Perspective Speakers

Syracuse University, U.S.

Title of lecture: Frontiers of Advanced Vibrational Spectroscopy: The Molecular Chirality Perspective

Professor Nafie, Emeritus Distinguished Professor at Syracuse University, received his Ph.D. from the University of Oregon in 1973, studying the theory Raman scattering, and from 1973 to 1975 was a postdoctoral associate at the University of Southern California where he confirmed the discovery of vibrational circular dichroism (VCD).  In 1975 joined the faculty at Syracuse University and established a research program in VCD and Raman optical activity (ROA).  Among his notable achievements were the first measurements of Fourier transform VCD, the first measurements of scattered (SCP) and dual circular polarization  (DCP) ROA, nuclear velocity perturbation (NVP) theory of VCD, now a new accurate method for VCD calculations, electron transition current density (TCD) maps, and finally the theory and confirmation of resonance ROA (RROA).  In 1996, he co-founded with Dr. Rina Dukor BioTools, Inc. to commercialize VCD and ROA spectroscopy and was co-chair with Rina of ICAVS-3 in Wisconsin, USA.  He has won an Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship (1978) the Bomem-Michelson Award (2001), the Pittsburgh Molecular Spectroscopy Award (2014), the Chirality Medal (2019) for lifetime contributions to molecular chirality, and the Raman Lifetime Achievement Award (2022).  In 2010 he became Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Raman Spectroscopy, and in 2011 he published Vibrational Optical Activity: Principles and Applications by John Wiley & Sons.  He has over 300 publications and several patents. 

University of Florence, Italy

Title lecture: Strategies and perspectives to investigate the heme-enzymatic mechanism by resonance Raman spectroscopy

Giulietta Smulevich is Professor of Physical Chemistry at the University of Florence. She was visiting and Faculty member at the chemistry Department of Princeton (USA), and visiting Professor at Rutgers U. (USA), Concordia U. (Canada), Buenos Aires U. (Argentina), Berlin technical University (Germany). From 2003 to 2008 she held a position of External Professor, at the Department of Life Sciences (section of Biotechnology), Aalborg University (Denmark). Her research interest has been directed toward the elucidation of the structure-function relationships and catalytic mechanism of heme-containing enzymes from different sources, namely humans, animals, plants, and more recently bacteria, in solutions and crystals, using mainly UV-Vis, resonance Raman and micro-resonance Raman spectroscopy techniques at different temperatures. To date, she is the author of more than 230 scientific papers. In 2022 she has been honored with the Eraldo Antonini Lifetime Achievement Award by the International Society of Porphyrins and Phtalocyanines.