aspuru-list December 2011

aspuru-list@lists.fas.harvard.edu

27 participants
40 discussions

[Aspuru-Guzik group list] Doodle: Group Policy on Locked Doors

by Jacob Krich

Not trying to make this more complicated, but I thought a discussion on Monday might be better than a doodle, because there are more options that "always locked" and the current system. For example, I think we all agree that when the office is populated, thieves are not going to come in and steal things, even if the door is unlocked. The issue seems to be about 1) when there's only one person in the office, who may be distracted, and 2) whether that person will remember to lock the door when leaving. Proposal: The door should only be unlocked when there are at least 2 people in the office. This has several advantages. From the convenience side, the door doesn't have to be locked when the office has several people. From the security side, this decreases the chances of the empty office ever being unlocked. That is, the second-to-last person to leave should remember to lock the door. But in case s/he forgets, the last person should also remember to lock the door, so the system does not rely on each individual remembering every time. I'm open to discussing other hybrid solutions, as well. I don't think it needs to be an either/or decision. We can wait to fill out the doodle until after we discuss. Have a good weekend. Best, Jacob

12 years, 4 months

Re: [Aspuru-Guzik group list] locked door policy

by Anna B. Shin

Johannes, cc Group: With a large group and stream of lab visitors, there is a higher chance someone will be careless. This will not happen with the doors always locked. I have also gone to the big office and the few people there did not turn to check who it was. I'd be happy to do random checks to prove my point that some are too glued to their monitors to look around. Good for productivity unless your laptop gets stolen. Group: feel free to respond to the thread if you wish. You can hold a vote at group meeting. Anna B. Shin Laboratory Administrator | Aspuru-Guzik Research Group Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology | Harvard University 12 Oxford Street | Cambridge, MA 02138 617.496.9964 office | 617.694.9879 cell | 617.496.9411 fax http://aspuru.chem.harvard.edu/ <https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ui=2&ik=e7480c62f0&view=att&th=12eee19970…> On Fri, Dec 9, 2011 at 12:56 PM, Johannes Hachmann <jh(a)chemistry.harvard.edu > wrote: > I just had a quick chat with Jacob and he also thinks this would be a bad > and annoying policy, in particular since there are usually many people at > least in the big office. He also suggested starting a discussion over the > group list. If you think that's a good idea, you can forward my first eMail > to the list. > > > Johannes: some of your suggestions are good, but I think the > > inconvenience of replacing a stolen laptop far exceeds having to dig > > for keys. I have a lanyard that I wear around my neck so I can > > easily get in. If by chance someone forgets their key and no one's > > around, they can ask the security office downstairs to let them in > > (they are here 24-7). > > I frankly disagree - the chance of getting a laptop stolen while someone is > in the office is pretty small (as long as the 'last-person-locks' policy is > enforced), while the effects of 'locked-at-all-times' are a daily > certainty. > > > > I've had a number of folks bring up the issue directly to me, so you > > can offer your suggestions at the group meeting and people can vote > > on setting group policy. > > I agree - we should still start the discussion via the list before so that > people have time to think about it. > > > > Btw, if you want to coordinate with Facilities about getting > > placards put on every door, that would be good. I believe there's > > already a camera in the hallway. > > I can make simple printouts and put them up. > > Best > > Johannes > ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Johannes Hachmann <jh(a)chemistry.harvard.edu> Date: Fri, Dec 9, 2011 at 12:14 PM Subject: RE: [Aspuru-Guzik group list] locked door policy To: "Anna B. Shin" <anna(a)chemistry.harvard.edu> Cc: Alan Aspuru-Guzik <alan(a)aspuru.com> Just my 2ct: I think this 'locked-at-all-times' policy is excessive and unpractical. Every time you leave the lab for ANYTHING you have to dig for your keys, find the right one, and then unlock, possibly while having your hands full with a laptop or a stack of books. This will be extremely interruptive and a waste of nerves and time. The chance of dropping a laptop on such an occasion is probably bigger than getting it stolen. We'll probably also see people getting locked out - many of us have their FOB key on their keychain and leave it on their desk while working on the cluster. I think our current 'last-person-locks' system works perfectly fine as long as it is strictly enforced. A cheap deterrent would be signs on every door saying 'All computers in this office are registered and tagged by HUPD and the doors are monitored by CCTV.]'. Both doesn't even have to be true, but if you want to make it more believable, buy a few camera dummies... Best Johannes > -----Original Message----- > From: aspuru-list-bounces(a)lists.fas.harvard.edu [mailto:aspuru-list- > bounces(a)lists.fas.harvard.edu] On Behalf Of Anna B. Shin > Sent: Friday, December 09, 2011 11:10 > To: A-G Group > Subject: [Aspuru-Guzik group list] locked door policy > > Dear Group, > > With the increase of theft in CCB, we need to revisit the group > policy on locked doors. Currently, the policy is lax with doors > left unlocked while an office is occupied. However, some leave the > office unsecured when they go to the bathroom or grab a print job. > It can take as little as a few seconds for a thief to walk in the > door, grab a laptop or backpack and walk out. The last thief caught > on camera looked like a student so he was free to roam the labs > without getting stopped. The most recent incident I heard was a > laptop stolen in the Whitesides lab last Saturday afternoon (Dec 3) > when the building doors are locked to the public. > > HUPD does not promote cable locks as secure means of theft > prevention since it gives you a false sense of security because > thieves can carry cable cutters that easily snap it off. They > encourage laptop registration which requires a $10 fee. CCB may > sponsor another HUPD laptop registration visit in the future, but in > the meantime, we need to make it a policy to keep doors locked at > all times. Rotators: don't forget this applies to you too. > > If you have concerns about the issue, please bring it up at the next > group meeting. > > Regards, > Anna

