572. WE-Heraeus-Seminar: Exploring Solvation Science

The majority of chemical reactions, including many that are central to important industrial processes, as well as virtually all biological processes, take place in a liquid-state environment. Solvents – with water being the most prominent – are used to “solvate” molecular species ranging from industrial reagents to biological molecules in living cells. The establishment of “Solvation Science” as a recognized, new interdisciplinary field of science is essential to optimize industrial processes, avoid environmental hazards, prevent corrosion, or increase energy efficiency, to name but a few of the key challenges that we currently face. In the life sciences, understanding the function of water as the ubiquitous solvent, often called the “matrix of life”, is now recognized to be crucial for comprehensively unraveling biological function.

Within the framework of this international seminar we want to introduce and explore a new approach to studying the fundamental solvation-solute interaction. The workshop will focus on three research areas of Solvation Science:

A: Understanding and Exploiting Solvation in Chemical Processes

B: Connecting Solvation Dynamics with Biomolecular Function

C: Ion Solvation and Charge Transfer at Interfaces

These research areas will be introduced by means of keynote lectures and a whole day will be devoted to each area, giving the leading scientists a platform on which to provide insights into their particular research. The “Hot Topics” sessions will focus on young researchers, giving them the chance to demonstrate their scientific work within the field of Solvation Science in the form of a short presentation and discussion. The poster session and poster prize will fuel interesting discussions with other scientific groups.