Molecular

Beams

& Dynamics

Group

Chairman Mike Ashfold (1999)

Secretary Ben Whitaker (2000)

Treasurer Hugh Rieley (1998)

Members

Ken McKendrick (2000)

Katharine Reid (1999)

Ian Sims (2000)

Wim van der Zande (1999)

More astute members will long have appreciated that the real ‘power’ within the Group (such that there is!) lies with the Secretary, not the Chairman. Obviously, the health, vigour and effectiveness of any Subject Group ultimately depends on the participation of its entire membership, but the Secretary plays the key role in initiating deliberations about future meetings, and then translating any vague wishes emanating from the Chairman and the remainder of the Committee into a firm reality. In this regard the MBDG has been extremely fortunate to have had a succession of outstanding and conscientious Secretaries, among which the current incumbent, Ben Whitaker, must rank with the very best. The MBDG is indeed fortunate that Ben kindly agreed to carry on for a second (and I am told, definitely, a final!) three year term as Secretary at the AGM held at the Nottingham meeting last July. Many Group members will know that Hugh Rieley, the current Group Treasurer, recently resigned his position at the University of Liverpool in favour of new challenges with Unilever. On behalf of the entire MBDG membership I say ‘Good Luck’ Hugh, and thanks for your sterling efforts on behalf of the Group. Electing a new Treasurer will be one of the more important tasks at the next AGM.

This year sees something of a precedent, in that Ben has chosen to exert a little of his ‘power’ and told me to help with the writing of the Annual Newsletter. One of the highlights of the past year must be David Clary's election as a Fellow of the Royal Society. Accolades do not come much higher than this, and David has, most deservedly, attained this pinnacle at an unusually young age. Congratulations David, from all MBDG members.

The 1997 meeting of the MBDG took place at the University of Nottingham, with June McCombie as local organiser. Suffice to say here that it was very successful meeting, and much enjoyed by those who attended. Many Group members met up again at the very stimulating Faraday Discussion (No. 108), held at the University of Sussex just before Christmas. Fuller accounts of both meetings may be found later in this Newsletter.

This year the MBDG is ‘on the road’ once more; the Third European Meeting of the Molecular Beams and Dynamics Group will be held in Lunteren, Netherlands on 2-4 September 1998. Further details of this meeting can also be found elsewhere in this Newsletter. Wim van der Zande is the local organiser of this meeting, and determined to ensure that it matches up to its predecessors in Paris (1993) and Kaiserslautern (1995). At this point you may like to note one other date in your diaries - 5-7 July 1999. These are the days allocated for Faraday Discussion No. 113, proposed by the MBDG, to be held at Bretton Hall, University of Leeds on the topic of ‘Stereochemistry and Control in Chemical Reaction Dynamics’. Faraday Discussions have a long and glorious tradition, and one that should be guarded jealously. Rightly, the focus is on the topic of the Discussion, not on any individual. Nonetheless, few will fail to spot the synchronicity of Discussion No 113 and the 65th birthday of Professor J.P. Simons - a longstanding stalwart of the MBDG and many other aspects of the Faraday Division and the Royal Society of Chemistry. What better way not to honour the individual than to have a meeting on a theme close to his heart at which all of his friends are welcome? We look forward to seeing as many MBDG members as possible at both meetings.

Despite what the Chairman says your Secretary is probably amongst the most unorganised and inefficient that the Group has ever elected and I cannot understand why I have been selected for another term. My office and filing system are so chaotic that whatever notes (if any) I made of the 1997 AGM appear to be lost forever, and the following has had to be constructed from memory and a few frantic phone calls to others on the Committee marginally more organised than me !

