International Conference on Advanced Materials in Kathmandu

Nepal Polymer Institute (NPI) in association with Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu; Kathmandu University, Dhulikhel and Rouen University, Rouen (France) is hosting second International Conference "Kathmandu Symposia on Advanced Materials (KaSAM)" in Kathmandu. The conference will be held in Kathmandu from September 7-10. It aims to provide rigorous discussion forum for the materials scientists on recent advances, challenges and solution paths in different areas of Materials Science and Engineering (MSE). 

The 1^st KaSAM was held in Kathmandu (May 10-13, 2012) and was highly successful attracting scientists, students and young researcher from 20 countries across the globe.

According to Professor Rameshwor Adhikari, convener of the conference, KaSAM-2014 will focus on Nanostructured and Biorelated Materials. He added that the series of conferences will serve as an excellent forum for the discussion of recent trends in materials science and engineering.

Key dates:

Abstract submission: August 3, 2014 

Abstract acceptance: August  10, 2014             

Registration: August 20, 2014

Conference: September 7-10, 2014

A 4 day long First Kathmandu Autumn School on Chemistry and Chemical Technologies (KASChem), from Sept. 4-7, 2014 will also be organized before the symposium. This autumn school is targeted for students, young researchers and newcomers in the field. It will give an overview of recent developments and research trends in synthesis, characterization and applications of new materials. The school and the accompanying conference are hoped to be the milestone in promoting education and researches in the field of advanced materials, chemistry and chemical technologies in Nepal.

Nepali Scientist's work featured in Science Magazine

Nepali young scientist's (Dr. Raghu Dhital-Oasis) work has recently been featured as Editors's choice in reputed journal Science. Here is the text.

"In the classic Ullmann coupling reaction reported more than a century ago, iodine substituted aromatic rings were coupled at high temperatures by using copper as a reducing agent to form a carbon-carbon bond. Further work extended this coupling reaction to more conventional chloroarenes by using coreductants and precious-metal catalysts, but reaction temperatures still tended to be high. Dhital et al. now show that a wide variety of chloroarenes can be coupled at ambient temperatures (25° to 45°C). The reactions proceeded under basic conditions (in a mixed organic-aqueous solvent) in the presence of gold-palladium nanocluster catalysts. Neither pure gold nor pure palladium clusters could catalyze the reaction, indicating that alloying of the metals was critical for reactivity. Density functional theory calculations indicated that the critical difference for the alloy clusters is that they favor activation of the carbon-chlorine bond through the dissociative adsorption of the arene chlorides."

Dr. Dhital's work has also been featured in JACS's spotlight. See below.

TWO METALS ARE BETTER THAN ONE

Heterogeneous catalysis using nanoclusters consisting of more than one metal is seeing more widespread application in chemistry, because these types of catalysts can be highly efficient or may have unusual properties. Particularly attractive are the gold/palladium bimetallic cluster alloys, due to their high catalytic turnover. Masahiro Ehara, Hidehiro Sakurai, and co-workers have used this bimetallic alloy to activate the high-energy carbon−chlorine bond (DOI: 10.1021/ja309606k). They discover that the Au/ Pd nanocluster can catalyze Ullmann coupling of chloroarenes at room temperature, a reaction that otherwise requires harsh conditions. The reaction does not progress with either gold or palladium single-metal nanoclusters alone, nor with a macroscopic mixture of the two metals. Through computational analysis, the researchers find that the high activity of the bimetallic nanocluster is due to the substrate being adsorbed onto the alloy surface, which is unlikely to occur with single metal catalysts. In addition, the nanocluster is found to have higher activity toward chloroarenes than their bromo equivalents. This straightforward method to activate the robust C−Cl bond may enable the design and synthesis of new multimetallic catalyst for similar activation energy. (JACS spotlight, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2013, 135, 949)

Dr. Dhital completed his PhD last year from Institute for Molecular Science, The Graduate University for Advanced Studies (SOKENDAI) with Prof Hidehiro Sakurai. He is now working as post-doctoral fellow. He has MSc degree from CDC, Tribhuvan university, Nepal.

Following are some of his recent publications.

