At the beginning of March, the "Guangdong-Technion Leadership in Science and Technology Lecture Series" will invite Prof. Ron Naaman, member of Academia Europaea, to share his latest research achievements in the field of chiral materials in popular and scientific perspectives for GTIIT teachers and students.

Popular Lecture: The Origin of Life and Chirality

Date: March 8th, 2022 (Tuesday)

Time: 19:00-20:00 (Beijing Time) 13:00-14:00 (Israel Time)

Venue: E310, GTIIT Education Building

Host: Prof. Zuoti Xie (GTIIT MSE)

Language: English (Simultaneous interpretation will be available)

Zoom Link:

(1) By mobile phone: please scan the QR code to attend the lecture

(2) By PC: please visit the website below to attend the lecture

https://gtiit.zoom.us/j/92812584971

Abstract of Popular Lecture

How Life started is a long-standing question, to which a full answer is not available yet. Part of the problem in answering the question is the lack of clear evidence. An important approach toward finding an answer is to consider all the constraints that had to exist when Life was formed. One such constrain is the homochirality in Life. Chirality is a symmetric property that means that each chiral molecule appears in two forms-enantiomers that are mirror images of each other. Chiral molecules are playing important role in Life, since proteins and DNA are chiral. However, in Life all the chiral molecules appear almost exclusively as one enantiomer. It will be shown how this fact can help in limiting the possibilities of paths towards the formation of Life.

Scientific Lecture: Chiral Material and the Electrons' Spin- A Miraculous Match

Date: March 15th, 2022 (Tuesday)

Time: 19:00-20:00 (Beijing Time) 13:00-14:00 (Israel Time)

Venue: E310, GTIIT Education Building

Host: Prof. Zuoti Xie (GTIIT MSE)

Language: English (Simultaneous interpretation will be available)

Zoom Link:

(1) By mobile phone: please scan the QR code to attend the lecture

(2) By PC: please visit the website below to attend the lecture

https://gtiit.zoom.us/j/97328172407

Abstract of Scientific Lecture

The "conventional wisdom" about chirality in biomolecules is that it serves as a structural motif to place chemical functionalities in defined positions and orientations that enable biologically relevant functions. While the electron spin is accepted as important in defining the structure of atoms and molecules, spin-based properties, applications, and devices are commonly related to materials that have unpaired electrons (paramagnetic). However, we found that chiral molecules, crystals, and films act as spin filters for photoelectrons transmission, in electron transfer, and in electron transport.

The effect termed Chiral Induced Spin Selectivity (CISS) was found, among others, in bio-molecules and in bio-systems as well as in chiral oxides and in chiral perovskites. Its existence may explain the role of chirality in living organisms and allow new applications for chiral molecules and materials like in spintronics devices, in controlling magnetization, and on electron transfer and conduction. It also enables the introduction of new type of catalysts, especially for oxygen-related processes. We also found that charge polarization in chiral molecules is accompanied by spin polarization. This finding shed new light on spin-dependent interaction between chiral molecules and between them and magnetic surfaces. 

Introduction of Ron Naaman

Ron Naaman earned his BSc in 1973 from Ben-Gurion University and his PhD in 1978 from the Weizmann Institute of Science. He worked as a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford University in California, and spent a year in the Department of Chemistry at Harvard University. In 1981, he joined the Weizmann Institute and in 1991 he became a Full Professor. He was the recipient of the Kolthoff Award from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technolog (2014), was honored by a special issue of the Journal of Physical Chemistry (2013). He received the Erasmus Mundus research scholarship at the Technical University in Dresden. and was the recipient of the Israel Vacuum Society Research Excellence Prize in 2011. In 2007, he was the Division of Colloid and Surface Chemistry Lecturer of the Chemical Society of Japan. In 2018 he got the Israel Chemical Society prize for excellent research and in 2020 he got the Humboldt-Meitner Prize. Ron is a fellow of the American Physical Society, Fellow of the Royal Chemical Society, and a member of Academia Europaea.

Text/Photos: RIGS, GTIIT News & Public Affairs