The video recording of the Memorial Tribute to Alex Pines held on January 13, 2025 is available under ISMAR-> Conversations on Magnetic Resonance.
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Alex Pines Memorial Tribute video available
January 21st, 2025 by Stephan GrzesiekISMAR announces new Fellows for 2024/2025
December 26th, 2024 by Stephan GrzesiekSharon Ashbrook (U St. Andrews, UK), Juli Feigon (UCLA, USA), Christina Redfield (U Oxford, UK), Robert Schurko (Florida State University, USA), and Christiane Timmel (U Oxford, UK) have been elected as Fellows of ISMAR in December 2024.
Sharon Ashbrook, for her innovative research combining NMR spectroscopy and computational techniques to explore complex materials, her dedication to community service and her advocacy for women in science and public education.
Juli Feigon, for her groundbreaking contributions to the development and application of NMR methods to study nucleic acids.
Christina Redfield, for her groundbreaking contributions to the field of NMR spectroscopy and her innovative applications in elucidating protein structure, dynamics, and function.
Robert Schurko, for being an innovator in the field of solid-state NMR, excelling in theoretical and experimental aspects of chemistry, materials science, quantum chemical computation, and spectroscopy, for being a committed educator and supporter of next generation scientists in academia and industry, and for being a global leader for pushing the frontier of high magnetic field NMR science and applications.
Christiane Timmel, for her pioneering contributions to the magnetic field effect on chemical reactions and cryptochrome proteins in migratory birds through innovative implementation of EPR methods, instrumentation and chemistry tools, and for her dedication for educating the next generation researchers and her effective leadership in advocating for the EPR community and technology.
Many congratulations to these five outstanding scientists.
Fellows are elected on the basis of their contributions to the field of magnetic resonance, both through the impact of their research on the magnetic resonance community itself and through their efforts to advance the appreciation of magnetic resonance in the broader scientific community. Fellowship in ISMAR carries with it an associated responsibility to serve as an advocate for the field of magnetic resonance.
Each year, ISMAR solicits nominations for new Fellows from all regular members of ISMAR. Nominations are first evaluated by the ISMAR Fellows Committee. A list of candidates is then sent to current Fellows for voting, based on both scientific achievements and contributions to the magnetic resonance community.
Note that there was a shift in the schedule and this election covers also part of 2025. The shift was introduced so that the newly elected fellows can be announced during the ISMAR conferences in the middle of the year. The next call for nominations will be issued towards the end of 2025.
2025 ISMAR Prize and Abragam Prize recipients, Callaghan Lecturer
December 6th, 2024 by Stephan GrzesiekThe ISMAR Prize Committee has selected the recipients of the 2025 ISMAR Prize and the 2025 Abragam Prize. The ISMAR Prize recipient is Professor Dame Clare Grey of the University of Cambridge, a pioneer in applying solid-state NMR to materials relevant to energy and the environment. The Abragam Prize recipient is Dr. Irene Marco-Rius from the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia, Barcelona, a pioneer in the development of biomedical imaging and spectroscopy applied to the study of cells grown on chips.
The ISMAR Executive Committee has also selected Prof. Sami Jannin of the University of Lyon, to be the 2025 Paul Callaghan Lecturer. Prof. Jannin develops new hyperpolarization approaches for preparing nuclear spins in highly polarized or ‘aligned’ states to augment their sensitivity in magnetic resonance.
We congratulate Drs. Grey, Marco-Rius and Jannin and look forward to their lectures on the opening of day of the 2025 joint ISMAR/ENC conference in Asilomar, Pacific Grove, on April 6, 2025. Please see https://www.enc-conference.org/ENC-ISMAR-2025/ for details.
Anil Kumar 1941-2024
November 10th, 2024 by Stephan GrzesiekAnil Kumar 25 June 1941 – 9 November, 2024
ISMAR mourns the passing of Prof. Anil Kumar on November 9, 2024, at the age of 83 after a brief illness.