I do, however, remember that the 1997 AGM was preceded by the 7^th Annual Northern Universities’ Meeting on Chemical Physics, ANUMOCP 7. Once better known as the annual acronym contest ANUMOCP now seems to be a firmly established meeting in the calendar. It is supported by the MBDG and the Chemical Physics group of the IoP and despite its name attracts an audience from all parts of the country. Last year it was held in Nottingham and admirably organised by June McCombie. The meeting attracted about 50 young (and some not so young) dynamists and chemical physicists. The opening session concentrated on surface science with presentations by Mark Ainsworth (Nottingham) and P Milligan (Glasgow). After coffee the meeting moved on to high resolution spectroscopy with presentations from S.J. Pooley (Leicester), Tim Gibbon (Nottingham) and A.M. Little (Leicester). In the afternoon, following a copious sandwich lunch during which we also browsed a number of excellent posters, we heard presentations from Sarah Heaton (Birmingham), Caroline O’Connor (UCL, which is situated north of the River !), and Michél Pesa (Leeds) on collisional relaxation in C₂H₂, double ionisation processes and the CH + H₂O reaction, respectively. Tea was followed by a three talks on the Chemical Physics of larger molecules given by Matthew Hockridge (Oxford), Isabelle Lampre (Leeds) and Alisdair Bell. At the close of the meeting Chris Mayhew (Birmigham and Secretary of the IoP Chemical Physics Group) presented a prize of £ 50 for the best presentation of the meeting to Caroline O’Connor. Congratulations to Caroline, but also to all the contributors who showed that Chemical Physics in the UK was a vibrant and still young Science.

The 1997 Annual MBDG meeting was held the following day. Some 20 people stayed over night (excellently looked after by the staff at Cripps Hall) but the majority of the audience, about 60 people, came for the day. The morning was opened with an invited talk given by Gus Hancock, who told us about using a familiar technique, Doppler resolved spectroscopy, in a less familiar context, Plasmas. As always Gus got us off to a good start and the morning session saw presentations by Stephen Mohr (Manchester), Paul Sharkey (Birmingham) and Paul Jukes (Sussex). Stephen presented recent work from the Manchester group’s crossed-molecular beam scattering chamber on the reaction of fast ground state O atoms with CF₃I. Paul Sharkey told us about state selection using IR laser pumping and the reactivity and collision dynamics of vibrationally excited H₂O, while Paul Jukes gave an account of the elegant ion-neutral coincidence experiments currently being conducted at Sussex which probe the photodissociation dynamics of mass selected cluster ions.

The morning session was followed by lunch and a excellent al-fresco poster session (marred only by the arrival of a summer rain shower). The afternoon’s scientific session was piquantly opened by an invited talk from Steve Holloway who gave a colourful, multimedia, talk on the dissociation theory for small molecules at surfaces. The theme of dynamics at surfaces was then taken up by Malcolm Kadodwala (Glasgow) and Martin McCoustra (Nottingham).

It is always a great pleasure to welcome overseas visitors to our meetings and we were fortunate that Warren Lawrance (Flinders) was in the country (visiting Jeremy Frey in Southampton). Warren closed the session by describing recent experiments he has been doing in molecular beams to investigate energy transfer in large molecules at ultra low temperatures. This theme was returned to after tea when Ian Sims (Birmingham) gave us the latest results from the UK CRESU apparatus, particularly concentrating on RET and VET in NO at temperatures as low as 7K. Returning to dissociation and photoelectron dynamics the last session also included presentations from Martyn Wheeler (Bristol), who told us about the predissociation dynamics of SH and S₂ as studied by the cavity ring down technique, and Ivan Powis (Nottingham), who presented very elegant experiments on the photoelectron dynamics of oriented molecules.

Both days were a great success. As organisers we had worried about the wisdom of holding two essentially one day meetings back-to-back. In the event both meetings worked well and each attracted a relatively large audience, and was more successful than the Group’s previous practice of holding the annual meeting over two days. We hope to try a similar format in future years. The quality of the science and the clarity of the presentations from the younger members of our community is a great credit to the Subject Group and the overall discipline of Chemical Physics. This observation was emphasised during the AGM, which was held during the lunch break of the MBDG meeting. The principle item of business was the discussion of the Group’s submission to the Faraday Division’s response on Technology Foresight. The document that finally went forward was not dissimilar to that reproduced in the last Newsletter but as a result of the discussion at the AGM the pivotal role played by the Subject Group as an enabling science and in postgraduate training was stressed more. We look forward to the message being taken up in Whitehall and Swindon !

