Faraday Discussions
Faraday Discussions are international conferences that focus on rapidly developing areas of physical chemistry and its interfaces with physics, materials science and biology.

More than a century has passed since the first discussion in 1907 on Osmotic Pressure, but they still retain their unique format: the papers are distributed to all participants in advance, the meeting then focuses on an extended discussion of these papers as the authors are only given five minutes to convey the key points of their paper and the remaining time is spent on debate.

Comments, questions and replies are published along with the research papers in book form after each discussion.  

In 2007 the Division held three highly successful Faraday Discussions. Discussion 136 on Crystal Growth and Nucleation was held in April at UCL, 137 on the Spectroscopy and Dynamics of Microparticles in July at Bristol, and 138 on Nanoalloys - From Theory to Applications in September at Birmingham. 

In each case the organisers reported that the meetings were well attended with vigorous discussion elements and delegates coming from worldwide.
The discussion volumes are now available and readers are particularly directed to the interviews with the authors of the HOT papers. (See the link at the bottom of this page.)

Support for new lecturers
Recently appointed academics in physical chemistry are invited to attend a meeting at the University of Edinburgh from 1-3 September, 2008. Organised by Andy Alexander and Perdita Barran, the aim is to foster links, discuss science and to debate thorny topics such as publishing work, balancing teaching with research, and winning research funding.

The meeting builds on the highly successful event held in 2006 at the University of Nottingham, and the format will be relatively informal. It will be based on a mixture of short talks, poster sessions and breakout sessions; representatives from EPSRC, RSC Publishing, and UK companies will also contribute to these.

The meeting is open to all recent appointees (lecturers or fellows, permanent or fixed-term) in physical chemistry. Contact Andy Alexander for more information (see link at end of page).

New outreach activities
The Division is launching an initiative to promote physical chemistry to students in secondary schools and colleges. The project will draw upon the talents and enthusiasm of the members of the Division's interest groups and strengthen universities, industry and schools and colleges.

The project will bring together the many members of the Division's interest groups who are already active in successful outreach activities. For example, the Electrochemistry group have, through a partnership with the EPSRC, recently funded the distribution of Grätzel solar cell kits for use by schools in the Loughborough, Leicester and Bristol areas. This has given hands-on experience of an application of physical chemistry to 3000 students and teachers. 

Working with both the national and regional Science Learning Centres, the initiative will help to publicise groups' existing activities and provide a support structure to encourage other groups to take part. 
Further details are from the Division's education representative David Smith (see link at end of page).