08/2013

The CCHF's Annual Frontiers in C-H Functionalization was held at Emory University from August the 15th-18th. With over 100 participants, ranging from undergraduate and graduate students, postdocs, faculty members, interested faculty, industrial partners and interested industrial affiliates this years symposium was an exciting success.

The Symposium was broken down into three general sections. Thursdays program provided a day focused upon the Students professional development. The Center hosted a full days program, run by the ACS, intended to make students think about how to prepare for life after graduate school and the career options available. This was part of our "Preparing Future Innovators" (PFI) program, a series of lectures run in partnership with the CCI Center for Chemical Evolution. Students from across the CCHF participated in this workshop, flying in a day early to benefit from this program.

Friday was an open overview day, intended to summarize the scientific and outreach activities of the CHF over the past year. In the audience were participants from outside the CCHF membership, both academic and industrial, who are potential future partners and collaborators and this session gave an introduction to many of them to what the CCHF has done and aims to achieve. They were many highlights to the days programs with overviews from each of the thematic areas, a run down of our integrative activities, a round table hosted by industrial participants focused on sustainability in synthetic chemistry and a poster session run by the student members of the Center.

Saturday and Sunday were more open days with the emphasis on free-thinking and brainstorming, giving some face to face time for the researchers to really help build and strengthen the bridges that form the basis of the collaborative network within the CCHF.