VthInternational Conference on
Solar Energy and Applied Photochemistry [SOLAR ‘99] Cairo, Egypt
March 30 - April 4, 1999
EPA NEWSLETTER
NO. 67, NOVEMBER 1999, PAGES 11 - 13
This conference was the fifth in a series of highly successful biennial conferences taking place in a country which makes admirable efforts to keep up to date with the progress in all aspects of photochemistry (a discipline recognized to be both appropriate and vital for a sun-blessed country), to bring world authorities from various fields to Egypt and to educate in this way the country’s own scientists.
At the same time, young Egyptian photochemists are given the chance to present their projects without the need of travel abroad.
Cairo is the predestined place to hold these meetings, since this city houses four universities and one of these, Ain Shams University, has built up a photoenergy center dedicated to research in photosciences and phototechnology.
The conference and the associated 2nd International Training Workshop on Environmental Photochemistry [ENPHO ‘99] under the auspices of M. Shehab, Professor and Minister of High Education and Scientific Research and Technology, and with H. A. Ghallab (President of Ain Shams University) and M. A. Tag El-Din (Vice President of the same University) as Honorary Presidents had been masterly organized by Sabry Abdel Mottaleb, Director of the Photoenergy Center, and were sponsored by Ain Shams University, the Ministry of High Education and Scientific Research of the Arab Republic of Egypt and by ICS (UNIDO). The conference venue was the Heliopolis Sonesta Hotel this time.
In the opening session M. A. Tag El-Din, M. Bolte, D. Döpp, and Sabry Abdel-Mottaleb extended a warm welcome to the 250 participants, among them 138 from Europe, North and South America, Asia and Africa and some 112 from Egypt, and expressed their views on present and future scientific cooperation.
The program offered 16 plenary and 31 invited lectures (in parallel sessions) and over 90 posters.
Plenary lectures were given by F. Barigelletti (Bologna) „Photoactive Rod-Like Multicomponent Arrays", G. M. J. Beijersbergen van Henegouwen (Leiden) „Medicinal Photochemistry: Systemic Effects of Phototoxic Drugs", M. Bolte (Aubière) „Degradation of Organic and Organometallic Pollutants Photoinduced by Iron (III) in Aqueous Solution", F. Bordin (Padova) „Photochemical and Photobiological Properties of Furocoumarins and Homologous Drugs", D. Döpp (Duisburg) „Efficient Electron Transfer Mediated Phototransformations of Nitroarenes and Electron Poor Nitrogen Heterocycles", M. S. El-Shall (Richmond, VA) „Prospects of Nanoparticles and Nanotechnology", E. Fasani (Pavia) „Light and Drugs: The Photochemistry of Fluoroquinolone Antibiotics", D. Fassler (Jena) „Photocatalytic Processes of Azo Dyes on TiO2-Nanoparticles: Fundamentals and Applications, A. Hermetter (Graz) „Fluorescence Monitoring of Free Radical Induced Damage to Lipid Molecules in Supramolecular Biosystems and Inhibition of These Processes by Antioxidants", M. R. Hoffmann (Pasadena) „Development and Application of a Solar-Driven Semiconductor Fiber Optic Cable Reactor for Water and Wastewater Purification", L. B.-A. Johansson (Umeå ) „Donor-Donor Energy Migration as a Tool of Exploring Structure-Function of Proteins", K. Schaffner (Mülheim) „Biomimetric Self Assembly of Artificial Light-Harvesting Antennae", R. Srinivasan (Ossining, NY) „Ultraviolet Laser Ablation of Polymers and Tissue - Recent Developments", J. Wirz (Basel) „Design and Mechanistic Studies of Photoactivatable Trigger Molecules for the Generation of Biologically Active Molecules", D. Wöhrle (Bremen) „Organic Photovoltaic Cells. A perspective Way for Solar Energy Conversion?", O. S. Wolfbeis (Regensburg) „Luminescence Decay - Time-Based Chemical Sensors for Clinical and Environmental Applications".
Invited lectures from various fields of the photosciences had been presented by F. Al-Anwar (Giza), R. B. Bergmann (Stuttgart), C. A. Bignozzi (Ferrara), P. Boule (Aubière), J. Boxhammer, Chr. Bräuchle (Munich), J. Cadet (Grenoble), A. M. Crouch (Bellville, South Africa), G. DeGuidi (Catania), A. Douhal (Toledo), D. Gebeyehu (Linz), C. Giannotti (Gif), G. G. Gurzhadayan (Yerevan), Ch. Itoh (Nagoya), K. Kilså (Göteborg), A. I. Kokorin (Moscow), E. P. Koval’chuk (L’viv), S. Nespurek (Prague), H. Ogino (Sendai), K. Ogino (Sendai), H. Scheer (Munich), A. J. Schindelin (Karlsruhe), C.A.M. Seidel (Göttingen), Z. Stasicka (Krakow), E. Susi (Bologna), A. C. Testa (Jamaica, N. Y.), E. Thiel (Siegen), T. Vidoczy (Budapest), M. D. Ward (Bristol), D. Wöhrle (Bremen), K. A. Zacchariasse (Göttingen). All scientific presentations together resembled the enormous importance of the photosciences for the advancement of fundamental science on one hand and for providing highly useful applications on the other.
About 90 posters were presented in three sessions, with strong representation of contributions from the host country including a fair number of papers which presented cooperative efforts of International and Egyptian research groups.
The conference proceedings have meanwhile in part been published as a special issue of the International Journal of Photoenergy (Publisher: EPHOUSE.COM) and are accessible via the Photoenergy Center’s website, http://www.photoenergy.org. Downloading of any article of interest is encouraged.
The hospitality we all received was outstanding, and many fruitful contacts could be made. The undersigned especially enjoys meeting and disussing with colleagues and former students from Egypt. A visit to the Egyptian Museum with its enormously rich collections is a must at least for every participant coming for the first time as is a guided tour to the pyramids and the sphinx, stimulating the „appetite" for more antiquities and historical sites. This unique blend of good science and contacts with a remarkable culture will certainly continue contributing to the attractiveness of these meetings. Thus we should wish Sabry Abdel Mottaleb a good hand and good luck in the organization of such meetings in the future and all success for the Photoenergy Center.
Dietrich Döpp
Organische Chemie, Gerhard-Mercator-Universität Duisburg
D-47048 Duisburg, Germany
email: doepp@uni-duisburg.de