12 years, 4 months

[Aspuru-Guzik group list] Doodle: Group Policy on Locked Doors

by Anna Shin (via Doodle)

Anna Shin (aspuru-admin(a)chemistry.harvard.edu) invites you to participate in Doodle poll "Group Policy on Locked Doors". Follow this link to open the poll: http://www.doodle.com/gbpum5kdtu48595y

12 years, 4 months

[Aspuru-Guzik group list] Chem160 lecturer for next Fall. Response needed ASAP

by Alan Aspuru-Guzik

Dear postdocs in the group, I would like to get candidates for teaching Chem160 *fully* next semester. That would be a full time job, in terms that you will be paid for it more than a postdoc rate. I would expect you to devote yourself to this, and do reserach on the side. If you are interested, let me know. I will receive "candidacies" this weekend, and then decide on a name to pass on to the department as a possible candidate. I might pass more than one name and then you would be interviewed. Let me know if you are interested, this is a one-of-a-time opportunity as we are in need of filling this course once. Alan Alán Aspuru-Guzik | Associate Professor Harvard University | Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology 12 Oxford Street, Room M113 | Cambridge, MA 02138 (617)-384-8188 | http://aspuru.chem.harvard.edu

12 years, 4 months

[Aspuru-Guzik group list] SEMINAR: Center for Excitonics , Tues. Dec 13, 3 pm, 34-401A

