MINUTES OF THE 8th MEETING OF THE RTN NETWORK

ON "REACTIVE INTERMEDIATES"

 

(held in Lyndhurst, UK, from 6 - 9 April 2004)

 

This meeting was organized by the Southampton group and was held in the Crown Hotel, in Lyndhurst near Southampton, from 6 - 9 April 2004. This meeting was dedicated to a two-day special training programme for the Young Researchers (YRs) of the network. The meeting was attended by 11 YRs as well as by the co-ordinator John Dyke and the network manager Kees de Lange.

 

The following YRs (in bold) and guests were present:

Alrik van den Brom (Crete), Urs Hollenstein (Amsterdam), Petru Balay (München), Paula Rodrigues (Southampton), Romeo Olariu (Lisbon), Giacomo Levita (Porton Down), Luis Rubio (Crete), Fabrizio Innocenti (Southampton), Marcin Frankowski (München), Manuel Goubet (Lisbon), and David Mitchell (Porton Down). Unfortunately Iulia Balteanu (München) had to cancel at the last moment for personal reasons.

 

After arrival on Tuesday 6 April, the participants met for an informal dinner at 19.00 hrs, at the Crown Hotel, where the participants stayed for the meeting.

 

The formal meeting started at 20.00 hrs with 20-minute presentations by the YRs. The following YRs gave their talk on Tuesday night:

 

1                    Alrik van den Brom (Crete)

Title:     H abstraction from organic molecules by Cl atoms.

 

2.                  Urs Hollenstein (Amsterdam)

Title:     High precision measurements of the Lyman bands of H2.

 

3.                  Petru Balay (München)

Title:     Addition of an H atom to acetonitrile by hydrated electrons in nanodroplets.

 

4.                  Paula Rodrigues (Southampton)

Title:     Organic azides.

 

5.                  Romeo Olariu (Lisbon)

Title:     Study of aromatic azides by UV photoelectron spectroscopy and matrix isolation-IR spectroscopy.

 

6.                  Giacomo Levita (Porton Down)

Title:     Studies of thermal decomposition of organic azides by UV photoelectron spectroscopy, matrix isolation-IR spectroscopy, and ab initio molecular orbital calculations.

 

After a lively evening with much scientific discussion the session was closed at 23.00 hrs.

 

 

On Wednesday 7 April the group left the Crown Hotel at 08.30 hrs to go by car to the Sir Harold Hillier Gardens near Southampton. At 09.30 Carla Thomas-Buffin, the Deputy Education Officer who was in charge of the training programme for the day, received the YRs. The programme was as follows:

 

09.30 - 10.00   Arrival and introduction;

10.00 - 12.30  Team Building activities;

12.30 - 13.30   Lunch;

13.30 - 15.00   Team Building activities;

15.00 - 15.30   Feedback session;

15.30 – 16.00  Questions, evaluation and departure.

 

The YRs that participated in the programme received a certificate, and the network manager received a group certificate, which has been placed on the web site Certificate Hillier Gardens

The YRs considered the day spent at the Sir Harold Hillier Gardens as very useful, as shown by the evaluation forms.

 

At 17.00 hrs the group returned to the Crown Hotel where the dinner was served at 19.00 hrs. At 20.30 hrs the formal programme was resumed with a continuation of the 20-minute presentations by the YRs.

 

7.                  Luis Rubio (Crete)

Title:     Latest developments in the H + H2O à OH + H2 reaction.

 

8.                  Fabrizio Innocenti (Southampton)

Title:     Angular resolved photoelectron spectroscopy of sulphur atoms using synchrotron radiation.

 

9.                  Marcin Frankowski (München)

Title:     Protonated and fragment ions of acetonitrile: a Mass-selective Matrix Isolation Study.

 

10.              Manuel Goubet (Lisbon)

Title:     Study of the atmospherically important reaction between Cl2 and dimethyl sulphide by photoelectron spectroscopy.

 

11.              David Mitchell (Porton Down)

Title:     Investigation into the apparent loss of molecular H2 during collision-induced dissociation in an ion trap spectrometer.

 

This was another lively evening with much scientific discussion and exchange of ideas. The session was closed at 22.50 hrs.

 

On Thursday 8 April the group of YRs participated in a training day on the writing of covering letters, CV, and interview training. The course tutor was Dr Ted VanderNoot from Cognitrix Ltd. This meeting took place in the Crown Hotel in Lyndhurst. The programme was as follows:

 

09.30 - 11.00   Covering letters, theory (guidelines for preparation) and exercises (analysis of the participant’s letters prepared in advance in small groups);

11.00 - 11.15   Coffee break;

11.15 - 13.00   CV’s and Résumés, theory (guidelines for preparation) and exercises (analysis of the participant’s CVs prepared in advance in small groups);

13.00 - 14.00   Lunch;

14.00 - 15.00   Interviews theory (types and styles of questions, legally disallowed questions, handling questions);

15.00 - 16.00   Interviews exercise (first mock interview, analysis and feedback);

16.00 - 16.15   Coffee break;

16.15 - 17.30   Interviews exercise (second mock interview, analysis and feedback);

17.30 - 18.30   Interviews exercise (third mock interview, analysis and feedback).

 

After the close of the formal meeting each participant filled out an evaluation form. Certificates cognitrix will be made available to all participants and to the network manager. The general opinion among the YRs was that the entire programme had been extremely useful. At 18.45 hrs the session ended.

 

The conference dinner was held in the Crown Hotel at 20.00 hrs. The network co-ordinator, John Dyke, thanked all partcipants for their input in what had been a very fruitful meeting. The dinner concluded the meeting.

 

 

On Friday 9 April the participants left for their travel home after breakfast.