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Laura and the Gagliardi group gave several talks at the ACS 253rd National Meeting and Exposition.

As part of The American Chemical Society (ACS) 253rd National Meeting & Exposition on Advanced Materials, Technologies, Systems & Processes, April 2-6, 2017, in San Francisco, there was a Women in COMP breakfast on Tuesday, April 4. This was a mentorship opportunity for female postdoctoral scholars. In addition to this special program, Laura and Gagliardi group postdoc Jing Xie gave several talks at ACS.

Laura gave the MARVEL NCCR Distinguished Lecture at EPFL.

On December 20, Laura  gave the MARVEL NCCR Distinguished Lecture at EPFL (École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne) in Lausanne, Switzerland. The lecture was on “Homogenous and heterogeneous catalysis: two challenges for modern quantum chemistry.” You can listen to and watch the lecture here.

The Inorganometallic Catalyst Design Center (ICDC), a Department of Energy-sponsored Energy Frontier Research Center (EFRC), held its annual All-Hands Meeting at The Saint Paul Hotel on August 15 and 16.

In addition, Prof. Ian Tonks of the University of Minnesota, a recently added principal investigator within the ICDC, gave a workshop on Reaction Mechanisms immediately following the All-Hands Meeting. Laura is the Director of the ICDC. Several members of the Gagliardi group, along with many postdocs and graduate students at the University, are members of the multi-institution ICDC.

A theoretical study was recently performed by Gagliardi group postdoc and Inorganometallic Catalyst Design Center (ICDC) scientific coordinator Varinia Bernales, within a collaboration of the members of the ICDC, on the NU-1000 metal-organic framework (MOF).

This study resulted in a major achievement – the discovery that the adsorption processes of glucose and cellobiose on the NU-1000 MOF occur at the hydrophobic sites. Until now, only enzymes have demonstrated the ability to selectively bond the β-linked dimer of glucose (cellobiose), while completely rejecting the bonding of glucose itself. Great work, Varinia!