by Cathy Bourgeois

Please post and forward to your groups (please note seminar location) - thanks Center for Excitonics Seminar Series Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2011 3:00 PM - 4:00 PM EECS CONFERENCE ROOM: 34-401A "Singlet Exciton Fission in Polyacenes: Photophysics and Photovoltaic Applications" Mark Wilson, Optoelectronics Group, University of Cambridge abstract The development of novel technologies for harvesting solar energy is a major contemporary research effort in the physical sciences. However, the efficiency of any single-bandgap photovoltaic device under solar irradiation has a fundamental limit because sub-bandgap photons are not absorbed and the excess energy of super-bandgap photons is wasted as heat. An attractive method to circumvent this limit is to sensitize a 'red-absorbing' solar cell with a 'blue-absorbing' material which generates multiple electron-hole pairs. This is possible in some organic semiconductors via 'singlet fission', where a spin-singlet bound electron-hole pair (exciton) 'splits' to form two triplet excitons, each with roughly half of the singlet energy. Although singlet fission has been historically observed in molecular crystals, we recently used transient absorption spectroscopy to demonstrate that it occurs rapidly (~70 fs) and efficiently (>85%) in easily-fabricated evaporated films of pentacene and that fission-generated triplet excitons undergo long-range diffusion (>40nm) and are dissociated at a pentacene/C60 heterointerface. These results are consistent with reported photon-to-electron quantum efficiencies that exceed 100% and have led us to fabricate a proof-of-concept photovoltaic device where an evaporated pentacene film absorbs visible light and generates pairs of triplets via fission, while a second layer of inorganic colloidal quantum dots generates charge from transferred triplets as well as directly-absorbed infrared photons. Further transient absorption measurements address the mechanism of exciton fission, as questions remain as to whether singlet fission is also rapid and efficient larger-bandgap acenes and whether fission is mediated by a 'dark' (one-photon inaccessible) multiexcitonic state. Bio Hailing from Port Colborne, Canada, Mark received a B.A. (History) (2008), and a B.Sc. (2006) and M.Sc. (2008) in Engineering Physics from Queen's University, Kingston. Working with Prof. James Fraser, his thesis concerned the ultrafast dynamics of photoluminescence from individual, air-suspended, single-walled carbon nanotubes. He is presently working towards a Ph.D. in Physics under the supervision of Sir Richard Friend at the University of Cambridge's Cavendish Laboratory. 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 Light refreshments will be served

12 years, 4 months

[Aspuru-Guzik group list] locked door policy

by Anna B. Shin

Dear Group, With the increase of theft in CCB, we need to revisit the group policy on locked doors. Currently, the policy is lax with doors left unlocked while an office is occupied. However, some leave the office unsecured when they go to the bathroom or grab a print job. It can take as little as a few seconds for a thief to walk in the door, grab a laptop or backpack and walk out. The last thief caught on camera looked like a student so he was free to roam the labs without getting stopped. The most recent incident I heard was a laptop stolen in the Whitesides lab last Saturday afternoon (Dec 3) when the building doors are locked to the public. HUPD does not promote cable locks as secure means of theft prevention since it gives you a false sense of security because thieves can carry cable cutters that easily snap it off. They encourage laptop registration which requires a $10 fee. CCB may sponsor another HUPD laptop registration visit in the future, but in the meantime, we need to make it a policy to keep doors locked at all times. Rotators: don't forget this applies to you too. If you have concerns about the issue, please bring it up at the next group meeting. Regards, Anna Anna B. Shin Laboratory Administrator | Aspuru-Guzik Research Group Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology | Harvard University 12 Oxford Street | Cambridge, MA 02138 617.496.9964 office | 617.694.9879 cell | 617.496.9411 fax http://aspuru.chem.harvard.edu/ <https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ui=2&ik=e7480c62f0&view=att&th=12eee19970…>

12 years, 4 months

[Aspuru-Guzik group list] [qip] this Friday - topological reading group

by Cedric Yen-Yu Lin

Hi all, Chris will tell us about the Kitaev honeycomb model (or anything else he wants) this Friday at 4pm. See you there! Cheers, Cedric _______________________________________________ qip mailing list qip(a)mit.edu http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/qip

12 years, 4 months

[Aspuru-Guzik group list] [Aspuru-meetings-list] HUCE Weekly Calendar Email December 8 - 22