As is the tradition at our AGM the new committee needed to be elected. In 1997, Klaas Bergmann, David Hirst, and Ivan Powis all finished their terms of office as members of the Committee. We thank them all, but I am sure that the membership would particularly like to express its gratitude to Klaas for all the efforts he put in to make the 1995 meeting in Kaiserslautern the success that it was. Since Klaas is irreplaceable (and Wim van der Zande is our current overseas representative) it was only necessary to elect two members to the committee. Wide canvassing of the Group membership had by great good fortune previously brought forward two nominations; Ken McKendrick (Edinburgh) and Ian Sims (Birmingham). Both were unanimously elected. The secretary was also due to retire, and vainly tried to leave the meeting as nominations were called for. However, he could not escape and was unfortunately re-elected.

This year ANUMOCP will be hosted by the University of Manchester on 1 July 1998. As usual the meeting will be an informal affair and registration costs will be kept to an absolute minimum. The meeting is a seen as a forum where younger members of the community can get together and discuss their work. Contributions in any area of Chemical Physics are welcome. Presentations may be given either as short oral (15 minute) talks or posters.

For further details please contact:

MOLEC XII, The European Conference on Dynamics of Molecular Collisions, will be held this year at the, University of Bristol, 6-11 September 1998. Registration details and the full programme are available from the conference Web site: http://www.tlchm.bris.ac.uk/molec/molec.htm. For registration and payment received before 1st April 1998 the cost of the conference package is £375.

For further details contact

The MBDG suggested to Faraday Division that it would be timely to hold a Faraday Discussion on the subject of frequency and active phase control in chemical reaction dynamics. The 113^th Discussion is intended to bring together practitioners of ultrafast laser experiments, reaction dynamists, spectroscopists, molecular physicists and theoreticians working on applications of dynamical stereochemistry and control, with a view to defining the state-of-the-art as we move into the 21^st century, and outlining the immediate future prospects for this whole area of research. The meeting will be held in Bretton Hall, near Leeds, 5-7 July, 1999. Although this is still some time away the deadline for preliminary abstracts of contributions is rapidly approaching. Experimental and theoretical papers will be particularly welcome in the following areas: Frequency and time resolved studies of molecular photodissociation or photoinitated processes; Control of reactivity via collision energy, selective vibration of reagents, or reagent alignment; and Demonstrations of active or coherent control of chemical processes

Papers should be concerned with new, unpublished work. Titles and Abstracts of about 300 words should be submitted no later than 1 JUNE, 1998 to Dr BJ Whitaker, School of Chemistry, The University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK. e-mail: benw@chem.leeds.ac.uk

The Group membership has declined in recent years. The funds we get in from our Group Membership Fee are vital to the function of the Group and are used primarily to fund student bursaries and the costs of meetings. The 1998 MBDG meeting will be in Luntern, The Netherlands, so if you are thinking of applying for a travel bursary now might be a good time to join ! The aims of the Group and membership details are outlined below. A membership application form is also attached. Please pass it on to any of your colleagues or research students who you think might be interested in joining the MBDG (photocopied forms are acceptable!). If you are not a member of the RSC and consequently have not received a reminder please take this opportunity to renew your Group membership.