Anil had worked as a young research associate with Richard R. Ernst and Kurt Wüthrich, where he performed the first NOESY experiment on a protein, ... also the first 2D-FT-MRI experiment. [He was] one of the most outstanding Indian NMR spectroscopists, and important contributor to quantum information processing by NMR. And owner of the most infectious chuckle in NMR (Malcolm Levitt).
Anil was a professor at the Indian Institute of Science in Bengaluru. Among his many recognitions are the Sir C.V. Raman Medal and the Goyal Award in Chemistry by the Indian Chemical Society. He was a fellow of the Indian National Science Academy and of ISMAR, and friend to many of us.
We miss him deeply.
The following tributes and remembrances are from Anil's former Swiss colleagues Profs. Kurt Wüthrich and Gerhard Wagner as well as his Indian colleagues Profs. Suryaprakash Nagarajarao, K .V. Ramanathan, and P.K. Madhu.
Tribute by Kurt Wüthrich and Gerhard Wagner
With the passing of Professor Anil Kumar the Swiss NMR community has lost a very special scientific colleague and a dear friend. We recall here a particularly memorable visit in Switzerland.
Anil Kumar spent a sabbatical year from August 1979 to July 1980 as an “Akademischer Gast” at the ETH Zürich, where he joined the collaboration project of Richard R. Ernst and Kurt Wüthrich on the development of two-dimensional NMR for studies of biological macromolecules in solution. This project had been started in November 1976, with Kuniaki Nagayama located in the space of the Wüthrich group at the ETH Hoenggerberg campus and Peter Bachmann located in the space of the Ernst group at the downtown ETH campus. Kuniaki and Peter had by 1979 written the software for 2D NMR spectroscopy, and established protocols for recording homonuclear 2D J-resolved, SECSY and COSY data sets of proteins. Peter Bachmann left the project in April 1979. Kuniaki Nagayama continued to optimize the correlation experiments specifically, to overcome limitations of the available memory and disc space. Anil Kumar inherited Kuniaki Nagayama’s position in the joint project and his one-year stay with us was tremendously successful.
Roots of this success are manyfold: Anil Kumar was one of the highly gifted scientists working on NMR. Anil had in the mid-70s been a postdoctoral fellow in Richard Ernst’s group, when they worked on the initial 2D NMR experiments with small molecules and on basics of magnetic resonance imaging. In 1979, Anil and Kuniaki overlapped in the Wüthrich laboratory for three months, so that Anil could get thoroughly introduced into the practice of 2D NMR with proteins. In several long evening discussions on the possibilities of adding 2D NOE experiments to our arsenal, we underestimated the sensitivity that could be achieved when working with macromolecules. As a consequence, Anil Kumar was encouraged to use the time period from December 23, 1979 to January 3, 1980 for a single 2D NOE experiment on our 360 MHz NMR spectrometer with a highly concentrated solution of the protein BPTI. The result was a 2D NOESY map of superb quality. Anil then joined forces with Gerhard Wagner to combine the power of the 2D NOE experiments with Gerhard’s long-standing experience from one-dimensional NOE experiments with proteins. Gerhard remembers this time in the following paragraphs.
I, Gerhard Wagner, was at the time an “Oberassistent” in the Wüthrich laboratory and had the pleasure to host Anil Kumar during his 1979/1980 sabbatical in my office for a couple of weeks. From his earlier time in the Ernst lab, Anil had a deep understanding of the principles of 2D NMR. He realized that this principle could also be applied for 2D NOE experiments. Luckily, we had a highly soluble protein available, the basic pancreatic trypsin inhibitor, BPTI, which we could concentrate up to 20 mM or more. Furthermore, we had realized that when using short (truncated) irradiation times, small numbers of short distance contacts could be obtained, which allowed nearly complete backbone assignments for BPTI by avoiding problems of spin diffusion. We had built a plastic model of BPTI based on the known crystal structure. Studying this model we realized that the shortest distances were across the peptide bonds from the amide protons to the preceding alpha protons. Thus, applying short irradiating times to individual resolved amide signals with 1D NMR experiments yielded a large fraction of connectivities across the peptide bonds. Spin decoupling yielded the intra-residue connections. However, this was at a loss for many of the overlapping signals that could not be assigned with 1D NOE or spin-decoupling experiments. Moreover, the water signal had to be saturated if amides were not slowly exchanging, which prevented to use the decoupler for selectively saturating amides to build up NOEs.
