Leading Scientists from All Over the World Will Meet at Samara University

On 24-28 of July, 2018 Samara National Research University will host the First International Conference on Combustion Physics and Chemistry (ConfPhysChem'18). World-class scientists will meet at Samara National Research University, which has been awarded a megagrant to create a laboratory for studying combustion reactions using photoionization mass spectrometry.

Leading scientists from 10 countries of the world — the USA, Great Britain, Italy, Finland, Sweden, China, Japan, Oman, India and Kazakhstan will come to Samara. The participants include both experimenters and theorists engaged in fundamental scientific research in the field of combustion physics, as well as practices that use new fundamental knowledge to solve specific applied problems.

One of the outstanding scientists is Musahid Ahmed, who works at the University of California, Berkeley. He will open the conference and tell his colleagues about new experiments that are carried out on a unique installation, where a synchrotron-electron accelerator is used as a source of light radiation for ionizing the analyzed chemical compounds. The electrons are accelerated by this resonant cyclic accelerator. When decelerated, the electrons emit light with a wavelength from infrared to X-ray. The scientist from the United States will emphasize the practical significance of the results of these experiments.

His colleague Akira Miyoshi from the University of Hiroshima, Japan, conducts experiments in the shock tube — an experimental setup for studying the rates of chemical reactions at high temperature.

"Basically, the rates of chemical reactions are measured at room temperature, as this is the easiest way. And this is one of the main problems for scientists, since it is important for us to know the rate of reactions to obtain a correct result at real flame temperatures, — explained one of the organizers of the conference, Professor of Florida International University Alexander Mebel. — In this case, only 5-6% of the experiments in the world are done at high temperatures. Some of them are conducted on the installation of Akira Miyoshi".

Another laboratory, where experiments will be carried out at high temperatures, is being created at Samara University. It is created within the framework of a megagrant to study the combustion reactions. The works are conducted under the guidance of Alexander Mebel. Based on the results of the research, the team of scientists will offer engineers physically grounded combustion models for designing fundamentally new environmentally friendly and energy efficient combustion chambers for gas turbine engines.

Another participant of the conference is scientist-theorist Alexander Boldyrev. He works at the University of Utah and at the Southern Federal University. In Rostov-on-Don, he is responsible for the implementation of a megagrant in the field of chemistry on the theoretical modeling of nanomaterials. Under his guidance scientists make theoretical calculations, and then on their basis the experimental group synthesizes nanomaterials. He will also tell the participants of the conference about the results of these experiments.

Famous scientist Fei Qi, representing Shanghai Jiao Tong University, as well as prominent scientist-theorist and specialist in combustion physics and chemistry Michael Frenklach, representing the University of California, Berkeley, will tell about the latest discoveries in the field of combustion physics and chemistry. The scientists of Samara University predict that the experience of their colleague Arkke Eskola from Helsinki University will arouse great interest, since the centre for studying combustion is being created in Finland. Long-term partners of Samara University will also arrive in Samara — well-known scientists Michael Heaven from Emory University, Atlanta, Ralf Kaiser from the University of Hawaii and Alexander Konnov from Lund University, Sweden. 

At the forum Russia will be represented by such famous scientists as Oleg Korobeinichev — Head of the Laboratory of Combustion Kinetics at the Institute of Chemical Kinetics and Combustion of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Vladimir Gubernov from P. N. Lebedev Physical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences and others.

“We will gather outstanding scientists of the world: scientists who are engaged in theoretical calculations and practitioners who form the international agenda in the field of combustion physics and chemistry will come. We are very interested in their experience, we hope to exchange new scientific knowledge with them, to establish collaboration, to agree on joint experiments and scientific articles”, — says Alexander Mebel. In addition, the Professor hopes that the conference will help the University in the work on the megagrant: "Samara University strives to become an important global centre for the study of combustion reactions. In the framework of this task, our colleagues and we will discuss what urgent tasks, what measurements of chemical reactions are important to adjust the experimental setup now. And the best way to use it to enter the top of world science in the profile area".

For reference

The main topics of this conference include

Organizers

 

Samara National Research University

Lebedev Physical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences

 

Work on megagrant:

In September 2016, Samara University was the winner of the open grant competition of the Government of the Russian Federation designed to provide governmental support to scientific research projects. The topic of the research is "Development of Physically Reasonable Models of Burning". For the implementation of the megagrant the international scientific laboratory "Combustion Physics and Chemistry" was created under the guidance of Professor of the International University of Florida Alexander Mebel. The uniqueness of the laboratory is that it will realize a complete cycle of studies of combustion processes, from the study of elementary atomic-molecular collisions to the development of environmentally friendly and energy-efficient combustion technologies. An experimental setup is being built in the laboratory for the investigation of combustion reactions. Only three such installations currently exist in the world —in the USA (in Berkeley and in Hawaii) and in China (Hefei).

Ksenia Ionihina