Members of the RSC can join the Molecular Beams & Dynamics Group for a fee of £ 3 by ticking the appropriate box on their RSC subscription form. Non-members of the RSC are also welcome to join the Group, and should fill in the form below, including payment of £ 7 (£ 5 for student members), and mail it to:

Cheques should be made payable to ‘The Royal Society of Chemistry’

I wish to [join/renew my membership of] the Molecular Beams & Dynamics Group

Name:

Address:

email:

Telephone:

Fax:

Personal URL:

I enclose a cheque for £

W.J. van der Zande (AMOLF, organiser), B.J. Whitaker (Leeds, organiser), M.N.R. Ashfold (Bristol), A.J. Orr-Ewing (Bristol), K.L. Reid (Nottingham), Klaas Bergmann (Kaiserslautern), Dave Parker (Nijmegen), M. Vrakking (AMOLF)

AIM OF MEETING

A particular aim of the meeting is to provide a forum for graduate students and postdoctoral researchers (as well as more senior scientists) to meet, learn, exchange knowledge, present results and establish new contacts, in an informal environment. The format of the meeting will be similar to that of the previous European meetings of the Molecular Beams and Dynamics Group in Orsay (1992) and Kaiserslautern (1995), with a strong emphasis on interactions between the participants and contributions from graduate students.

The scientific programme, which will run from 18.00 hours on Wednesday 2 September until 18.00 hours on Friday 4 September, is intended to cover all aspects of molecular structure and molecular dynamics in the gas phase, at interfaces and in liquids. Sessions will be opened by an overview lecture from a distinguished scientist, who will concentrate on unresolved issues in the field. Short presentations will be selected from contributions from younger scientists, among which a few ‘hot topics’ will be chosen for a longer contribution. Poster sessions will be scheduled for additional presentations. It is hoped that all participants will want to present some work. Discussion will be encouraged explicitly by dividing the allocated time to presentation and discussion in nearly equal shares.

The following speakers have agreed to come:

Dr. A.J.Orr-Ewing (Bristol)

Professor D. Parker (Nijmegen)

Professor J. Vigue (Toulouse)

Professor L. Wöste (Berlin)

HOW TO APPLY

The meeting format and anticipated spirit of the conference, as well as the available facilities, limits the number of participants to 100. Early application is thus recommended.

The application should include:

A tentative title of the anticipated contribution dealing with a research topic within the general scope of the meeting. Please indicate a preference for oral/poster. (A one page -camera ready- abstract is due 1 July 1998).

• Your postal address
• Your e-mail address
• A fax number (if available)

If you are applying for a travel bursary you must also include a brief supporting statement from your supervisor.

Send your application to

TRAVEL:

Lunteren is situated near the geographic Centre of the Netherlands. From the small train station of Lunteren a 15 minute walk remains. The conference venue is situated in a forestry area. The travel time by train from major train stations in the Netherlands such as Schiphol, Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Nijmegen is roughly 1.5 hours. ‘De Blije Werelt’ can be found on the net at URL http://www.blijewerelt.nl/ with detailed information on location and travel.

ACCOMODATION AND REGISTRATION:

A fee of DFl. 300 will apply all participants to cover the cost of the book of abstracts, full room and board for two days. Fee must be paid upon registration on the conference. The conference starts with a diner on Wednesday September 2 and ends before Diner on September 4.

TRAVEL SUPPORT:

It is expected that most participants will cover their expenses from funds provided by their institutions. However, young scientists from the U.K. may apply for partial support from funds made available by the British Council in the Netherlands and the Faraday Council. Interested and eligible candidates should contact Dr. B.J. Whitaker, Secretary of the MBDG, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, U.K. by post, fax (44 113 233 6565) or, preferably, by e-mail (benw@chem.leeds.ac.uk).

THE SECOND ANNOUNCEMENT:

The second announcement which will contain the final program, will be sent out in early August to all those who have applied. Applicants will be notified regarding the decision of the advisory committee concerning acceptance in the oral or poster program by email as soon as possible.

MBDG Conference Secretariat

Mrs. M. Speijers, Prof. W.J. van der Zande

Molecule and Laser Physics Group

University Nijmegen

PO Box: 9010

NL – 6500 GL Nijmegen

The Netherlands

email: Magdas@sci.kun.nl

DATES AND DEADLINES:

A second announcement will be sent out in early August 1998