1. R. N. Dhital, A. Murugadoss and H. Sakurai, “Dual Roles of Polyhydroxy Matrices in the Homocoupling of Arylboronic Acids Catalyzed by Gold Nanoclusters under Acidic Conditions”, Chem. Asian J. 2012, 7, 55. (Inside cover picture)

2. R. N. Dhital and H. Sakurai, “Anomalous Efficacy of Bimetallic Au/Pd Nanoclusters in C-Cl Bond Activation and Formal Metathesis-type C-B Bond Activation at Room Temperature”, Chem. Lett. 2012, 41, 630. (Editor’s choice)

3. R. N. Dhital, C. Kamonsatikul, E. Somsook, K. Bobuatong, M. Ehara, S. Karanjit and H. Sakurai, “Low-temperature Carbon–Chlorine Bond Activation by Bimetallic Gold/Palladium Alloy Nanoclusters: An Application to Ullmann Coupling”, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2012, 134, 20250. (Highlight in Science, 2013, 339, January 4 and Highlight in JACS spotlight, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2013,135, 949).

4. R. N. Dhital, C. Kamonsatikul, E. Somsook Y. Sato and H. Sakurai, “Aryl Iodide as a Strong Inhibitor for the Gold and Gold-based Bimetallic quasi-Homogeneous Catalysis”, Chem.Comm. DOI: 10.1039/C3CC39019E, in press.

Soma Dhakal Defended his PhD and Joining University of Michigan Ann Arbor for Postdoctoral Position

Nepachem likes to Congratulate Dr. Soma Nath Dhakal for successfully defending doctoral dissertation. He is going to start a postdoctoral position at Walter Lab, University of Michigan Ann Arbor next month. Please refer to the following texts for the brief overview of his research accomplishments.

MECHANICAL STABILITY EVALUATION OF I-MOTIF AND G-QUADRUPLEX STRUCTURES UNDER DIVERSE CIRCUMSTANCES

‘ILPR (Insulin Linked Polymorphic Region) is a promoter region located upstream of the human insulin gene.  This region facilitates the transcription and hence regulates the production of insulin, a hormone responsible for the metabolism of glucose.  When the control of insulin level fails, it leads to insulin related health problems such as diabetes.  One of the scenarios that influence the transcription of the insulin gene can be the formation of secondary structures in the promoter.  Due to the prevalence of the guanine (G)- and cytosine (C)-rich repeats in the ILPR promoter, it is likely to form unusual structures such as G-quadruplex and i-motif in the respective strands. 

G-quadruplex and i-motif structures are the most widely known four-stranded nucleic acid structures which are shown/proposed to alter gene regulation.  Although there is significant understanding on the folding topologies of G-quadruplex and i-motif structures, their mechanical stability which determines the interaction with motor proteins, such as DNA/RNA polymerases, are poorly studied. Using laser tweezers based single-molecule study; we investigated, for the first time, the mechanical stability of an i-motif structure in the predominant variant of human ILPR.  Similarly, using ensemble and single-molecule approaches, we show that a dsDNA fragment in ILPR can fold into G-quadruplex or i-motif structure under specific conditions. Under a condition that favors the formation of both G-quadruplex and i-motif, we provide compelling evidence that only one species is present in each dsDNA.  We propose that G-quadruplex and i-motif are mutually exclusive in human ILPR.  Due to the fact that these two species have an unfolding force comparable to the stall force of RNA polymerase, these DNA structures may play significant biological rules in the expression of human insulin inside cells.’

Below are some selected publications: 

Dhakal et al., Structural and mechanical properties of individual human telomeric G-quadruplexes in molecularly crowded solutions, Nucleic Acids Research, 2013, Accepted

Dhakal et al., Intramolecular folding in human ILPR fragment with three C-rich repeats PLoS ONE 7(6): e39271. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0039271

Dhakal et al., G-quadruplex and i-motif are mutually exclusive in double stranded ILPR DNA, Biophysical Journal, 102, 2575–2584

Dhakal et al., Formation of human ILPR G-quadruplex in dsDNA, International Review of Biophysical Chemistry, 2011, 2, N. 6.

Dhakal et al., Coexistence of an ILPR i-motif and a partially folded structure with comparable mechanical stability revealed at the single molecular level, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2010, 132, 8991–8997  

Book Chapter:

Dhakal, S.; Mao, H.; Rajendran, A.; Endo, M.; Sugiyama, H., Eds: Spindler L, Fritzsche W., “G-quadruplex Nanostructures Probed at The Single Molecular Level By Force-Based Methods” in Guanine quartets: Structure and Application, RSC Publishing, 2013, 73-85.

