Erin Iski and Brian Steinberg, graduate students at Tufts University and Boston College, respectively, were among the ten participants at the 11th Young Scientists Conference on Chemistry, which was held at the University of Essen-Duisburg, Germany, March 11-14, 2009, who were recognized for the superior quality of their poster presentations.

Iski, a third-year graduate student, described her Ph.D. thesis work with Professor Charles Sykes on “AgCl Monolayers on Au(III): Novel-Ultra-stable and Atomically-flat Surfaces.”  Steinberg, who anticipates receiving his Ph.D. within the next year with Professor Lawrence Scott, made a presentation on “Target Oriented Total Synthesis Leads to a New Class of Unnatural Products.”

The conference, which was organized by the Jungchemikerforum (JCF) of the German Chemical Society (GDCh), was attended by more than 400 students from about 20 countries, including the group of four undergraduates and eight graduate students in chemistry and chemical engineering from colleges and universities within NESACS who traveled on the exchange program of the Education and the Younger Chemists Committees.

In addition to Iski and Steinberg, the NESACS delegation included Marina Consunji (undergraduate, Wellesley College); Tamara Halkina (undergraduate, Harvard University); Mariam Ismail (graduate student, Northeastern University); Andrew Kleinke (graduate student, Boston University); Christina Li (undergraduate, Harvard University); Olga Makhlynets (graduate student, Tufts University); Raeanne Napoleon (graduate student, Boston University); Courtney Pfluger (graduate student, Northeastern University); Rachel Tsui (undergraduate, Boston University); Daniel Turner (graduate student, M.I.T.).

Accompanying the students were Michael Strem (Strem Chemicals), Ruth Tanner (University of Massachusetts Lowell), Deniz Yuksel (graduate student, Tufts University; NESACS-YCC Vice-chair), and Morton Hoffman (Boston University).

This year’s trip to Germany marked the sixth occasion of a visit by a delegation from NESACS; previous exchanges took place in 2002 (Cologne and Aachen), 2003 (Munich and Dresden), 2005 (Berlin), 2006 (Konstanz), and 2008 (Rostock).  In 2001, 2004, and 2007, delegations of German graduate students visited Boston.  The next exchange will take place in August 2010 when the German delegation will visit at the time of the ACS national meeting.