by Center for the Environment

Highlights: December 8: Attend Harvard Thinks Green tonight to discover green ideas from six all-star environmental faculty: Eric Chivian, Rebecca Henderson, Robert Kaplan, Richard Lazarus, James McCarthy, and Christoph Reinhart. December 8: Interested in an environmental career? Stop by the Green Jobs Networking event tonight to mix and mingle with practitioners in the field. December 13: Peter Del Tredici, Senior Research Scientist at the Arnold Arboretum, will give an in-depth look at the Ginkgo biloba tree during his Arnold Arboretum lecture, “Ginkgo: A Fresh Look at a Living Fossil.” Calendar Listings: December 8, 2011 5:00pm Harvard Thinks Green Sanders Theatre, 45 Quincy Street, Cambridge Join 6 all-star environmental faculty as they present 6 big green ideas. http://green.harvard.edu/thinksgreen 6:00pm MSI Seminar HUCE Seminar Room, 24 Oxford Street 3rd Floor, Cambridge “Dinosaurs, Martians and Mammals: Nihilistic thoughts on the origin of virulence” with Arturo Casadevall, Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Please join us for a wine and cheese reception at 5:30 pm. Host: Anne Pringle 6:30pm MIT Clean Energy Prize Info Session & Networking Opportunity Maxwell Dworkin 119, 33 Oxford Street, Cambridge Want to shape our energy future through entrepreneurship? Interested in winning $200,000? Come learn about the MIT Clean Energy Prize. Contact Name: http://cep.mit.edu/ 6:30pm Green Jobs Networking Event Phillips Brooks House Parlor, Harvard Yard, Cambridge Seniors, come to a Green Jobs Networking Reception and mix and mingle with practitioners in the sector! https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dGJBb3lSSGdzRHRtRC1FTW…... Contact Name: Medha Gargeya mgargeya(a)college.harvard.edu December 9, 2011 9:00am - 12:30pm New England Electricity Restructuring Roundtable Foley Hoag LLP, 155 Seaport Boulevard, 13th Floor, Boston "Renewable Energy-Related Transmission for New Englanders" Our 126th New England Electric Restructuring Roundtable focuses on renewable energy-related transmission for New Englanders. We will explore numerous, very current, renewable energy-related transmission studies and proposed projects. Contact Name: Susan Rivo susan(a)raabassociates.org December 12, 2011 12:00pm MCZ Lunchtime Seminar MCZ 101 Seminar Room, 26 Oxford Street, Cambridge "GC structure in reptile genomes" with Matthew Fujita, Postdoctoral Researcher, Ornithology, Edwards Lab. Feel free to bring your lunch! Beverages and snacks will be provided. 12:00pm HEB Colloquium Series Biological Labs Lecture Hall, 16 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge Tenure-Track Faculty Search in Human Evolutionary Genetics and Genomics. A Presentation by: Courtney Babbitt, Institute for Genome Sciences & Policy, Duke University. "The impact of gene regulation in primate and human evolution." Contact Name: Laura Christoffels 617-496-1193 12:15pm OEB Seminar Weld Hill Lecture Hall, Arnold Arboretum, 1300 Centre Street, Boston "Floral symmetry genes and the evolution of a plant pollinator mutualism" with Wenheng Zhang, Harvard University, Davis Lab 4:00pm EPS Colloquium Haller Hall, 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge "Understanding shear of fluid-filled Granular Media: Implications to faults, landslides, and soil liquefaction" with Einat Aharonov, Hebrew University. Hosted by Jim Rice. Contact Name: Sabinna Cappo scappo(a)fas.harvard.edu December 13, 2011 11:00am California Energy Commission Web Conference Online Conference This web conference will examine findings from a recent research project funded by the California Energy Commission’s (CEC’s) Public Interest Energy Research (PIER) program on the advancement of rooftop unit (RTU) performance. http://www.esource.com/ES-PR-PIER-12-11/Press_Release/PIER Contact Name: Jenny Field jenny_field(a)esource.com 7:00pm - 8:30pm Ginkgo: A Fresh Look at a Living Fossil Weld Hill Research Building, 1300 Centre Street, Boston Join Peter Del Tredici, Senior Research Scientist at the Arnold Arboretum, for an in-depth look at the Ginkgo biloba, one of the oldest and most fascinating trees on the planet. http://my.arboretum.harvard.edu Contact Name: pam_thompson(a)harvard.edu December 15, 2011 4:00pm - 5:30pm BU Pardee Distinguished Lecture Florence and Chafetz Hillel House, 213 Bay State Road, Boston University, Boston Featuring Dr. William R. Jobin, Founder of Blue Nile Associates and an expert in the prevention and control of malaria and other tropical diseases. RSVP to pardee(a)bu.edu by Friday, December 9 to reserve a seat. http://www.bu.edu/pardee/2011/11/21/william-r-jobin-distinguished-lecture/ Contact Name: Elaine Teng eyteng(a)bu.edu -- 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. <a href="http://us1.campaign-archive1.com/?u=7532d1fbf18f39219ac742ebe&id=0e3c370c38…" title="Like HUCE Weekly Calendar Email December 8 - 22 on Facebook" rel="fblikebtn"><img src="http://cdn-images.mailchimp.com/fb/like.gif" border="0" alt="Like HUCE Weekly Calendar Email December 8 - 22 on Facebook" height="20" width="48" style="display:inline;"/></a> Become a Fan of HUCE on Facebook! You are receiving this email because you indicated interest in Harvard University Center for the Environment events. [30]Unsubscribe aspuru-meetings-list(a)lists.fas.harvard.edu from this list. Links: 30. 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. _______________________________________________ Aspuru-meetings-list mailing list Aspuru-meetings-list(a)lists.fas.harvard.edu https://lists.fas.harvard.edu/mailman/listinfo/aspuru-meetings-list

