aspuru-list April 2010

aspuru-list@lists.fas.harvard.edu

17 participants
74 discussions

[Aspuru-Guzik group list] HUCE Weekly Calendar Email April 1 - 15

by Center for the Environment

Highlights: Tomorrow: David MacKay, Chief Scientific Advisor to the Department of Energy and Climate Change, UK and Professor in the Department of Physics at Cambridge University, discusses his research and book, Sustainable Energy – Without the Hot Air in the second Future of Energy lecture this spring. April 5, 6, 7, 2010: The annual John M. Prather Lectures in Biology will be presented by Edward O. Wilson, Pellegrino Research Professor Emeritus and Honorary Curator in Entomology at Harvard, and one of the world’s leading voices for conservation of global biodiversity. April 12: Mercedes Pascual, Rosemary Grant Collegiate Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan joins us for the next HUCE lecture on Biodiversity, Ecology, and Global Change. Calendar Listings: April 1, 2010 3:30pm Movie Screening: "Tapped" Aldrich 208 - Harvard Business School Allston, MA Award winning documentary about the bottled water industry. Movie snacks and drinks provided. Movie run time is 76 minutes. 4:00pm OEB Seminar Biological Laboratories Main Lecture Hall 16 Divinity Avenue Cambridge, MA "Extinction in Our Times. Global Amphibian Decline." James Collins, University of Arizona. Host: Losos Lab. Contact Name: Jeannette Everritt jeverritt(a)oeb.harvard.edu 4:00pm - 5:30pm IOP Study Group - All Politics is Local: Even Global Warming Faculty Dining Room (FDR) Harvard Kennedy School 79 JFK St. Cambridge, MA Led by IOP Fellow Greg Nickels, Mayor of Seattle (2002-09), President of the U.S. Conference of Mayors (2009), and Founder of the US Mayors Climate Protection agreement. http://www.iop.harvard.edu/Programs/Fellows-Study-Groups/Spring-2010-Study-…... 4:30pm - 5:45pm Perspectives on the Smart Grid Harvard Business School – Aldrich 8 Allston, MA The HBS Greentech & Sustainability Club is hosting a Smart Grid panel to discuss key aspects of our electricity infrastructure upgrades (pilot programs, customer adoption, regulation, technology, and environmental impact.) Contact Name: Emily Matorin ematorin(a)mba2011.hbs.edu 5:00pm - 7:00pm Science and Democracy: Arundhati Roy Piper Auditorium, Gund Hall 48 Quincy St. Cambridge, MA “Can We Leave the Bauxite in the Mountain?” Field Notes on Democracy. Arundhati Roy, Author of The God of Small Things (Booker Prize, 1997). Commentator, Homi Bhabha, Anne F. Rothenberg Professor of the Humanities and Director, Humanities Center at Harvard and moderated by Sheila Jasanoff, Pforzheimer Professor of Science and Technology Studies, Harvard Kennedy School. http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/sts/ Contact Name: Lisa Matthews lisa_matthews(a)harvard.edu 617-495-8883 April 2, 2010 (All day) - April 3, 2010 (All day) GSD Conference: Critical Ecologies Piper Auditorium Graduate School of Design 42 Quincy St. Cambridge, MA Critical Ecologies is a one-and-a-half-day event that will focus on a review of recent scientific shifts that have occurred in the fields of ecology, biology, and horticulture. http://www.gsd.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/calendar/ April 2, 2010 8:30am MSI Chalktalk Breakfast HUCE Seminar Room 24 Oxford St, 3rd Floor Cambridge, MA "The Harvard Yard truffle and other observations on the importance of urban soil microbes." Ben Wolfe, OEB, PhD Candidate. Host Anne Pringle. http://www.msi.harvard.edu/fridays.html MSI-Info(a)hms.harvard.edu 11:00am Harvard Forest Seminar Harvard Forest Seminar Room 324 North Main Street Petersham, MA "Evolution of ecosystem services in a coastal New England watershed." Wil Wolheim, Complex Systems Research Center, University of New Hampshire. http://harvardforest.fas.harvard.edu/research/seminars.php Contact Name: Audrey Barker Plotkin aabarker(a)fas.harvard.edu 4:00pm - 5:00pm The