Congratulations to Dr. Lekh Nath Adhikari

We would like to congratulate Dr. Lekh Nath Adhikari for successfully defending his PhD dissertation from department of chemistry at University of Nevada, Reno. He has started working on the same department. We would also like to wish him a successful future ahead. Below is the abstract of his research work.

Reactions of simple amines, alcohols, ethers, and bi-functional molecules on the Si(100) -(2x1) surface were studied theoretically and experimentally. Additionally, theoretical calculations were performed for the interaction of several of these types of molecules on the 3C-SiC(100), 4H-SiC(1000), and 6H-SiC(1000) surfaces. The adsorption and desorption experiments on the Si(100)-(2x1) surface were performed in an ultra-high vacuum (UHV) chamber using Auger electron spectroscopy (AES), low-energy electron diffraction (LEED), and thermal desorption spectroscopy (TDS). Theoretical studies were performed for the adsorption of these molecules onto clusters that are representative of the Si(100)-(2x1), 3C-SiC(100)-(3x2), 4H-SiC(1000)-(2x2), and 6H-SiC(1000)-(3x3) surfaces using the Gaussian suite of programs.

AES studies showed a rapid increase in surface carbon and nitrogen signals for all amines studied and a similar increase in carbon and oxygen signals for all alcohols studied. The signals appear to level off with increasing dose in all cases, indicating surface saturation after room temperature adsorption of these molecules onto the Si(100)-(2x1) surface. Primary amines and alcohols give a saturation coverage of roughly one half of a monolayer, indicating one molecule reacting per silicon surface dimer, while mixed alcohol/amines (3-amino-propanol) and ethers, such as diethyl ether, dihydrofuran, and tetrahydrofuran, appear to have lower saturation coverages that depend on the identity of the adsorbing species.

All saturated primary amines (methylamine, ethylamine, and propylamine) studied showed a parent ion desorption peak in TDS, along with an imine formation channel. These are interpreted as arising from surface-bound alkyl amidogen radicals resulting from N-H bond cleavage upon adsorption on the Si(100)-(2x1) surface. Hydrogen elimination from a surface bound alkyl containing radical appears to be a common decomposition reaction, yielding imines in the case of adsorbed saturated primary amines, aldehydes in the case of adsorbed saturated alcohols, and alkenes in the case of adsorbed saturated ethers. Unsaturated amines and alcohols, however, appear to react with the surface to produce alkene products upon TDS, which must involve hydrogen addition instead of elimination. The energetics for these reactions, as revealed through TDS, are sensitive to the exact nature of the adsorbing radical species.

Theoretical studies of the interaction of amines and alcohols on the cubic SiC(100)-(3x2) surface showed similar results to those observed for these molecules on the Si(100)-(2x1) surface. However, the adsorbed products on the cubic SiC(100) surface were predicted to be slightly more stable than those on the Si(100) surface in all cases. Hexagonal SiC surfaces (4H- and 6H-) appear to be less reactive with water and ammonia than that of cubic surface based on these computational results.

PhD fellowships and Research funding for 2068/2069 announced by NAST, Nepal

Congratulations to following winners.

Life's Trek Brings Scientist to U.S. from Nepal

There were fewer than 1,000 people in the tiny Nepalese village of Tanahun district when Jefferson Lab SRF Scientist Pashupati Dhakal grew up there. He was the son of the village's school principal. And at that time, the local school only went through middle school. Had he stayed there, it would have been a two-hour trek by foot to the nearest high school. Instead, he moved in with his grandfather in Pokhara, a popular tourist destination in Nepal.

                             

"This," he said with a sweep of his hand toward a stunning computer screen shot of the Himalayas, "is the view I woke up to every morning."

Impressive, indeed. Almost as impressive as Dhakal's abilities in math, which came to him early and were nurtured throughout his education. His first physics teacher at Tribhuvan University, where he did his undergraduate work, was, in Dhakal's words, "brilliant" and lured him into the field.

Chemistry activities in Biratnagar, Nepal

Department of Chemistry, M.M.A.M.C., Biratnagar, Nepal organized an "one day seminar".  This is the third seminar after launching M.Sc./ PhD programme of Physics and Chemistry in 2009.  