12 years, 4 months

[Aspuru-Guzik group list] SEMINAR: Center for Excitonics , Tues. Dec 13, 3 pm, 34-401A

by Cathy Bourgeois

Please post and forward to your groups (please note seminar location) Center for Excitonics Seminar Series Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2011 3:00 PM - 4:00 PM EECS CONFERENCE ROOM: 34-401A "Singlet Exciton Fission in Polyacenes: Photophysics and Photovoltaic Applications" Mark Wilson, Optoelectronics Group, University of Cambridge abstract The development of novel technologies for harvesting solar energy is a major contemporary research effort in the physical sciences. However, the efficiency of any single-bandgap photovoltaic device under solar irradiation has a fundamental limit because sub-bandgap photons are not absorbed and the excess energy of super-bandgap photons is wasted as heat. An attractive method to circumvent this limit is to sensitize a 'red-absorbing' solar cell with a 'blue-absorbing' material which generates multiple electron-hole pairs. This is possible in some organic semiconductors via 'singlet fission', where a spin-singlet bound electron-hole pair (exciton) 'splits' to form two triplet excitons, each with roughly half of the singlet energy. Although singlet fission has been historically observed in molecular crystals, we recently used transient absorption spectroscopy to demonstrate that it occurs rapidly (~70 fs) and efficiently (>85%) in easily-fabricated evaporated films of pentacene and that fission-generated triplet excitons undergo long-range diffusion (>40nm) and are dissociated at a pentacene/C60 heterointerface. These results are consistent with reported photon-to-electron quantum efficiencies that exceed 100% and have led us to fabricate a proof-of-concept photovoltaic device where an evaporated pentacene film absorbs visible light and generates pairs of triplets via fission, while a second layer of inorganic colloidal quantum dots generates charge from transferred triplets as well as directly-absorbed infrared photons. Further transient absorption measurements address the mechanism of exciton fission, as questions remain as to whether singlet fission is also rapid and efficient larger-bandgap acenes and whether fission is mediated by a 'dark' (one-photon inaccessible) multiexcitonic state. Bio Hailing from Port Colborne, Canada, Mark received a B.A. (History) (2008), and a B.Sc. (2006) and M.Sc. (2008) in Engineering Physics from Queen's University, Kingston. Working with Prof. James Fraser, his thesis concerned the ultrafast dynamics of photoluminescence from individual, air-suspended, single-walled carbon nanotubes. He is presently working towards a Ph.D. in Physics under the supervision of Sir Richard Friend at the University of Cambridge's Cavendish Laboratory. 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 Light refreshments will be served

12 years, 4 months

[Aspuru-Guzik group list] visitor Normand Modine

by Stopa, Michael

Hi Everyone, Normand Modine, a Kaxiras group alumnus and computational researcher at Sandia Laboratories, is visiting today and tomorrow (and for part of Wednesday). I will bring him to the A-G group meeting today. Anyone wanting to talk with him, please contact then or send me an email. Thanks, Mike

12 years, 5 months

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aspuru-list December 2011