MissionThe International Free Radicals Symposium Committee is a non-profit organization authorizing and promoting the holding of scientific and educational meetings on a biannual basis on the subject of free radicals, which are important intermediates in complex chemical reactions. Free radicals play a crucial role in many important chemical reactions involved in combustion and chemical synthesis, as well as in the atmosphere and in interstellar media. The International Free Radicals Symposium was established over sixty years ago to bring together researchers at the frontier of this field in a wide variety of topics of free radical chemistry with particular emphasis on the spectroscopic identification, characterization and reaction dynamics of radicals. The composition of the International Advisory Committee guarantees the high scientific level of these meetings. While the theme of present meetings remain the same as for the first Free Radicals Symposium, the experimental and theoretical approaches, as well as the applications, have advanced tremendously. Whereas at that time, the presence or importance of free radicals in a particular process was very difficult to probe, today using modern and sensitive spectroscopic methods their presence cannot only be proven but the radicals themselves characterized in great detail. Indeed what once was seen as “through a glass darkly,” has now been illuminated brightly by lasers and other sensitive means of detection. The study of radicals, and their structural and dynamical properties has shed light on a vast variety of physical and chemical processes. These processes span an environment from inside every living cell, through the fires of combustion, to the earth’s atmosphere, and beyond to the observable limits of interstellar space. Indeed some free radicals have been observed for the first time in interstellar space before they could be produced in the laboratory. Therefore the Free Radicals Symposia are strongly interdisciplinary with chemists, physicists, astrophysicists and environmental scientists participating, resulting in a conference unique in its creative interaction between diverse disciplines in both their theoretical and experimental aspects.
PREVIOUS SYMPOSIA Year | Location | Symposium Chair(s) | 1956 | Quebec City, QC, CANADA | P. A. Giguere | 1957 | Washington DC, USA | H. P. Broida, A. M. Bass | 1958 | Sheffield, UK | G. Porter | 1959 | Washington DC, USA | H. P. Broida, A. M. Bass | 1961 | Uppsala, SWEDEN | S. Claesson | 1963 | Cambridge, UK | B. A. Thrush | 1965 | Padua, ITALY | G. Semerano | 1967 | Novosibirsk, USSR | V. N. Kondratiev | 1969 | Banff, AB, CANADA | H. Gunning, D. A. Ramsay | 1971 | Lyon, FRANCE | M. Peyron | 1973 | Konigsee, GERMANY | W. Groth | 1976 | Laguna Beach, CA, USA | E. K. C. Lee, F. S. Rowland | 1977 | Lyndhurst, Hants, UK | A. Carrington | 1979 | Sanda, Hyogo-ken, JAPAN | Y. Morino, I. Tanaka | 1981 | Ingonish, NS, CANADA | W. E. Jones | 1983 | Lauzelles-Ottignies, BELGIUM | R. Colin | 1985 | Granby, CO, USA | K. M. Evenson, R. F. Curl, H. E. Radford | 1987 | Oxford, UK | J. M. Brown | 1989 | Dalian, CHINA | Postponed | 1990 | Susono, Shizuoka, JAPAN | E. Hirota | 1991 | Williamstown, MA, USA | S. D. Colson | 1993 | Doorworth, NETHERLANDS | H. ter Meulen | 1995 | Victoria, BC, CANADA | A. J. Merer | 1997 | Tallberg, SWEDEN | M. Larsson | 1999 | Flagstaff, AZ, USA | T. A. Miller | 2001 | Assisi, ITALY | P. Casavecchia | 2004 | Taipei, TAIWAN | Y. P. Lee | 2005 | Leysin, SWITZERLAND | J. P. Maier, F. Merkt, M. Quack | 2007 | Big Sky, MT, USA | R. E. Continetti | 2009 | Savonlinna, FINLAND | L. Halonen, R. Timonen | 2011 | Port Douglas, AUSTRALIA | E. J. Bieske, S. H. Kable | 2013 | Potsdam, GERMANY | P. Botschwina, F. Temps | 2015 | Olympic Valley, CA, USA | D. Chandler, C. Taatjes, D. Osborn | 2017 | Hayama, Japan | Y. Ohshima, T. Suzuki, K. Tsukiyama |
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