Dr. Jagadeesh  Bhattarai, associate Prof from CDC, TU, honored Mr. Tulasi Prasad Niraula, who achieved the best poster award in the International Conference of Advanced Materials and Technology for sustainable Development, 21-23 October, 2011 by garland with Tika. Similarly, Prof. Dr. Sujeet Kumar Chatterjee honored Miss Alina Shakya, who was also the best poster award winner in the same conference. 

Mr. Tulasi Niraula, the Ph.D. scholar, gave seminar presentation on "Conductivity study of surfactants in mixed solvent media". Also, Mr. Sujit Kumar Shah, the Ph.D. scholar gave a presentation on basic information of surfactants. Both of these Ph.D. research scholars are working under the guidance of Prof. Sujeet Kumar Chatterjee and Dr. Ajaya Bhattarai. 

Dr. Jagadeesh Bhattarai presented his talk on "Research Activities on Corrosion in Nepal: An overview". Prof. Dr. Sujeet Kumar Chatterjee shared his view about the research work in the department of Chemistry. He talked about the low cost work research. He emphasized about the devotion of time during the research work. 

During the programme, participants were welcomed by Mr. Balaram Pant (chemistry faculty) and Dr. Ajaya Bhattarai presented the activities of chemists of the eastern part of Nepal. Mr. Narendra Kumar Chaudhary (chemistry faculty) gave vote of thanks. The program was chaired by Mr. Ghanashayam Shrivastav. The programme was announced by Sabita Gautam Dahal, head of the department of Chemistry, Manamohan Polytechnique Institue, Morang. 

Mr. Rajesh Karki presented a laptop to the head of the department of Chemistry. The laptop was purchased with the collection of funds from 38 chemists. List of donors is given below.

Some photos from the program below.

Climate Change Research Grants for Nepali Students-2011

For MS students carrying out their research in Universities in Nepal. They will provide upto Rs 70000. Check out this link for details. Last date to submit is Nov 11, 2011.

http://nast.org.np/alluploads/Terms_of_Reference.pdf

A Novel Platform to Investigate G-quadruplex and Ligand Interactions

A collaborative research of the scientists from United States, United Kingdom and Japan has introduced a novel platform to investigate the binding interactions between human telomeric G-quadruplexes and small molecule ligands at single molecule level. This research work has been recently published in Nature Chemistry (link: http://www.nature.com/nchem/journal/v3/n10/pdf/nchem.1126.pdf) which is one of the most reputed Journals in the related field. 

G-quadruplexes are four-stranded nucleic acid secondary structures formed by the guanine rich DNA and RNA sequences. The telomere is one of the critical parts of the eukaryotic chromosomes including those of humans which has propensity to form G-quadruplexes. Telomeres play a vital role in aging and cancer. In normal cells telomere is shortened each time when a cell divides and finally leads to the programmed death of the cell. However in most of the cancer cells, telomere length is maintained because of the over expression of an enzyme called telomerase. The telomerase acts on the telomere and extends its length which makes the cell immortal causing cancer.  The telomeric G-quadruplexes have been proposed to play an important role in the maintenance of telomere because quadruplex structures are not extended by the telomerase. The small molecule ligands have been demonstrated to bind to telomeric G-quadruplexes and suppress telomerase activity. This fact has begun the expansion of telomeric G-quadruplexes into potential therapeutic targets for cancer treatment. Therefore understanding the kinetic, thermodynamic, and mechanical properties of small molecule binding to these structures is important but the classical ensemble assays are unable to measure these properties simultaneously. This novel platform provides the all information at once.

Laser Tweezers to Detect Single Nucleotide Polymorphism

Scientists in the Department of Chemistry, Kent State University have introduced a new novel method to detect Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) using laser tweezers in microfluidic platform. This work has been published in Journal of the American chemical society (JACS), a leading journal in Chemistry.

SNP is the most common variation in the genomic DNA sequence between members of the same species by one nucleotide. This is caused by various factors. Studies have revealed that they are distributed throughout the human genome by an estimated average of 1 per 1000 base pairs. SNPs are attributed to be closely linked with gene function, genetic variations between individuals, variety of diseases and susceptibilities of humans to the pathogens. Usually SNP is not associated with any disease but it might cause variation in response for the disease, toxins, bacteria, drugs etc. They may be used as bio-markers for disease genes. And, it definitely requires reliable method.

