An international scientific symposium with the participation of the world's greatest scientists, including Nobel laureates, will be held from June 15 to June 17, at Tel Aviv University on the occasion of the 70th birthday of Professor Yehoshua Yortner, recognized as one of the greatest scientists in Israel and the world
Tel Aviv University will hold an international scientific symposium on the occasion of Professor Yehoshua Yurtner's 70th birthday from June 15 to June 17.
Prof. Yurtner is recognized as one of the greatest scientists in Israel and the world. His research in the field of physical chemistry greatly influenced the development of chemical research in the second half of the twentieth century. His work was recognized by the important awards he received, including the Israel Prize for Chemistry and the Wolf Prize, honorary doctorate degrees he received from a number of universities in the world and also as an honorary member of a number of national academies of sciences (in addition to his membership in the Israeli Academy), among them the academies of the USA and Russia. He served as president of the National Academy of Sciences in Israel and as president of the International Organization for Chemistry, IUPAC, and contributed greatly to shaping the face of scientific research in Israel and around the world.
Among Prof. Yurtner's important contributions that left a significant mark on the understanding of the principles of chemical dynamics today, it is worth mentioning his research on the accumulation and utilization of energy in chemical reactions, his works on the nature and properties of molecular aggregates (nanoparticles composed of several atoms or molecules and which bridge, in terms of their chemical nature, properties the single molecule and between the properties of the solid crystal), and his work in applying the principles of physical chemistry to understanding biological processes.
The nature of scientific research is that the most innovative works rest on the foundation of basic studies that preceded them. Important works that follow from the "hottest" areas in today's chemical research (for example, Prof. Louis Bruce's lecture from Columbia University on the spectroscopy of single molecules, Eran Rabani's lecture - from the juniors of the School of Chemistry at Tel Aviv University - on nanoparticles and nano -pumps, and Prof. Mark Ratner's lecture from Northwestern University on molecular conductors) represent the close connection between modern chemistry and the world of nanotechnology, but their conceptual origin is found in the earlier works of Yurtner, Marcus and Hoffman.
A number of well-known scientists, for example Professor Catherine Brezhniak, former head of the French National Research Institute CNRS, who will lecture on "Disintegration in the nanoscales" and Prof. Paul Barbara from the University of Texas who will lecture on "Spectroscopy and Dynamics of Nanoparticles" will review their research based on Prof. Yurtner's pioneering works.
Above all, the symposium in honor of Prof. Yehoshua Yurtner is a gathering of friends. Scientific research is fundamentally an adventure driven by the desire to understand and the desire to know. The international group of scientists researching a certain field develops within it personal relationships that go beyond the mere exchange of scientific opinions. The conference on the occasion of Prof. Yurtner's seventieth birthday is also, and perhaps above all, an opportunity to note again the human connection between friends in an intellectual way.
The symposium held in Prof. Yurtner's honor is intended to mark his scientific activity through a series of lectures given by the best scientists in the field of physical chemistry in the world, and the research that will be presented is a cross-section of the development of research in physical chemistry in our generation. For example, one of the lecturers, Prof. Rudolph Marcus from the California Institute of Technology, is a 1992 Nobel Prize laureate, which he received thanks to the breakthrough he achieved in his research on electron transfer processes - processes that are at the foundation of the most basic phenomena of chemistry. This work served as a basis for later work in the field of photosynthesis (the lecture of Prof. Graham Fleming from Berkeley University) and in the field of molecular electronics (the lecture of Prof. Mark Ratner from Northwestern University).
The work of another lecturer, Prof. Roald Hoffmann of Cornell University, winner of the 1981 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his basic research on chemical reaction mechanisms, inspired later work that clarified the course of important chemical reactions, for example the lecture by Prof. Martin Kwok of the Swiss Institute of Science on Applying the principles of symmetry theory to understand mechanisms of chemical reactions. At this conference, Prof. Hoffman also represents a rarer aspect of academic practice: he is also famous for the plays and poetry books he published.
The Yurtner Symposium is organized by three of Professor Yurtner's former students who are now leading faculty members at the School of Chemistry at Tel Aviv University. Professor Uri Cheshnovsky is now the head of the School of Chemistry. His scientific research deals with the properties of particles-nanoclusters of atoms or molecules whose physical and chemical properties change with the size of the particle. An important aspect of Professor Cheshnovsky's research was the first direct observation of a transition from the properties of a molecule to the properties of a metal as a particle of mercury atoms gradually grew.
Professor Yossi Klifter is today the director of the National Foundation for Basic Research. His research is in the field of nanotribology, a field where lubrication and softening phenomena are studied at a molecular level.
Professor Avraham Nitzan was previously head of the School of Chemistry and dean of the Faculty of Exact Sciences. His scientific research is in the field of molecular electronics - research that deals with the electrical properties of molecules and the possibility of using them as components in nanotechnological devices.
Alongside the local organizing committee are two old friends of Professor Yurtner from the University of Chicago, Professors Stuart Rice and Steve Berry. Both are well-known scientists and members of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America and both have strong and long-standing ties to Israeli science.
