Dear group members,
This is Solvay update 2.
Perhaps the most memorable conference I have been has been this Solvay
conference. It was a great experience and there was a lot of comradely. I
learned a lot about many things and had the opportunity of meeting closely
many people. For example, the group had had impressions that Ronnie Kosloff
was critical of us: On the other hand, he was explaining quantum process
tomography at lunch to Ratner. Akihito Ishizaki is anxious and wants to
learn more about the Stochastic Schrodinger Equation, and Graham Fleming was
asking about molecular dynamics. People agreed that our measure of
contributions is basis-independent and therefore has an intrinsic advantage.
So overall, I think we did well as a group and I did well presenting our
ideas. I tried to thank you publicly and also thank you over e-mail because
without you I could not have been here :)
So the report for those that helped me do slides at the last minute: Your
efforts were worth: There was stimulating discussion on all three subjects.
There were some technical questions that I learned how to EXPLAIN better (I
answered correctly but found new ways of explaining) that I will tell you
guys in person. Scientifically, no surprises, most people were reviewing
their work.
The final challenge (and only one) that Graham Fleming posed to all of us,
is to find out how quantum information theory can help understand
photosynthesis (for the theoreticians) and how experimentalists can do
better experiments to extract more information (e.g. vibrational modes).
I attach the Solvay picture :) I got to be behind Rudy Marcus, which is
great. Next to my amigo Keith Nelson and Mino Cho.
I come back with more energy and excited to be working with you all!
Best,
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