SNPs can be detected by several methods such as molecular beacons, gene sequenceing or some other analytical tools that can detect the difference in effect of a single nucleotide in base pairing with the complementary DNA. The novel idea in the above mentioned publication is the incorporation of the mechanical differentiation of the base pairing event with the microfluidics platform and is expected to be useful in the development of generic biosensors. Laser tweezer was used to monitor the binding of the target DNA sequences with the probe molecule, a DNA hairpin. Binding of the target with the hairpin DNA tied to the tweezers caused hairpin molecule in the unfolded (off) state instead of the stochastic hopping between folded(on ) and unfolded (off) states. Authors had claimed that this method has less background signal compared to fluorescence based technique and easier compared to the PCR based amplification and sequencing techniques. This method has been sensitive enough to detect 100 pM SNP associated with the coronary heart disease.

According to Deepak Koirala, chemistry graduate student and main author of the article who came from Nepal, this innovation is in the process of getting US patent.

Two New Elements Confirmed by IUPAC: Elements 114 and 116

A chemical element is a pure chemical substance consisting of one type of atom distinguished by its atomic number, which is the number of protonsin its nucleus. There are 94 elements believed to occur naturally on Earth and rest of the elements are synthesized in laboratories.

Are Carbon Nanotubes the Future of VLSI Interconnections?

Original paper is published by-
K. Banerjee and N. Srivastava, University of California


Summarised by Anant B. Marahatta

What is VLSI?
• Very-large-scale integration (VLSI) is the process of creating integrated circuits by combining thousands of transistor-based circuits into a single chip.
• VLSI began in the 1970s when complex semiconductor and communication technologies were being developed. The microprocessor is a VLSI device.


New wiring solutions…!
• Metallic carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are promising candidates that can potentially address the challenges faced by copper and thereby extend the lifetime of electrical interconnects.
• carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have aroused a tremendous amount of interest in their use as building blocks of future integrated circuits due to their outstanding electrical properties

CNT based interconnects can potentially offer significant advantages over copper.
• CNTs exhibit extraordinary strength and unique electrical properties are efficient conductors of heat and are metallic in nature.
•SWCNTs are a very important variety of CNT because they exhibit important electric properties that are not shared by MWCNTs. The remarkable properties of SWCNTs stem from the symmetry and unusual electronic structure of grapheme [one atom thick sheet of graphite].

∙An isolated CNT can carry current densities in excess of 1010 A/cm2 without any signs of damage even at an elevated temperature of 250 0C. However, the high resistance associated with an isolated CNT (greater than 6.45 KΩ) necessitates the use of a bundle (rope) of CNTs conducting current in parallel to form an interconnection. CNT bundle interconnects have superior performance compared to Cu.

Japan and US: You must construct “Onkalo”- Fukushima Issue

Anant Babu Marahatta
Sendai, Japan
(News analysis)

Being one of the eyewitnesses from Sendai, Japan, I should proudly say that it was not so big issue about the ~9 M mega-quake that shook some of the major cities of northeast-Japan including Sendai of Miyagi prefecture on March 11, 2011, as all the skyscrapers are still standing unlike the case in Haiti few months ago. Even the mechanical damage caused by the big Tsunami, the consequence of that tremor, has been stopped broadcasting by the world’s leading news networks as well as covering by the front pages of the leading newspapers.

However, the major technical damage of the Tsunami which is being faced by the Fukushima based nuclear power plants, each has the capacity of storing 100s of tons of nuclear fuel, has been publishing with the greatest priority. It is reminded that the storage of all the crippled power plants had contained tons of nuclear fuel and were fully operated during the time of Tsunami. Thus, it is not surprising to mention “Japan is having a big nuclear disaster and crisis” which has presented the crucial question to the world “what to do with nuclear energy?” and I believe (& you too) the world has seriously begun thinking about it.

The current situation of the nuclear disaster in the world after receiving ‘Fukushima-nuclear plants threats’, can be envisioned by this news headline “In search of a nuclear disposal site” published by the “Japan Times” on 7th April 2011. It's every nation's responsibility to construct permanent nuclear waste repositories on its own territory. It is a praiseworthy work that around 300 km northwest of Finland's capital, an island named “Helsinki” houses the potential site for one of the world's first permanent underground high-level nuclear waste repositories “Onkalo” (Finnish language for “hiding place”).The repository is hundreds of meters deep and is designed to store high-level nuclear waste for at least 100,000 years. Research is still under way, but the dumping of the spent fuel is scheduled to begin around 2020.