Future of Energy: David MacKay - Chief Scientific Advisor to the Department of Energy and Climate Change, UK Northwest Labs B103 52 Oxford Street Cambridge, MA David MacKay, Chief Scientific Advisor to the Department of Energy and Climate Change, UK; Professor in the Department of Physics at Cambridge University; and author of the influential book "Sustainable Energy - without the hot air." Contact Name: Lisa Matthews lisa_matthews(a)harvard.edu 617-495-8883 April 3, 2010 (All day) EPS Day EPS day is an opportunity for the varied disciplines of the EPS community to share some of our research and socialize. There will be nine talks over the course of the day from varied graduate students and post-docs in the department. Lunch, dinner and drinks will be provided. http://www.eps.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do April 5, 2010 12:00pm - 1:00pm Harvard Energy Journal Club HUCE Seminar Room 24 Oxford St., 3rd Floor Cambridge, MA NO Meeting on March 15. (Spring break.) Visit the Energy Journal website for updates and topics of discussion. http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~hejc/ Contact Name: Kate Dennis kdennis(a)fas.harvard.edu 4:00pm EPS Spring Colloquium Haller Hall (Geo-Museum 102) 24 Oxford Street Cambridge, MA "Early planetesimal differentiation and core dynamos" Benjamin Weiss, MIT. Contact Name: Ganna Savostyanova ganna(a)eps.harvard.edu (617) 495-3637 6:00pm John M. Prather Lectures in Biology: E.O. Wilson Sanders Theatre at Memorial Hall Harvard Yard Cambridge, MA "Biodiversity and the Future of Biology." Lecture tickets are required, and can be obtained through the Harvard Box Office. http://www.oeb.harvard.edu/news_events/news_items/prather_2010.html April 6, 2010 2:30pm - 4:00pm Energy Policy Seminar Series Bell Hall - Belfer Building Harvard Kennedy School 79 JFK St. Cambridge, MA "The Recent Evolution of the Brazilian Electricity Industry." Joisa Saraiva, Visiting Scholar, Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government. Contact Name: Louisa Lund louisa_lund(a)hks.harvard.edu 4:00pm John M. Prather Lectures in Biology: E.O. Wilson Science Center One Oxford St. Cambridge, MA "The Superorganism." The evolution from organism to superorganism has been the major transition between levels of biological organization, easiest to penetrate and understand. Free, advance tickets not required. http://www.oeb.harvard.edu/news_events/news_items/prather_2010.html 617.495.5891 April 7, 2010 4:00pm John M. Prather Lectures in Biology: E.O. Wilson Science Center One Oxford St. Cambridge, MA "Consilience." A definition of human nature will be offered and examples from the borderland will be used to illustrate it. Free, advance tickets not required. http://www.oeb.harvard.edu/news_events/news_items/prather_2010.html 617.495.5891 6:30pm - 8:30pm It’s Easy Being Green: Prospects for the Green Party in Germany and Europe Lower Level Conference Room, Busch Hall 27 Kirkland Street Cambridge, MA Discussion and Reception with Cem Özdemir, Co-Chairman of the German Green Party (Alliance 90/The Greens). This event is free of charge. RSVP (acceptances only) http://www.ces.fas.harvard.edu Contact Name: Ellie Falk ces(a)fas.harvard.edu (617)495-4303 April 8, 2010 11:45am - 1:00pm Ecology Journal Club HUCE Meeting Room 318 24 Oxford St., 3rd Floor Cambridge, MA Reading and discussion group on diverse topics in ecology. Visit the website for topics of discussion. All interested researchers are welcome and lunch is provided. http://www.oeb.harvard.edu/faculty/pringle/journalclub.htm Contact Name: Primrose Boynton pboynton(a)fas.harvard.edu 12:00pm - 2:00pm Climate Change and Economic Development Tufts University Alumnae Lounge 15 South Campus Road Medford, MA Dr. Rosina Bierbaum, Dean of the University of Michigan’s School of Natural Resources and Environment and Co-Director of the World Bank’s World Development Report 2010. Contact Name: Mieke Wansem