Dear Colleague, This is a call for contributions to the following focused symposium at the next APS March Meeting. The meeting will take place on *March 16-20, 2009 in Pittsburgh, PA. Please forward to other interested colleagues. *We look forward to an exciting symposium. *The chemical physics of biological and biologically-inspired solar energy harvesting* *Alan Aspuru-Guzik* (Harvard University), *Gregory Engel* (University of Chicago), co-organizers Every day, 5x1021 J of energy from the sun reaches the Earth's surface. By 2040, anthropogenic energy consumption will have doubled requiring 2x1018 J of energy for daily use. Therefore, given the abundance of untapped energy, scalable, economical solar energy harvesting is an attractive alternative energy source. The vast majority of the energy available to living organisms in the food chain emanates from photosynthesis. The mechanisms that photosynthetic organisms employ for light energy harvesting differ from those of solid-state inorganic devices both in their organization and in the degree of excitonic localization. Electronic excitations in solid state inorganic devices are delocalized and separated charge carriers are transported long distances; therefore these materials require a high degree of order. In contrast, natural light-harvesting antennas are organized at smaller length scales and employ more localized excitons; these excitons are then transported prior to charge separation. For the development of artificial light-harvesting devices, a fundamental understanding of the excitonic transport process is crucial for the development of novel nanostructured and organic photovoltaic materials. In this symposium, we seek to identify design principles of natural light harvesting systems and lay the foundation for the next generation of artificial light harvesting devices. Topics such as the role of coherence in excitonic energy transfer, excitonic diffusion, charge separation, and carrier recombination in both artificial and natural light-harvesting systems will be discussed. Speakers: *Marc A. Baldo*, Massachusetts Institute of Technology *Tessa Calhoun*, University of California, Berkeley *Shaul Mukamel*, University of California, Irvine *Gregory D. Scholes*, University of Toronto *Robert J. Silbey*, Massachusetts Institute of Technology *Leonas Valkūnas*, Vilnus University, Lithuania *Alan Aspuru-Guzik*, Harvard University The meeting will be held: *March 16-20, 2009 Pittsburgh, PA* For contributing your paper, follow the link below: http://www.aps.org/meetings/march/index.cfm *The deadline for receipt of abstracts is Friday, November 21, 2008, at 5:00 p.m. EST (2:00pm PST).* -- Alán Aspuru-Guzik | Assistant 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