Congratulations to Dr. Birendra B Adhikari for the completion of PhD

Birendra Babu Adhikari has successfully completed his PhD Degree from Saga University, Japan in March 2011. He had been working in the field of supramolecular chemistry. Congratulations Dr. Adhikari.

During his graduate study, his research was focused on design and synthesis of novel organic molecules for ionic and molecular recognition. He had studied the ion recognition behavior of calixarene derivatives having different ring size and different molecular flexibility and had studied the conformational behavior of their metal ion complexes. He had successfully developed some heteracalixarene ligands that can be applied for selective scavenging of toxic cations as well as the recovery of valuable metal cations. The title of his dissertation is “Multiple proton ionizable calixarene derivatives with different ring size: Towards engineering for separation and recovery of toxic and valuable metal cations.”

Initially he had entered his supervisor’s research group in the capacity of a researcher with main responsibility of synthesizing calixarene-based organic apohosts that were exploited to evaluate their hydrogen and carbon dioxide gas storage behavior. The research group is soon reviving the same project and he will be working in the capacity of a post-doctorate researcher with main duties of designing and synthesizing organic clathrates and metal organic frameworks (MOFs) for study of their hydrogen gas storage behavior.

Congratulations to Dr. Beni B. Dangi

We have one more Chemistry Doctorate in our community. Dr. Beni B. Dangi has successfully completed his PhD Degree form University of Nevada, Reno (UNR) in spring 2011. He had been working in chemistry department of UNR in the field of Mass Spectroscopy.

During his graduate study, he had been working to develop a tandem mass spectrometer, consisting of a quadrupole ion trap (QIT) and a time-of-flight for ion mass resolution and photophysics. The main goal of the research was to develop a new ion trap that would improve the mass resolution as well as ion photophysics with the similar ion trapping behavior compared with existing hyperbolic ion trap. He was bale to identify the parameters affecting mass resolutions in linear and reflectron time-of-flight modes and significant improvements of mass resolution were accomplished with the new optimized design. He was also able to design a molecular beam source which was fabricated and characterized for the application in ion-molecule collision experiments.

The title of his dissertation is “Development of ion trap/time-of-flight mass spectrometry for mass resolution and photophysics.” His research has been published in peer reviewed journals and articles and will be provided upon request.

Congratulations to Dr. Dangi on your great achievement and we all wish all the best for your future!!!!!!!!

More than 1/3rd of Americans and ½ of Germans live within 75 km of a nuclear power plant

Anant Babu Marahatta
Sendai, Japan

Disaster is a disaster. This time, Japan is victimized. No one knows, such catastrophe may happen anytime, anywhere, in the world.　

The current world news is about the crippled Fukushima based Japanese nuclear power plants which was hit by a 9.0-magnitude quake on March 11 of 2011 and then, about 25 minutes later, a devastating tsunami. About 172,000 people lived in the 30-km zone of these plants.

The Japanese government has declared the 20-km evacuation area around the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant a “no-go zone”. It has also urged the residents to abide by the order for their own safety or possibly face fines or detention. Under a special nuclear emergency law, people who enter into the zone will now be subject to fines of up to ¥100,000 and possible detention of up to 30 days.

In order to aware this potential risk of this scenario to the world, a current study released by “Nature” on Friday, 22nd April 2011, shows that about 90 million people worldwide live within 30 kilometers of a nuclear reactor, equivalent to the exclusion zone around Japan's crippled Fukushima plants. The United States alone has nearly 16 million people within this range, followed by more than 9 million each in China, Germany and Pakistan, and 5 to 6 million in India, Taiwan and France.

When the radius is expanded to 75 km, the number of people potentially at risk in case of a nuclear accident jumps to nearly half a billion. More than 110 million are in the U.S., 73 million in China, 57 million in India, 39 million in Germany and 33 million in Japan.

Let’s look at another way; more than 1/3rd of Americans live within 75 km of a nuclear power plant, and nearly half of all Germans.

It does suggest how many people will be at risk if something does go terribly wrong, as happened in Fukushima a month ago and in Chernobyl 25 years ago.

