Recently, our Ph.D. student, Silvana Pinheiro, has created a nice video explaining her Ph.D. experience at our group, following a suggestion by the Brazilian CNPq, the organism that is funding her research through the Ciência Sem Fronteiras program. You can find the video below:
Andreana receives NSF Graduate Research Fellowship
Our student, Andreana Rosnik, who recently received a Fulbright U.S. fellowship to work in our research group this year, also got the prestigious NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. Read more at http://www.hope.edu/2013/06/25/andreana-rosnik-receives-nsf-graduate-research-fellowship
Energy transfer course at the II Brazilian School on Molecular Modelling
This month, I was invited to Brazil by the organizers of the II Brazilian School on Molecular Modelling to give a course on energy transfer. The school was held at the UFABC (Universidade Federal do ABC), at the Santo André campus. Santo André is a city of the big São Paulo area. A part from…
XXVIII Anual Meeting of the Reference Network on Theoretical and Computational Chemistry of Catalonia
In Catalonia, we have a quite active and large community working in computational and theoretical chemistry. The backbone of this community is the Reference Network on Theoretical and Computational Chemistry of Catalonia, which holds and anual meeting aimed at boosting the communication among research groups, as well as providing young students with the possibility to…
Building my research group at the University of Barcelona
As you can see, on 2012 I have not been very active in the blog. This is mainly because I’ve been quite busy with my move to the University of Barcelona. On 2011, I was awarded a Ramón y Cajal position, which is more or less the Spanish version of a tenure track, in which…
COM Radio interview on Natural and Artificial Photosynthesis
As I’ve commented in previous posts, the possibility to develop renewable energy sources by imitating natural photosynthesis is a hot topic with growing interest among the general public. Recently, I was contacted by Gemma Janó, editor from the digital area of COM Ràdio (one of the leading public radio stations in Catalonia). asking for the…
Popularizing science during the IYC2011
As you may already know, the United Nations declated 2011 the International Year of Chemistry. This celebration aims at improving the public appreciation of chemistry, as well as encourage the interest in this science and generate enthusiasm about its creative future. At the University of Girona, some of my collegues (Miquel Duran, Silvia Simon, Pep…
Photosynthetic light-harvesting is tuned by the heterogeneous polarizable environment of the protein
In photosynthesis, special antenna proteins that contain multiple light-absorbing molecules (chromophores) are able to capture sunlight and transfer the excitation energy to reaction centers with almost 100% quantum efficiencies. The critical role of the protein scaffold in holding the appropriate arrangement of the chromophores is well established, and can be intuitively understood given the need…
EXCST2011 registration and abstract submission now open
Registration and abstract submission for the conference “Excited states and non-adiabatic processes in complex systems. Theoretical approaches”, that we are organizing in Sant Feliu de Guixols (25-th-27th July 2011) is now open. Please visit the conference web site for more information: http://stark.udg.edu/excst2011 We look forward to seeing you in Sant Feliu!
Triplet energy transfer in DNA
Triplet excited states in DNA have been proven to provide a mechanism to thymine dimerization, a photochemical reaction that leads to carcinogenic lesions. However, and in contrast to singlet states, our knowledge about triplet states in DNA is largely limited to the properties of monomeric bases. Thus, the mobility and degree of delocalization of triplet…