These limitations were overcome when Anil introduced the 2D NOE (NOESY) experiment in our lab where the selective saturations of proton signals were obtained with the three-pulse exchange-spectroscopy sequence. The decoupler was not needed for creating NOEs and was available for water saturation for assigning also protein signals with rapidly exchanging amides. As the initial 1D NOE experiments took much instrument time, irradiating many signals one after the other, it was not clear how sensitive the proposed 2D NOE would take. Thus, Anil was given our 360 MHz instrument over the long winter holiday break. Fortunately, the NOESY experiment was significantly more sensitive than expected and has since then become key for many biological NMR experiments, which was key for determine protein structures in solution.
Tribute by Suryaprakash Nagarajarao, K .V. Ramanathan and P.K. Madhu
Prof. Anil Kumar's contributions to nuclear magnetic resonance spanned a wide range. These include relaxation, cross-correlation, strong-coupling effects in multidimensional spectroscopy, cross-polarisation dynamics and suppression of sidebands in solid-state NMR, transition-selective pulses, nuclear quadrupolar resonance, and NMR quantum information and computing. Anil had a wonderful insight into the physics of various concepts in magnetic resonance and he was well noted for teaching various graduate-level courses that included NMR and Quantum Mechanics.
Prof. Anil Kumar obtained his Master’s degree from Agra University in the year 1961 and PhD degree in 1969 from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, under the supervision of Prof. B.D.N. Rao. He did his Post-doctoral research in the United States at the Georgia Institute of Technology with Prof. Sydney Gordon and at the University of North Carolina with Prof. Charles Johnson. He then moved to the laboratory of Prof. R.R. Ernst at ETH, Zurich where he performed the first 2D Fourier imaging experiment. He was also the first one to observe transient oscillations in cross-polarisation dynamics in solids. Anil returned to India and joined Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore as a Faculty member in January 1977. Here he started to work on further developments in two-dimensional NMR spectroscopy. He returned to Zurich for the academic year 1979-80, in a joint project of Prof. Ernst and Prof. Wuthrich. During this period, he was the first one to perform the two-dimensional Nuclear Overhauser Effect experiment, popularly known as NOESY in a protein, which opened the field for the determination of three-dimensional structures of biomolecules in solution by NMR. In his laboratory in India, he continued to explore challenging problems such as the study of cross-correlations in relaxation. He has major contributions in the field of NMR quantum information processing and NMR quantum computing and has pioneered several experimental aspects. Additionally, Prof. Anil Kumar dedicated himself to popularising the power of the modern NMR methodology and has been largely responsible for the current wide-spread use of the technique in India.
Prof. Anil Kumar was widely respected as a mentor and had a large number of PhD students. Whilst demanding the highest possible academic standards from his students, Anil also granted total freedom to all his co-workers. This open attitude of Anil helped all his students to achieve academic excellence of high standards. Anil’s passion and dedication to science in general and NMR in particular was of exemplary standards. His cheerful laughter in the IISc Department of Physics corridors will be sorely missed. In his passing away, the NMR world has lost a scientist of very high caliber.
Alex Pines 1945-2024
November 6th, 2024 by Stephan GrzesiekThe Magnetic Resonance community mourns the passing of Prof. Alex Pines on November 2, 2024, at the age of 79.
Alex Pines was a groundbreaking researcher in solid state NMR, beloved teacher, recipient of many awards including the ISMAR Prize, ISMAR President, Fellow of ISMAR, and friend to many of us.
Our thoughts are with his family and friends.
While a more extensive tribute will follow, here is a short note and call for contributions of remembrance by Jeff Reimer.
Cherished Colleagues:
This past weekend Ditsa Pines called me and told me that Alex Pines had passed, surrounded by family.