Sources:
‘The Japan Times” daily newspaper.
www.nature.com

Regional Chemistry Seminar in Biratnagar on May 7-8, 2011

INVITATION

We are delighted to inform you that Department of Chemistry, Mahendra Morang Adarsh Multiple Campus (Tribhuvan University), Biratnagar with collaboration of Nepal Chemical Society organizing the Regional Chemistry Seminar in Biratnagar, Nepal from May 7- 8, 2011.

We would like to invite you to attend the Seminar and make a grand success.

We look forwards to welcoming you soon in Biratnagar, Nepal

Post Graduate Department of Chemistry
Mahendra Morang Adarsh Multiple Campus, Biratnagar, Nepal

Polychar 19 Successfully Held in Kathmandu, Nepal

Polychar 19 was held in Kathmandu, Nepal on 20-24 ^th March 2011.

The conference was inaugurated by Nepali Prime Minister Jhal Nath Khanal on Sunday of 20^th March 2011.Prof. Witold Brostow, President of Polychar, University of North Texas, USA, Dr. Rameshwar Adhikari, Polychar 19, Convener, Tribhuvan University, Nepal

I found the Polychar 19 International Conference was the Biggest Scientific Gathering for Nepal. The gathering made a history for Nepal. Renowned Scientists from 50 Countries discussed the recent trends and new avenues of Advanced Materials during the meeting. The technical Program was 162 oral presentations including 6 plenary lectures and 180 posters.

Nepalese Chemists Get Together in Kansas, USA

Some Nepalese Chemists in the USA had informal get together in Manhattan, KS last weekend. Kansas State University has more than one dozen Nepalese Chemists working as graduate student and post doctoral research associate. Possibly this is the largest number of Nepalese Chemists in any single University. I headed from Wyoming to Manhattan, KS driving ~11 hours. Binod Pandey, Surendra Dawadi, Mahesh Poudel, Sitaram Acharya and their family members joined us from University of Missouri, St. Louis. In the Manhattan, Kansas State University: we were received by Nepalese Chemists and their family. It was a very nice get together. I was amazed by the hospitality we received from all Manhattan Chemists family.

We talked about chemistry in Nepal along with our research. It was very nice get-together. KSU has following Nepalese Chemists: Bhanu Bhakta Neupane, Bipin Pandey, Keshar Prasain, Khadga Man Shrestha, Khem Prasad Acharya, Laxman Pokhrel, Lila Ballav Pandey, Mahendra Thapa, Raj Kumar Dani, Dr. Damber Hamal, Dr. Tej Shrestha, Amita Neupane. I may not have remembered some of the names. These bright names have shown that Nepalese Chemists are competitive in the world by winning variety of awards and publishing research results in peer reviewed journals.

We will probably meet again in ACS national meeting-fall 2011 in Denver.

Here are some pictures from the get-together.

Kansas State Premises

In front of Chemistry Building

@ Tuttle Creek Lake

-------------------

Basant

Congratulations Dr. Jiba Raj Acharya for completing his PhD

In his Defense seminar

Jiba Raj Acharya successfully defended his PhD degree at Department of Chemistry, Louisiana State University, USA. His PhD research was focused on "Design, Preparation and Studies of Ratiometric Fluorescent Chemosensors Based on the Attenuation of Excitation Energy Transfer". On behalf of all Nepalese Chemists, we would like to congratulate him for this achievement and we wish for his better future.

More about his research on his own words:

In this Ph.D. studies targeting on the control of excitation energy migration in conjugated systems, I designed surface-immobilized monodispersed oligo(p-phenylene ethynylene)s (OPEs) as general basis for thin-film ratiometric fluorescent chemosensors. The sensor molecules have been functionalized with a specific analyte receptor at one end and a linkage for the covalent attachment to a glass surface at the opposite end. Upon surface immobilization, they form a highly ordered monolayer with the receptors positioned at the monolayer surface. Analyte binding to the receptor causes attenuation of the HOMO–LUMO gap at the receptor terminus, leading to the ratiometric change in fluorescent emission. The thin-film sensors for L-cysteine, pH, Zn2+ and NO were prepared and studied in detail to uncover a number of unusual properties, thus demonstrating the potential of this platform as a universal foundation for designing a broad range of ratiometric fluorescent thin-film chemosensors. The use of two fluorophore based surface-immobilized thin-film sensor is a novel approach and provides more reliable, accurate, easy to operate, and quantify the ratiometric fluorescent signals generated upon analyte binding.

Check his paper: J. Am.Chem.Soc.2009, 131, 880-881