From a Secluded Forest Location in Japan: The 13 th Tateshina Conference on Organic Chemistry
2014; Wiley; Volume: 9; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1002/asia.201301591
ISSN1861-4728
Autores Tópico(s)History and advancements in chemistry
ResumoFriday the 8th to Sunday the 10th of November 2013 saw some 60 invited organic chemists gather at the Tateshina Forum hidden in a forest in Nagano prefecture, Japan, for the 13th Tateshina Conference on Organic Chemistry. Honored to receive an invitation I was fortunate enough to be part of a group spending a weekend immersed in the most intriguing of conferences. Rules of the conference include no photos or recording of scientific details, and an agreement that all attendees treat scientific matters as entirely confidential. Whilst these rules will preclude this conference review from revealing any scientific information, the presentation of unpublished and on-going research stimulated frank, open, and exciting discussions over the weekend1. Tateshina Conference on Organic Chemistry, group photograph. The conference began on Friday afternoon, and the presiding chairperson Professor Shū Kobayashi (The University of Tokyo) opened the conference with a reminder of the important rules of confidentiality and gave the audience a short presentation on the history of the conference. The Tateshina Conference on Organic Chemistry series was founded by Professor Eiichi Nakamura (The University of Tokyo) to be the Asian counterpart to similar events, like “Bürgenstock” or Gordon Research Conferences in Europe and in the USA, respectively. The audience was reminded that the format has always been based around only six lectures given by prestigious invited speakers; the list of luminaries who have presented their work at the 12 preceding Tateshina conferences is certainly an impressive list. It’s especially noteworthy that the Tateshina conference of 2003 saw Peter Gölitz, Editor of Angewandte Chemie, attend, and as a direct result of the discussions at that meeting Chemistry – An Asian Journal was founded. Chemistry – An Asian Journal thus launched in 2006 and now commands an impact factor of 4.572; in 2012, it ranked 28th out of 152 in the Chemistry Multidisciplinary category of ISI Journal Citation Reports. So, if the weekend contains only six lectures, what about the rest of the time? I was surprised to learn a detailed social program had been arranged to encourage discussion, generate new friendships, and forge new directions in organic chemistry. Our first speaker was Professor Hisashi Yamamoto (Chuba University and The University of Chicago). All speakers had been asked to introduce their area of interest in a manner to facilitate accessibility for the audience, and offer some personal perspectives. Professor Yamamoto took the opportunity of the opening lecture to detail some thoughts on the directions in which organic chemistry can have the most important impact in the world, and encouraged attendees to engage in transdisciplinary research. He clearly spelled out why he believes transdisciplinary research surpasses interdisciplinary research. He explained how interdisciplinary research is often the sum of two or more distinct fields and discoveries could be restricted to within the areas of the combined disciplines. Whereas transdisciplinary research, he explained, is the space between defined disciplines, and the exploration of this space might yield the most exciting and important discoveries. His opening comments, which preceded his main presentation on his recent scientific findings, set the tone for the meeting in that senior, well-respected scientists freely offered invaluable advice and encouragement to eager participants2. Engaging discussions in the conference room. Next, we saw 42 presentations (including one by myself), of two slides each, introducing details of posters that were due to be presented the following day. During this session it became clear that the cohort of assembled poster presenters included well-known scientists detailing as yet unpublished findings. After dinner, Professors Lei Liu (Tsinghua University) and Ken-Tsung Wong (National Taiwan University) delivered stimulating lectures on their recent research. Discussion was facilitated beyond the formal end of the day’s events late into the night through provision of drinks and snacks. Whilst some Tateshina regulars chose to get some rest in preparation for the following day, some attendees discussed and debated research matters until the ethanolic solutions provided to lubricate the whole weekend had been exhausted in one evening. Professor Peter Kündig (University of Geneva) delivered the 8am lecture on Saturday morning to a full lecture room. He presented enthralling findings in asymmetric catalysis which stimulated an extended discussion in the following question-and-answer session. Following this, attendees dispersed to their chosen social activity. Hiking was the most popular activity; some members played golf, others played tennis, some went to learn how to make Japanese noodles called soba, and a small group went to visit the Suntory distillery that makes Hakushu whiskey. This reviewer chose the latter option and was impressed to learn that the second master blender (the second son of the founder) received training in organic chemistry at Osaka University, thus demonstrating the relevance of the visit to the conference. The afternoon ended with a poster session; an amazing collection of posters were on display, and all presenters were actively engaging in discussion for most of their allotted presentation time. The poster session seemed to be over all too quickly; the posters on display were so interesting, it was just not possible to speak to everyone during the session. Although, if the first day was anything to go by, discussion would surely continue into the evening. Next, we were treated to a cultural highlight: the Japanese vocal quartet ARIAS sung European and Japanese songs, followed by an exquisite dinner. Dinner included reports on the day’s activities from each group; this really helped the group bond as we all felt we could share in the experiences of others, and I certainly noticed an atmosphere of friendship and trust develop between participants as a result. As expected, discussion continued long after dinner, but ended not quite so late as the night before3. Professor Feringa dynamically describes his chemistry. Sunday morning started a little later with Professor Hiroshi Sugiyama (Kyoto University) kicking off the 8:30am session with an enthralling lecture about DNA constructs and some of the recent discoveries and applications he has made in the field. The final lecture was given by Professor Ben Feringa (University of Groningen), who used his most recent publications as a springboard to discuss research that is on-going in his laboratory. He not only shared with us some exciting research but also gave encouragement to pursue ones passions, like his hero J. H. van′t Hoff. Kenichi Itami (Nagoya University), the general secretary of the conference, closed by thanking everyone, especially the attentive staff, and gave us a slide show of activities over the weekend and humorously compared some photos to organic reaction mechanisms. With that the participants dispersed, amidst falling leaves from autumnal red Japanese maple trees and a fresh chill in the air, perhaps a little tired but completely scientifically invigorated. John S. Fossey is a Lecturer at the University of Birmingham in England1 and, through being granted a JSPS London Office Furusato Award to visit Professor Shū Kobayashi, is a Visiting Scientist at the University of Tokyo at the time of writing this report and attending the 13th Tateshina Conference on Organic Chemistry. J.S.F. thanks the JSPS, the University of Tokyo, Professor Kobayashi,2 and the University of Birmingham. John Fossey and Shū Kobayashi previously guest-edited a UK–Japan special issue of Chemistry – An Asian Journal together.3
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