NJC Blog

Clockwise from upper left: Place Royale, St Louis gate, Chateau Frontignac, old city signs, statue of S Champlain, St Louis street. (Photos by D Parent.)

After the wilderness of Georgian Bay, I was off to discover the old world charm of Quebec City, host of the 96th Canadian Chemistry Conference.

NJC sponsored two of the symposia included in the programming:
— “Novel Aromatic Compounds: Molecular Materials and Devices” organised by Graham Bodwell and Yuming Zhao (both at Memorial University of Newfoundland)
— “Recent Developments in Pincer Chemistry and Multidentate Ligands” organised by Davit Zargarian (University of Montreal), Hairong Guan (University of Cincinnati ) and Dmitiri Gousev (Wilfrid Laurier University )

For inorganic chemists the “place to be” at CCC was the pincer ligands symposium during the 3 days that it was held. It was SRO (“standing room only”) at times, as people came to hear some of the top experts speak, people like Gerard van Koten, Bob Crabtree, Mike Fryzuk, Alan Goldman, Dan Mindiola and Oleg Ozerov, who were the plenary lecturers

The novel aromatic compounds symposium had the feeling of a family reunion—convivial with a faithful crowd in attendance. The topics ranged from synthesis to properties to applications with plenary speakers Remi Chauvin, Ben King, Rik Tykwinski, Thomas Baumgartner, Alex Adronov, Will Skene and Dmitri Perepichka.

Novel Aromatic Compounds speakers' dinner with NJC editor Denise Parent and CCC Scientific Chair Thierry Ollevier.

At the end of each symposium, NJC hosted the speakers’ dinner with the organisers. Chic French cuisine was served up for the organic group, while the inorganic chemists were treated to hearty Quebecois cooking. It looks like everyone had a good time, enjoying the food and the company.

Next year’s meeting will be held in Vancouver from June 1–5. I for one certainly look forward to attending.

Photos from the Pincer Ligands speakers' dinner hosted by NJC. (Photos courtesy of G Wilson.)

After 3 full days, Martin Stillman offered participants in CanBIC-4 a day of R&R in Killbear Provincial Park. Boarding a big yellow school bus (it’s been over 40 years since I last rode one in high school!) we were taken to the park, where we split into 2 groups. I’d opted for the “kayak in the afternoon” group (we’ll see later how that worked out) so my group started the morning with a talk on snakes.

Jimmy, a domesticated Eastern Foxsnake

The star of this “show-and-tell” presentation was undoubtedly Jimmy, an Eastern Foxsnake, which is an endangered species. Jimmy was illegally taken from his natural home to live in an apartment, during which time he became thoroughly domesticated. Jimmy has now lived in the park’s visitor centre for 11 years and he loves to be handled by visitors.

Jimmy enjoying a snuggle!

View along Georgian Bay at Killbear park.

Our group then headed out for a walk along the Georgian Bay shore to learn all about lichens. Our guide Jessica had done extensive research to prepare for our learned group. While Jessica pointed out various species of lichens, she told us many interesting facts about them: the symbiotic relationship (or not?) between a fungus and a photosynthetic parter (green algae or cyanobacterium); their classification and distribution; modes of reproduction; their chemistry and finally applications, such as dyes. For me the most provocative fact was that 3 species of lichens are able to degrade the toxic form of prions, which normally are very resistant to degradation. Yes, lichens have prions, though since they have no central nervous system they are not subject to the diseases that prions can cause. So why would some specific lichens be able to degrade toxic prions?

Some leafy lichens

Very bright green lichens!

Strange black lichens

The morning group kayaking on Georgian Bay.

After a picnic on the beach, it was my group’s turn to go out kayaking on the bay, in tandem boats (excuse me, kayaks!). After a quick tutorial on how to put on the “skirt” that seals you into the kayak (our first challenge), how to paddle, and the responsibilities of each team member (brawn in the front, brains in the back—of course I was in the back for lack of the former), we set off for some exercise.

And exercise it was! Many of us had opted to kayak in the afternoon, thinking it would be warmer and indeed it was. However, the wind had come up in the early afternoon, leading to choppy water and a much harder row for those of us out there. We didn’t make it as far as the morning group, and on our way back, against the wind, the shore seemed to remain out of reach, until we finally arrived. And that is when it happened—trying to get out of the kayak I didn’t coordinate very well with my partner and ended up “sitting down” in the water. Yikes!

Finally, some relaxation: time for a BBQ and convivial talk to end the day, before returning to Parry Sound.

If there’s one word that characterises Martin, it has to be energy—boundless energy—and one needs plenty of it to keep up with him, even in fun!

All photos copyright Denise Parent

Stockey Centre for the Performing Arts in Parry Sound, location for the CanBIC conferences

I arrived in Parry Sound on Georgian Bay, after flying into Toronto and taking a long bus ride up north, to promote NJC at the 4th Georgian Bay International Conference on Bioinorganic Chemistry. NJC was a major sponsor this year, providing support for the student volunteers who are “on call” to ensure that the conference runs smoothly.

This year’s event brought together about 140 scientists: about two-thirds from North America with the other participants being mainly from Europe and Japan.

This is not a conference for the weak-of-heart: the conference organisers (Martin Stillman, Nagao Kobayashi, C Frank Shaw III) put together a very full and challenging program combining science and fun in a beautiful natural setting.

Conference organizers Frank, Martin and Nagao, windblown on the Island Queen cruise boat.

The science consisted of 90 talks (3 parallel sessions over 3 days), which ranged from the physical techniques, synthesis and properties, to medical applications. Ed Solomon‘s plenary lecture on copper–dioxygen reactivity closed the conference, while over 30 posters completed the program.

My favourite talks were those given by Wojciech Bal (U Warsaw) on nickel toxicity, Kyung-Bin Cho (Ewha Womans U) on rebound reactions in non-heme systems, Andrew Cammidge (U East Anglia) on Pcs-Por hybrids, Peter Caravan (Harvard Medical School) on MRI probes, Tim Storr (Simon Fraser U) on treating Alzheimer’s disease, Danny Leznoff (also at SFU) on metallo-Pcs, Jennifer Wytko (U Strasbourg) on porphyrin wires and Ian Butler (McGill U) on analysing artists’ pigments.
The fun included a boat cruise on the bay (a welcome and relaxing break), two music recitals in the evening, and an after-conference all-day outing to Killbear Provincial Park for hiking, kayaking and a BBQ. (More on the outing in an upcoming post, with photos.)

The cruise on the Island Queen was a welcome and relaxing break—staying warm inside the boat with occasional forays outside for photo ops.

The CanBIC conferences also feature music, provided by Katie Stillman on violin and Miaomiao Yu on piano. These two young talented musicians have played together for many years, which was evident from their perfect harmony in pieces ranging from Mozart to 20th century composers.

After this informal and small conference out in the woods, next week will be a complete change of scenery as I’m off to the 96th Canadian Society of Chemistry conference in Quebec City. Check back for my comments on this event.