A brief obituary can be found here https://reimergroup.org/alex-pines.html. This sterile text was edited from the press release surrounding the launch of the Pines Magnetic Resonance Center at Berkeley in November, 2023. Ditsa gave me this photograph to share with you.
I have already seen some emails and social media posts expressing regrets and remembrances. Thank you for those.
I would like to assemble A BOOK for Ditsa and her family that contains good wishes, remembrances, or photos. If you would like to contribute, please EMAIL THEM TO ME at reimer@berkeley.edu I expect to assemble the book by the end of the month.
Of course, please feel free to share this email with any colleagues that might not see this post.
With a broken heart,
Jeff Reimer
Klaus Möbius, 1936 – 2024
November 5th, 2024 by Stephan GrzesiekThe Magnetic Resonance community mourns the passing of Prof. Klaus Möbius on October 18, 2024, at the age of 88.
Klaus Möbius was a pioneer of EPR spectroscopy and its applications to study the photosynthetic center, and friend to many of us.
Among many distinctions, Klaus Möbius received the AMPERE Award, the Gold Medal of the International EPR (ESR) Society, the Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, and was a Fellow of ISMAR.
Our thoughts are with his family and friends.
Expressions of sympathy and remembrances may be directed to Klaus' daughter Katharina Möbius at familie.klaus.moebius@gmx.de
The following tribute was written by Prof. Wolfgang Lubitz
Klaus Möbius passed away on October 18, 2024, at the age of 88 in Berlin. He is leaving behind his wife Uta and two daughters. Our sincere condolences go to his family and his friends.
Klaus was a pioneer of modern advanced EPR spectroscopy, including electron-nuclear double resonance (ENDOR), and cw and pulse high field EPR; he applied these techniques to many pertinent questions in chemistry and the life sciences. On the occasion of his 85th birthday he wrote an autobiography, in which he is telling the story of his life (1).
Klaus Möbius was born 1936 in Berlin and studied physics at the Freie Universität Berlin (FUB), where he also received his doctoral degree (1965). After his habilitation in Experimental Physics 1969 at FUB he spent a postdoctoral year with his family at UC Riverside in California. Back in Berlin he received a position as Professor at the Physics Department of the FUB in 1971. In the following years Klaus Möbius and his group built up a variety of multiple magnetic resonance methods, including local and distant ENDOR and TRIPLE resonance, optically detected magnetic resonance (ODMR) and nuclear quadrupole resonance and applied these methods to organic and organometallic molecules in various matrices in their singlet and doublet ground and excited triplet states.
Within one decade his laboratory became one of the leading places for magnetic resonance, attracting many international guests and collaborators.
A highlight during these years was the application to photosynthetic reaction centers of bacteria, plants, and related model systems. This seminal work elegantly demonstrated the power of EPR/ENDOR spectroscopy in determining the electronic structure of paramagnetic species in complex biological systems and has substantially contributed to understanding light-induced charge separation in photosynthesis.
Initiated by earlier work of Yakov Lebedev (Moscow) Klaus Möbius also engaged in the development of High Field EPR and published details of a cw HF-EPR instrument at 95 GHz in the mid-eighties, which was later extended to time resolved (transient) and pulse work, including ESEEM/HYSCORE, DEER/PELDOR, ELDOR-detected NMR (EDNMR) and pulse ENDOR – with in-situ light excitation and a large accessible temperature range. This opened many interesting applications across the sciences – especially the life sciences - that are described in his monograph on HF-EPR (2) and a recent review article (3). The field was boosted - in Germany and worldwide - by the Priority Program “High Field EPR in Biology, Chemistry and Physics” of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG). The program was co-initiated and coordinated by Klaus Möbius (1998-2004). It was instrumental in the further development and application of higher fields and frequencies in many EPR laboratories, in close analogy to the earlier development of NMR spectroscopy.
Klaus, stayed in Berlin during his entire career. His dedication to his home city, the great scientific surrounding with many cooperation partners, and the excellent funding provided by the DFG and FUB contributed to this decision. This enabled a continuity of his research that could hardly be matched anywhere else. At FUB he engaged in teaching the next generation of scientists. He gave truly excellent lectures in the classroom, and also in many schools dedicated to Magnetic Resonance and on national and international conferences to which he was often invited.
