Third Sabbatical Report of Steve Feller, February 5, 2016

We arrived in Innsbruck February 2. This is a small city famed for being an olympic host to the winter games in 1964. It is in a valley surrounded by the Austrian Alps and it is gorgeous. Here I am visiting the inorganic and theoretical chemistry department of the University of Innsbruck. It is headed by Prof.Hubert Huppertz who also acts as the dean of the institute. The reason for coming, besides the beautiful mountains, is that they specialize in the making of new borate crystals; this will make a great addition to our research. Already we`have discussed projects for many hours.

My last few days in England were great. Alex Hannon and I finalized a long list of scientific collaborative projects. We did an experiment on the large synchrotron (X ray source known as diamond) on bismuth germanates. We analyzed data found on lithium silicate samples prepared by Matt Kielty, class of 13 (now a grad student at Clemson). We went to London for a day and, also, we had a flurry of dinners with scientific and other English friends. In London we went to the British Museum, two numismatic establishments, and we saw a West End (as good as Broadway) production of the classic Guys and Dolls. The British Museum is simply spectacular. It is free and has treasures of the world. For instance, I show below an image of one of the dozens of Elgin Marbles liberated from the Parthenon in the early nineteenth century. These marbles are the subject of considerable dispute between the museum and the Greek government. They are fantastic artifacts as you can see..

Shown below are the two numismatic firms done in the classic British style. The first is across the street from the British Museum:

Coincraft is directly across the street from the British Museum. It is a wonderful old-style shop.

A few treasures were obtained from these stores. This made my wallet lighter.

The British Museum, a true treasure. While there I saw a special exhibit on Egyptian religions from 0 to 1000 A.D.

The Savoy Theatre where Guys and Dolls was played. It was packed when the show began.

Back in Blewbury, my village in England, I learned a key skill.

Amazingly enough and coincidentally, I met Professor Faisal Alamgir and his family. Faisal, a Coe physics major class of 1996, is a professor at Georgia Tech. He is on a 7 month sabbatical to Oxford University.Several Coe students have gone to grad school there. Barb is learning how to cook Indian food. The meal was super.

The institute here in Innsbruck is first class. They are housed in a new 90,000,000 euro facility that houses chemistry and medical research. State of the art in all respects it is brilliantly laid out. On the walls are all sorts of scientific information, I call them teaching walls. Here is a sample of three panelsin a row:

As some of you from Modern Physics now Schrodinger was Austrian.

The solutions of the hydrogen wavefunctions that give rise to the fantastic orbitals are shown above as part of the wallpanel!

The research labs here are quite excellent as shown above and below.

Note the three tube type furnaces shown here.

Yesterday, Thursday Feb 4, I spent hours talking to my host about boron structures, glasses and crystals. Since he is a world expert who studies borate crystals I learned a lot. He has discovered several new structures, so far unknown in borate glasses such as edge sharing tetrahedra and oxygens three coordinated with borons. If we could make these into glasses under pressure it would mean a significant advance in our field. We plan to try. I will be giving three talks here over the next week. It is y view that speaking to colleagues for extended periods is the best way for us to expand our role in science.

I also sat in one of his lectures in first year chemistry. He had a brisk pace, showed 7 different demos, and had but one question. I could follow him on the board as he discussed all sorts of sulfur chemistry. Since this was the last day of classes before semester exams the students honored Hubert with a nice chocolate cake and a bottle of wine and gave him a nice applause by rapping their knuckles on the desks.

By the way the view outside of Hubert´s (my host) office of the alps changes by the minute.Shown here are two views an hour or so apart:

Clouds nearly enclose the Alps surrounding Innsbruck.

Mountain views change in minutes.

Here are some views of Innsbruck from a walk Barb and I took.:

Across the Inn River from the old city (Innsbruck means bridge over the river Inn).

Barb and I will visit the mountains next week.

For those who care the food here is very different than in the UK. It is much closer to the Eastern European food I grew up with in NY.

A week from Sunday we travel to Athens, Greece for meetings with collaborator Dr. Stratos Kamitsos. This is likely to be mz last sabbatical and I want to complete the circle by visiting Stratos again after visiting him 26 years ago during my first sabbatical abroad. We have many scientific projects in common.