SearchLife @ CPI - 2006
Here are some of the things that happened during 2006. Some are just funny, others are loosely or more strongly related to science. Newer stuff shows up first, so you essentially scroll backward through the year. If that confuses you - well, it also confused me when I put this page together ;-)
>> The archives: 2007 - 2006 - before 2006 <<
Overall Rating - The grand total!
As quite common in life there were ...
... good times ...
... and bad times, too.
But the bad times were not too bad as this pic already suggests ;-)
CPI Christmas Party
Starting out with a nice duck at Ott's Solar Casino ...
... we then moved over to the institute and discussed the finer points of christmas over some cool "Krabbelsack" and "Chocolat-Eating-Contest". Excessive orange juice and mineral water consumption lead to the usual strange behavior of some group members. We apologize.
Popular Krabbelsack item: Santa Claus musical clock (yes, it turns around!)
Christmas Bono: In the name of love, one man in the name of love?
The "Sommermärchen" isn't over yet but takes some strange turns
More fancy hats.
2007 lab goggles fashion preview.
How to eat chocolat with silverware and thick gloves Part I - the chinese approach
... Part II - more robust procedure (simulations by Dr. Andreas G. revealed that this is a stable solution).
CPI Tutorial Day on Radical Polymerizations
Every once in a while it is wise to review some of the scientific group essentials. That led to our first CPI Tutorial Day on Radical Polymerization. Topics ranged from synthesis including practical issues like degassing or polymer precipitation to strange techniques like ATRP (according to Ossi used to make green to blue polymers) to kinetical aspects. The group's favorite a.k.a. Flory-Huggins-Theory got some special attention once more. Here some pics, mostly from coffee breaks.
PhD defense: Alexey "Copy Chef" Kopyshev
Alexey Kopyshev successfully defended his PhD thesis on Nov. 27.
Alexey was using responsive polymer brushes to study the motion of nanoobjects on surfaces. The motion is induced by variations of the surface free energy due to switching of the topography of the brushes from flat featureless surfaces to phase separated topographies. He used both mixed brushes and blockcopolymer brushes and studied their behavior against solvent vapor treatments in great detail.
Alexey will now move on to the University of Ulm for a postdoctoral appointment. We wish him all the best for his future.
New Imaging Ellipsometer
We are delighted that we could recently further strengthen our surface analytical capabilities by replacing our old Nanofilm iElli2000 with a brandnew state-of-the-art Nanofilm EP3-SE machine.
The instrument can be operated either by using a strong 40mW solid state laser at 532 nm or by using the spectral option, i.e. a Xenon Arc lamp with wavelengths between 365 and 1000 nm. Additional equipment includes various objectives (2x ... 50x), a trough for BAM work and a liquid handling system for the investigation of thin polymer layers in contact with solvent.
Here are some photos of the instrument and some first images that we recorded recently from two overlapping polymer stripes with invidual thicknesses of about 20 nm on a silicon surface.
Further information may also be obtained from the manufacturer at http://www.nanofilm.de.
PhD defense: Jörg "Short Story" Pahnke
Jörg defended his work on the development of polymer coatings for the protection of aluminum surfaces on Aug. 4.
His system was based on photoreactive molecules and polymers that additionally carry phosphonic acid groups. These groups show a strong interaction with Al surfaces (among others) which leads to very good adhesion of the coating and enhanced stability of Al surface against corrosion.
His Ph.D. hat reflected his quiet attitude or as former group member Ulrike said: "Jörg, mach' 'ne Kurzgeschichte draus!" ;-)
Thorsten Neumann's PhD defense
Known for laid back and relaxed attitude Thorsten defended his work in a cool tempered manner on July 28. His work was centered around our biochip activities. Printing polymer / DNA probe mixtures he was able to generate quite stable microarrays which in combination with a TIR based reader can be used for multiple hybridization/dehybridization experiments within the reader's sample holder.This system speeds up DNA analysis and allows for faster chip development.
Joint Seminar
A Joint Seminar with members of the groups of Prof. Martien Cohen-Stuart and Prof. Willem Norde, Laboratory of Physical Chemistry and Colloid Science (Wageningen University, The Netherlands) took place in May. Talks from CPI and both dutch groups showed that surface science with polymers is still an exciting and challenging field of research - experimentally as well as theoretically.
Prof. Norde and Prof. Cohen Stuart
CPI Springschool 2006
Once a year or so we have our by now famous CPI School (Spring, Fall, Winter perhaps at some point even summer) which typically runs for around four days (including three not so peaceful and quiet nights).
The program is always a mixture of scientific group essentials (tutorials), science from our groups and talks from hand-picked guests. Some hiking and other social activities are also part of the event - and, most importantly - breath-taking performances. This year two aspiring comedians - Jürgan & Markan - could be invited and rocked the scene with a groundbreaking, hillarious show.
Interested in the program? Here we go.
Interested in pics? There they are:
The official group picture:
Note that Natalia is hiding (second row, right hand side)!
The location: Schloss Ortenberg
Hikes, wine tasting & games
THE performance: Jürgan & Markan
ACS Spring meeting 2006 in Atlanta
About seven of us headed to Atlanta in spring to deliver a couple of talks and posters at the ACS Spring Meeting.
Dechema Status Seminar Chip Technologies in Frankfurt
DNA and protein chips are a major topic of our research and the Dechema meeting is a must-go every year. Here are some pics from the poster session:
Bunsen Symposium in Bayreuth
They called it Bunsen Symposium in Proteins at Surfaces but all I got were these bar pics. So what.
Hey Rupi! Good to see you again!
Skiing trip to Adelboden
Raghu, our indian dare devil was the hero during this sporting event in Switzerland.
New years reception
It all started out with some good food and conversations
It also pays of to hire a professional photographer for such events. We had Jay Arrrhh! who managed to capture these impressive shots that describe the event in an amazingly compressed intensity (or so):
Some french know how to behave:
others are still practizing (with very limited success as it seems - ask Waltraud!):