After his formal retirement at the FUB (2001) he successfully continued his work as permanent guest scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion in Mülheim/Ruhr. It is remarkable that Klaus published over 100 scientific papers and wrote 3 books after his retirement. For his excellent work he received many awards, including the Bruker Prize, the Max Planck Research Award, the International Zavoisky Award, the Philip-Morris Research Award, the AMPERE Prize, and the Gold Medal of the International EPR Society. An overview of his impressive list of awards, fellowships and other honors, his function in academic societies, and a list of his scientific publications can be found in (4).
Klaus Möbius was a strong advocate for the International Society of Magnetic Resonance. He always pointed out the importance of ISMAR for bringing together scientists interested in magnetic resonance from very different disciplines around the world – a unique opportunity to learn about recent developments and applications in various fields of science. Klaus was invited to many ISMAR meetings to lecture about his recent results at the interface of EPR and NMR. In 2009 he was elected as Fellow of ISMAR. He was one of the founding fathers of the European Foundation of EPR Societies (EFEPR) and its first president (1991-1994) and worked also for many years for the International EPR Society.
During his entire career he was establishing and maintaining sustainable international cooperations worldwide, e.g. with Russia, Israel, Japan, Italy and many other nations, which particularly benefited the next generation of young scientists. For these activities he was awarded the Verdienstkreuz 1. Klasse (German “Federal Cross of Merit, First Class”) in 2006.
Klaus Möbius has worked his whole life for international understanding, for peace and actively against war - against the use of weapons, especially nuclear weapons. Also nuclear power plants were taboo for him. The deterioration of international scientific relations in recent years due to the military conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East was terrible for him.
He was also concerned about the massive use of fossil fuels leading to global warming and engaged in research to develop alternative, sustainable energy sources. His great interest and work in natural and artificial photosynthesis was directly related to this problem. His fascination of photosynthesis is documented by the play "Life on Earth through Photosynthesis", which he wrote together with Giovanni Giacometti (Padua), published in 2016.
His interests and knowledge far beyond the natural sciences is documented in a beautiful way by his last book the “Möbius Strip Topology”, a comprehensive work with excursions into science history, chemistry, nanotechnology, material science, architecture, art and music (5).
Klaus was convinced that good scientific cooperations should be built upon personal relations and friendships. He deeply respected other scientific disciplines, from which he obtained important impulses for his research. His students and postdocs appreciated his interdisciplinary scientific approach, it often laid the foundation for their later work. I personally couldn't have wished for a better scientific teacher, mentor and advisor for my professional career.
With Klaus Möbius we are losing an excellent scientist, a strong advocate for magnetic resonance and for science in general, a great human being and for many of us a good friend.
We will not forget him, preserve his memory and continue his work.
Wolfgang Lubitz Mülheim an der Ruhr, November 2024
- K. Möbius Autobiographical Sketches, Appl. Magn. Reson. 53, 467– 489 (2022), https://doi.org/10.1007/s00723-021-01410-6.
- K. Möbius, A. Savitsky High Field EPR Spectroscopy, RSC Publishing (2009)
- K. Möbius, W. Lubitz, N. Cox, A. Savitsky Biomolecular EPR Meets NMR at High Magnetic
Fields, Magnetochemistry (2018) 4, 50, doi:10.3390/magnetochemistry4040050 - https://www.physik.fu-berlin.de/en/einrichtungen/alte_ags/ag-moebius/index.html
- K. Möbius, M. Plato, A. Savitsky The Möbius Strip Topology, Jenny Stanford Publ. (2023)
The Current Status and Future Direction of High-Magnetic-Field Science and Technology in the United States
October 11th, 2024 by Alexej JerschowThe committee on the current status and future direction of high-magnetic-field science in the United States released a new report, which is available here via the National Academy of Sciences:
George Radda 1936-2024
October 10th, 2024 by Stephan GrzesiekSir George Radda 9 June 1936 – 13 September 2024
ISMAR mourns the passing of Prof. Sir George Radda on September 13, 2024, at the age of 88.