Mieke.Wansem(a)tufts.edu 4:00pm OEB Seminar Main Lecture Hall BioLabs Building 16 Divinity Ave Cambridge, MA “Chasing maximal animal performance: Lessons learned from the celebrated jumping frogs of Calaveras County.” Thomas Roberts, Brown University, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. Contact Name: Jeannette Everritt jeverritt(a)oeb.harvard.edu 4:00pm - 5:30pm IOP Study Group - All Politics is Local: Even Global Warming Faculty Dining Room (FDR) Harvard Kennedy School 79 JFK St. Cambridge, MA Led by IOP Fellow Greg Nickels, Mayor of Seattle (2002-09), President of the U.S. Conference of Mayors (2009), and Founder of the US Mayors Climate Protection agreement. http://www.iop.harvard.edu/Programs/Fellows-Study-Groups/Spring-2010-Study-…... April 9, 2010 (All day) - April 11, 2010 (All day) Down:2:Earth (D2E) - Boston's third annual Green Living Festival Hynes Convention Center 900 Boylston St. Boston, MA D2E is a weekend long event that showcases the best in eco-friendly products and sampled by the companies themselves in one location. http://www.d2eboston.com/ miriam(a)d2eboston.com April 9, 2010 11:00am Harvard Forest Seminar Harvard Forest Seminar Room 324 North Main Street Petersham, MA “Millennium development goals , biodiversity change and tropical forests: insights from India.” Kamal Bawa, University of Massachusetts, Boston and Harvard Bullard Fellow. http://harvardforest.fas.harvard.edu/research/seminars.php Contact Name: Audrey Barker Plotkin aabarker(a)fas.harvard.edu 1:30pm Solid Earth Physics Seminar 4th Floor Faculty Lounge Hoffman Laboratory 20 Oxford St. Cambridge, MA Yehuda Ben-Zion, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Southern Title to be announced. California, Los Angeles, CA. April 10, 2010 9:00am Communicating Science Symposium, Wellesley College Wellesley College Science Center 106 Central St. Wellesley, MA Keynote Speaker: Dr. James Hansen. Visit the website for detailed information on schedule, directions, speaker bios, and contact information. Free registration (required). https://sites.google.com/site/wellesleycommsci/ wc.commsci(a)gmail.com 7:00pm - 11:00pm Earth Night Back Bay Events Center 180 Berkley St. Boston, MA George Bachrach, Environmental League of Massachusetts President invites you to Earth Night, featuring a tribute to Roger Berkowitz, President/CEO Legal Sea Foods for his longtime service on the ELM Board of Directors. Special Guest MC - Billy Costa, Host of NECN's TV Diner. http://www.EarthNight.org EarthNight(a)classic-communications.com 508.680.6810 April 11, 2010 4:00pm Movie Screening: "The Fish Belong to the People" (Boston University) Boston University Life Sciences Building, Room B01 24 Cummington St. Boston, MA "The Fish Belong to the People" is about a group of family fishermen struggling to keep their businesses afloat in Port Clyde, Maine. kdeuel(a)pewtrusts.org April 12, 2010 12:00pm - 1:00pm Harvard Energy Journal Club HUCE Seminar Room 24 Oxford St., 3rd Floor Cambridge, MA Visit the Energy Journal website for updates and topics of discussion. http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~hejc/ Contact Name: Kate Dennis kdennis(a)fas.harvard.edu 5:00pm Biodiversity, Ecology, and Global Change Contact Name: Lisa Matthews lisa_matthews(a)harvard.edu 617-495-8883 Sherman Fairchild Lecture Hall, 7 Divinity Ave Harvard University Cambridge, MA Mercedes Pascual, Rosemary Grant Collegiate Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan. 5:15pm Ecologies of Human Flourishing Lecture Series Sperry Room, Andover Hall, 45 Francis Avenue Harvard Divinity School Cambridge, MA "What's Enough? A Conversation Between Harvard Business School and Harvard Divinity School" http://www.hds.harvard.edu/cswr/events/theme.html Contact Name: Rebecca Kline Esterson resterson(a)hds.harvard.edu April 13, 2010 12:00pm China Project Seminar Pierce Hall 100F 29 Oxford St. Cambridge, MA "Traffic