On Friday I hosted our combined groups (Agnieszka’s and mine). For the fifth time we celebrate together passing of the year – I begin to regret that the event is so seldom because the food (personally prepared) was really excellent. And the “spirit of the forest” initiated dancing, so dynamic that even the Irish dance came out blurry (see second picture). Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all members and sympathizers of our groups as well as readers of this page!

Today Marshal Witold Stepien presented awards for the best dissertations and diploma thesis thematically related to our region. Statuettes also received entrepreneurs cooperating with the Technical University. I had the honor to be a part of jury.

On the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Hungarian Fulbright program European Network of American Alumni Associations, together with the Hungarian Fulbright Association organized a conference “Knowledge Transfer and Academic Mobility in the 21st Century“, which took place yesterday in the beautiful Aula Magna of the Law Department of Eötvös Loránd University. In addition to interesting lectures and panel discussions in which active participation took representatives on several European countries including Poland (presentation by Professor Józef Kobos from Lodz), we also had the chance to visit Budapest, including the presidential palace, as well as to be guests of the US Ambassador to Hungary (which is illustrated by the attached photos).

I managed (see previous entry) – and took part in the ceremony of awarding Professor  Jerzy Leszczynski  dignity of Doctor Honoris Causa by the Wroclaw University of Science Technology. And I saw it from the first row as designated by the Senate of the Technical University of Lodz reviewer his scientific achievements. The ceremony very beautiful, but I liked the most the playful yet very warm way in which he thanked his wife, Danuta (pictured next to me) for many years of her suport.

The lectures by Professors Rodney Bartlett and Martin Head-Gordon initiated on November 11 a two-days conference Current Trends in Computational Chemistry. Organized already 24 times by Professor Jerzy Leszczynski conference allows the exchange of information on the latest research directions of invited speakers and to familiarize students and doctoral candidates with these trends. The most surprising thing for me were the posters of the research performed by high school students. Although my lecture was the last lecture on Saturday, I hope that I can make it to participate in the ceremony of awarding the Organizer an honorary doctorate in Wroclaw. Anuluj  

8th ISI conference was weld in Nantes from 3rd to 6th of November. Apart from meeting people working whole life on isotopes (with John Hayes in the picture) a numer of new, important developments have been presented, including application of isotopic ratios in cancer diagnostics (the team from Nantes published their report simultaneously with our Oncotarget paper), diabetic breath test, or clamped isotopes (see pictures).