George Radda pioneered the first clinical application of NMR using phosphorus-31 NMR to follow muscle metabolism in human patients, thereby laying the groundwork for the non-invasive diagnosis of various diseases by magnetic resonance imaging.
Sir George was professor at the Biochemistry Department of the University of Oxford. He received numerous awards during his life, and was also an ISMAR Fellow.
A summary of his scientific work can be found here.
Our thoughts are with his family and friends.
ISMAR Fellows nomination targeting underrepresented groups for 2025 election
October 1st, 2024 by Alexej JerschowCall for Proposals to Host the 26th ISMAR Conference in 2029
September 30th, 2024 by Stephan GrzesiekThe International Society of Magnetic Resonance calls for proposals from groups of magnetic resonance scientists to organize and host the 26th ISMAR Conference, which will take place in 2029. If you and your colleagues are interested in hosting this Conference, we ask that you submit a preliminary proposal with the following information:
- Proposed location and dates of the meeting.
- Brief description of the status of magnetic resonance in the host country or region.
- Information about the proposed Local Organizing Committee, including names, affiliations, responsibilities, and research areas of committee members. The Local Organizing Committee should have a chair who will serve as the primary point of contact, as well as members who will take responsibility for fund-raising, arrangements with the Conference site, development of a Conference web site, organization of social/cultural/recreational events, arrangements for registration by attendees, arrangements for vendor exhibits, etc.
- Information about the proposed Conference site, including lecture halls, space for posters and vendor exhibits, lodging options, dining options, travel accessibility for international attendees, etc.
- Estimated budget, including registration fees, cost of facilities and refreshments/meals, web site and Conference management costs, likely sources of financial support, travel support for plenary and invited speakers, etc.
Based on our experience with previous ISMAR Conferences, the following items should be considered:
- It is helpful for the ISMAR Conference to be sponsored by one or more magnetic resonance associations in the host country or region. The ISMAR Conference can be combined with regular magnetic resonance meetings in the host country.
- Selection of plenary speakers and invited speakers will be the responsibility of a Scientific Committee, which is separate from the Local Organizing Committee. Members of the Scientific Committee, including the Chair of the Scientific Committee, will be chosen by ISMAR. These members will represent all active areas of magnetic resonance research (solution NMR, solid state NMR, EPR, MRI, applications in biology, chemistry, physics, medicine, methodological developments, etc.) and all parts of the world, including the host country or region.
- Attendance at recent ISMAR Conferences has been in the 400-1000 range.
- ISMAR expects to receive 50 USD for each attendee (25 USD for student attendees). In return, each attendee becomes a full member of ISMAR for the next two years. These contributions to ISMAR must be included in the proposed Conference budget and should be covered by registration fees or other sources of support.
- ISMAR Conferences take place once every two years. ISMAR attempts to hold its Conferences in various regions of the world on a rotating basis. Recent and upcoming Conferences have been/will be in Brazil (2013), China (2015), Canada (2017), Germany (ISMAR-EUROMAR 2019), Japan (2021), Australia (2023), USA (ISMAR-ENC 2025), France (ISMAR-EUROMAR 2027). No decisions regarding the location of the 2029 ISMAR Conference have been made yet, but a location in Asia would be most consistent with ISMAR's goals.
- A final decision about the location of the 2029 ISMAR Conference will be made by the ISMAR Council, immediately after presentations to the ISMAR Council by groups that submit full proposals. These presentations will take place during the 2025 ENC-ISMAR Conference in Asilomar on April 6-11 2025. (Members of the ISMAR Council are listed at https://ismar.org/ismar-organization/.)
Preliminary proposals should be submitted by January 15, 2025 to Alexej Jerschow,
Secretary General of ISMAR (e-mail: alexej.jerschow@nyu.edu).
Please direct any questions to Alexej Jerschow or to Stephan Grzesiek, President of ISMAR (e-mail: stephan.grzesiek@unibas.ch).
The Executive Committee of ISMAR, September 2024