Problems, Challenges and Integrated Solutions under Rapid Urbanization in China." LU Huapu, Professor, Institute of Transportation Engineering, Tsinghua University. http://chinaproject.harvard.edu/seminar%20folder/seminar/Lu100413 Contact Name: Chris Nielsen nielsen2(a)fas.harvard.edu 2:30pm - 4:00pm Energy Policy Seminar Series Bell Hall - Belfer Building Harvard Kennedy School 79 JFK St. Cambridge, MA "Unconventional Takes on the Climate-Energy Problem." Prof. John Schellnhuber, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. Contact Name: Louisa Lund louisa_lund(a)hks.harvard.edu 4:00pm - 5:00pm The Future of Energy: Kristina Johnson, Under Secretary of Energy, US Department of Energy Northwest Labs B103 52 Oxford Street Cambridge, MA Kristina M. Johnson, Ph.D. is currently the Under Secretary for Energy at the Department of Energy in Washington, D.C. Contact Name: Lisa Matthews lisa_matthews(a)harvard.edu 617-495-8883 April 14, 2010 2:00pm - 3:30pm Green Conversations with Tata Technologies Northwest Labs B101 52 Oxford Street Cambridge, MA Panel discussion of the Tata Nano in the context of energy, environment, and economic development in India. Contact Name: Lisa Matthews lisa_matthews(a)harvard.edu 617-495-8883 7:00pm Harvard Forest Seminar Harvard Forest Seminar Room 324 North Main Street Petersham, MA "Birds of Harvard Forest." Brooks Mathewson, Avian Art Images. http://harvardforest.fas.harvard.edu/research/seminars.php Contact Name: Audrey Barker Plotkin aabarker(a)fas.harvard.edu April 15, 2010 (All day) Harvard Green Video Competition Harvard’s Office for Sustainability is sponsoring a competition for short video clips highlighting how individual actions can help reduce environmental impacts at Harvard, and they want you to submit!! First prize wins $700 and second wins $300—plus both videos will be publicly screened at Harvard’s first-ever Green Carpet Awards ceremony taking place on April 23rd in Sanders Theater and honoring environmental work on campus. http://www.green.harvard.edu/greencarpet April 15, 2010 11:45am - 1:00pm Ecology Journal Club HUCE Meeting Room 318 24 Oxford St., 3rd Floor Cambridge, MA Reading and discussion group on diverse topics in ecology. Visit the website for topics of discussion. All interested researchers are welcome and lunch is provided. http://www.oeb.harvard.edu/faculty/pringle/journalclub.htm Contact Name: Primrose Boynton pboynton(a)fas.harvard.edu 4:00pm - 5:30pm IOP Study Group - All Politics is Local: Even Global Warming Faculty Dining Room (FDR) Harvard Kennedy School 79 JFK St. Cambridge, MA Led by IOP Fellow Greg Nickels, Mayor of Seattle (2002-09), President of the U.S. Conference of Mayors (2009), and Founder of the US Mayors Climate Protection agreement. http://www.iop.harvard.edu/Programs/Fellows-Study-Groups/Spring-2010-Study-…... --- Always check the calendar on the website for updated information. If you would like to submit an event to the calendar, contact Lisa Matthews at the Center for the Environment: lisa_matthews(a)harvard.edu. Be sure to sign up to receive the HUCE newsletter. --- Always check the calendar on the website for updated information. If you would like to submit an event to the calendar, contact Lisa Matthews at the Center for the Environment: [91]lisa_matthews(a)harvard.edu. Be sure to sign up to receive the HUCE [92]newsletter. Links: 91. mailto:lisa_matthews@harvard.edu 92. http://harvard.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=7532d1fbf18f39219ac742ebe&… You are receiving this email because you indicated interest in Harvard University Center for the Environment events. [93]Unsubscribe aspuru-list(a)lists.fas.harvard.edu from this list. Links: 93. http://harvard.us1.list-manage.com/unsubscribe?u=7532d1fbf18f39219ac742ebe&… Our mailing address is: 24 Oxford St. Cambridge, MA 02138 (T) 617-495-0368 www.environment.harvard.edu Copyright (C) 2008 Harvard University. All rights reserved.

