The 4th Workshop “Advanced Materials“, organized within the H2020 project Materials Networking, took place from the 21st to 25th of July, 2019 at Astor Garden hotel, Sts. Konstantin and Helena resort, Bulgaria.
The Workshop was attended by scientists from all four partnering organizations of the project, namely Faculty of Chemistry and Pharmacy, Sofia University, Bulgaria, Coordinator of the project, University of Cambridge, UK, Max Plank Institute for Polymer Research, Mainz, Germany and the Faculty of Chemistry, University of Barcelona, Spain.
The research topics that were covered within the Workshop programme were within a broad range of advanced materials related scientific fields, including materials with applications in catalysis, energy, environment, medicine, etc.
The meeting was officially opened by Ms. Milena Damyanova, Director of the Science Directorate of the Ministry of Education and Science, who emphasized the high level of the scientific forum as well as the successful participation of Bulgarian scientists in programs funded by Horizon 2020.
The 1st plenary lecture was given by Prof. Lindsey Greer, Head of the School of Physical Sciences and Professor of Materials Science from Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy (DMSM). Prof. Greer is the author of two books, 10 book chapters and more than 350 scientific papers, cited more than 19 000 times. Prof. Greer has been awarded the Pilkington Teaching Prize of the University of Cambridge, the Light Metals and Cast Shop Technology Awards of the Minerals, Metals & Materials Society (TMS), USA, the Hume Rothery Prize for exceptional scholarly contributions to the science of alloys, etc.
The other plenary lecturer was Prof. Pere Alemany i Cahner from the Departament de Ciència de Materials i Quimica Fisica & Institut de Química Teòrica i Computacional, University of Barcelona. Prof. Pere Alemany i Cahner is presently full professor in Physical Chemistry and he is also the leader of the Electronic Structure and Symmetry Group at University of Barcelona. His research interests are mainly centered in the use of DFT-based methods to study the electronic structure of inorganic solids and its relation to electrical transport and magnetic properties as well as in the development and application of continuous symmetry measures to problems in structural chemistry.
Group photo of all participants at the 4th Workshop on Advanced Materials, organized within H2020 Materials Networking project
Keynote lecturers of the 4th Workshop on Advanced Materials were Prof. Vasant Kumar, Head of Materials Chemistry Group, Professor in Materials Chemistry in DMSM and Director of studies and Tutor of Trinity Hall, Professor Ruth Cameron, Professor of Materials Science and joint Director of Cambridge Centre for Medical Materials, Professor Zoe Barber, Professor of Materials Science and member of the Device Materials Group, Prof. Chris Pickard, Sir Alan Cottrell Professor of Materials Science, DMSM, Dr. Kaloian Koynov, Group leader, Physics of Interfaces, MPI-P, Dr. Stanislav Balouchev, Group Leader, Photophysical Chemistry, MPI-P, Prof. Jordi Cirera and Dr. Albert Figuerola from the University of Barcelona, etc.
On the 23rd of July, the Steering Committee (SC) of the project had a meeting at which the project progress and achievement of the project goals and targets were be discussed. All SC members have declared the excellent results that the Faculty of Chemistry and Pharmacy, University of Sofia has attained during the project lifetime, thankfully to the project activities as well as that the project finishes with a great success.
More information about the Workshop, its program and books of abstracts could be found at the project website www.materialsnetworking.eu as well as at the project Facebook page – Materials Networling.
“Materials Networking” project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 692146.