited our group the last week of September. Prof. Grabow gave a talk to Faculty, students and general public on September 23, in collaboration with the Physics section of the Faculty of Sciences. The talk (below) connected molecular rotation experiments with Astrochemistry and particle Physics.

Conferencia_Jens_sep_2014


HRMS2014 – Bologna success

Category : Conferences Group News

The High-Resolution Molecular Spectroscopy (HRMS2014) meeting in Bologna was a success, with more attendants than ever. Congratulations to Prof. Walther Caminati and his team for the organization of this event. Alberto Lesarri and gave a plenary talk on Friday 5 (below). Juan Carlos López, Montse Vallejo, Emilio Cocinero and Iciar Uriarte also gave talks. Iciar got one of the Pliva prizes to the best student presentation. Several other Spanish researchers attended the meeting. Next conference will be organized by Prof. Urban in Prague in 2016 (August 30th-September 3rd, 2016).

HRMS-2014DSC_0368-2

In the picture Alberto presents the outline of the talk. Below, from left to right: Emilio, Alberto and Juan Carlos.

HRMS2014 DSC_0403-2

 


HRMS 2014 – Bologna

Category : Conferences

The 23rd. High Resolution Molecular Spectroscopy (HRMS-2014) meeting will start next September 2nd. in Bologna (Italy), organized by Prof. Walther Caminati (Dip. Chimica “G. Ciamician”). Several people from Valladolid and Bilbao will be giving talks, including Juan Carlos López, Montse Vallejo, Emilio Cocinero, Patricia Écija and Iciar Uriarte. Alberto Lesarri was invited to a plenary talk.

Bologna_HRMS

logociam

bologna

 


B. Sc. Exams

Congratulations to Elena Caballero-Mancebo who passed her B. Sc. dissertation last July 15th at the UVa Faculty of Sciences. Elena’s work was titled “Molecular Modelling and Rotational Spectroscopy of Multiconformational Systems” and got a qualification of 9/10.

et