Category Archives: Talks

Symmetry and Molecules

Category : Talks

Alberto Lesarri gave a talk to secondary school students at the “Diego de Praves” High School in Valladolid last January, 25, 2022. The talks discussed the implications of symmetry in Chemistry, Physics and life.

What is the influence of molecular symmetry?
The students checked the different smell of samples of (+)-limonene and (-)-limonene, an easy test of how chirality can have distinct biological effects.

Cracking DNA for students

Alberto Lesarri gave a talk at the “Diego de Praves” Secondary School in Valladolid last February 2, replicating the 1950’s DNA X-ray diffraction experiment with a laser pointer and a light bulb. This demonstration experiment basically shows the diffraction of an helix, giving opportunity to talk of the experimental work of Rosalind Franklin, as explained in 2018 in the American Journal of Physics.

You can compare the pointer diffraction, with the real pattern below:


SDMC-2020

Alberto Lesarri gave a plenary talk at the Spectroscopy and Dynamics of Molecules and Clusters (SDMC-2020) Conference, which took place the last February 20-23 in Kumbhalgarh (Rajasthan, India). The Conference was jointly organized by Indian Institute of Technology (IIT, Jodhpur)Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS, Pilani)Malaviya National Institute of Technology (Jaipur)Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (Pune), and National Chemical Laboratory (Pune). The Conference was very dynamical, providing a great opportunity for scientific exchange. This was the first and probably the last Conference this year following the COVID-19 outbreak.


IYPT Exhibition

Prof. Javier García Martinez, Vicepresident of IUPAC 2020-22 gave a talk at the Faculty of Sciences last October 15, 2019, with the title “What is the IUPAC doing for you?“. The visit celebrated the new Exhibition on the Periodic Table organized in collaboration between the Spanish Society of Chemistry and the Faculty of Sciences. The exhibition includes all kind of periodic tables in different sizes and formats, together with an exhibition of books and bibliographic material at the Campus Library.

Prof. Javier García Martínez talks to the Faculty of Sciences.

One of the Periodic Tables in exhibition at the Faculty of Sciences.

Summer conferences

Our group participated in several conferences this Summer. Marcos Juanes attended the 74 International Symposium on Molecular Spectroscopy (ISMS) at the University of Illinois last June 17-21, presenting three oral talks. Alberto Lesarri gave oral talks at the 18 European Symposium on Gas-Phase Electron Diffraction (ESGED18) in Hirschegg (Austria), the Iberian Joint Meeting on Atomic and Molecular Physics (IBER2019) in Évora (Portugal) and the XXXVII Biannual Meeting of the Spanish Physics Society (Bienal Física 2019) in Zaragoza (Spain).

In the picture above Alberto talks at the IBER2019 in Portugal

The IBER2019 conference is the biannual meeting of the Portuguese (SPF) and Spanish (RSEF) Physics Society. The event is coorganized by the SPF and the Division of Atomic and Molecular Physics (GEFAM) of the RSEF. This year the event remembered the GEFAM founder Prof. Gerardo Delgado-Barrio (CSIC), who passed away in 2018.


Femtochemistry talk

Category : Group News Talks

Prof. Luis Banares (Univ. Complutense Madrid) visited our University on November 18 and gave a lecture to the Chemistry students on “Femtoscopy” or how femtosecond lasers can be used to observe and manipulate chemical reactions.