14 years, 1 month

[Aspuru-Guzik group list] ANNOUNCEMENT: April 13, 2010 - Koen Vandewal - Excitonics Seminar

by rtavilla＠rle.mit.edu

Center for Excitonics Seminar Series Announcement The Center for Excitonics is an Energy Frontier Research Center funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science and Office of Basic Energy Sciences The Center for Excitonics invites you to join us at the next seminar of the Spring 2010 series. Please forward this information on to others who might be interested in attending this and other center seminars. Title: Charge-transfer absorption and emission in polymer: fullerene solar cells Presenter: Koen Vandewal Organization: Linkoping University Date: April 13, 2010 Time: 3:00 - 4:00pm Place: Haus Room 36-428 Center URL: www.rle.mit.edu/excitonics Seminar URL: www.rle.mit.edu/excitonics/vandewal-041310.html Abstract For an efficient conversion of photons to electrons by organic materials, the presence of a material interface between an electron donating and electron accepting material is crucial. Most successful active layers for organic solar cells today comprise a blend of conjugated polymers as electron donors and fullerenes as electron acceptors, reaching power conversion efficiencies (h) up to 8%. In order to find pathways to increase h further, fundamental properties of the electronic states at the donor/acceptor (D/A) interface and their role in determining and limiting h, are investigated in this work. In order to probe these interfacial properties directly, highly sensitive measurements of the photocurrent and electroluminescent spectra of organic D/A photovoltaic devices are performed. For all material combinations exhibiting a decent charge carrier generation, weak absorption and emission involving a CT state with energy ECT lower than the lowest optical gap of both donor and acceptor can be observed. Efficient population and subsequent dissociation of the CT state determines the short-circuit current (Jsc). Also the open-circuit voltage (Voc) can be related to CT properties: The principles of reciprocity and detailed balance provide a relation between the CT absorption and emission properties, and Voc. This relation is shown to be valid for a range polymer:fullerene photovoltaic devices, at different temperatures and illumination intensities. When measured under solar illumination, we find an energetic difference between ECT and qVoc of ~0.6 eV for this type of photovoltaic devices. The origin of this difference is twofold. About 0.25 eV of this energetic loss is due to the radiative recombination through the CT state. The remaining ~0.35 eV is due to additional, non-radiative recombination mechanisms. To conclude, upper bounds for Jsc, Voc and h are derived, under the assumption of perfect conditions for charge generation and recombination. Ideal values for CT state properties and optical gap of the main absorber are discussed. Bio Koen Vandewal received his master’s degree in electro-optical engineering from Gent University (Belgium) in 2004 and his Ph.D. from Hasselt University (Belgium) in 2009. Currently, he is a postdoctoral researcher at Linköping University (Sweden). Research interests include charge generation and recombination processes in organic opto-electronic devices.

14 years, 1 month

[Aspuru-Guzik group list] No group meeting tomorrow

by Alejandro Perdomo

We will resume next week, and Johannes is up by then. Cheers, -A -- Alejandro Perdomo-Ortiz Ph.D. Candidate in Chemical Physics. Harvard University 12 Oxford St #482, Cambridge, MA, 02138. perdomo(a)fas.harvard.edu

14 years, 1 month

[Aspuru-Guzik group list] TODAY: Arundhati Roy -- Science and Democracy Lecture Series

by Center for the Environment

Science and Democracy, a lecture series aimed at exploring both the promised benefits or our era's most salient scientific and technological breakthroughs and the potentially harmful consequences of developments that are inadequately understood, debated, or managed by politicians, lay publics, and policy institutions. Arundhati Roy Author of The God of Small Things (Booker Prize, 1997) "Can We Leave the Bauxite in the Mountain?" Field Notes on Democracy Commentator: Homi Bhabha, Anne F. Rothenberg Professor of the Humanities and Director, Humanities Center at Harvard. Moderated by: Sheila Jasanoff, Pforzheimer Professor of Science and Technology Studies, Harvard Kennedy School TODAY 5:00 - 7:00p Piper Auditorium Gund Hall, GSD 48 Quincy Street Harvard University Abstract: "What happens once democracy has been used up? When it has been hollowed out and emptied of meaning? What happens when each of its institutions has metastasized into something dangerous? What happens now that democracy and the free market have fused into a single predatory organism with a thin, constricted imagination that revolves almost entirely around the idea of maximizing profit? Is it possible to reverse this process? Can something that has mutated go back to being what it used to be? What we need today, for the sake of the survival of this planet, is long-term vision. Can governments whose very survival depends on immediate, extractive, short-term gain provide this? Could it be that democracy, the sacred answer to our short-term hopes and prayers, the protector of our individual freedoms and nurturer of our avaricious dreams, will turn out to be the endgame for the human race?" This event is organized by the Program on Science, Technology, and Society, at the Harvard Kennedy School and co-sponsored by the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, the Graduate School of Design, the South Asia Initiative at Harvard, and the Harvard University Center for the Environment. For more information on Science, Technology, and Society events at Harvard University, please visit: www.hks.harvard.edu/sts/. This lecture and discussion is free and open to the public. Contact: Lisa Matthews Events Coordinator Harvard University Center for the Environment 24 Oxford Street Cambridge, MA 02138 lisa_matthews(a)harvard.edu p. 617-495-8883 f. 617-496-0425 [4]Unsubscribe aspuru-list(a)lists.fas.harvard.edu from this list. Links: 4. http://harvard.us1.list-manage.com/unsubscribe?u=7532d1fbf18f39219ac742ebe&… Our mailing address is: 24 Oxford St. Cambridge, MA 02138 T: (617) 495-0368 www.environment.harvard.edu Copyright (C) 2008 Harvard University. All rights reserved. [5]Forward this email to a friend Links: 5. http://us1.forward-to-friend.com/forward?u=7532d1fbf18f39219ac742ebe&id=f5d…

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aspuru-list April 2010