Blog Archives
Back in Pécsi Tudomanyegyetem (Hungary)
I’m so glad to be back in Pécs, Hungary, at the lab of my good old friend Prof. Dr. Sándor Kunsági. It has been seven years since I was last here and so many things have happened and yet it feels like yesterday I was walking through these halls.
As part of an agreement between the science councils of both Mexico and Hungary, our research proposal on the development of macrocyclic-based therapeutic agents for capturing micotoxins and other molecules was selected for financing. As before, the theoretical section will be handled by us, namely to some extent by Marco Diaz as part of his BSc thesis, while the experimental part will be handled by the group from Prof. Kunsagi’s lab and Dr. Lemli Beáta‘s. I’m very excited about living for a month here in Pécs but also about having a close friend, to whom I owe so much, working with me in an experimental-theoretical project that will further advance both our researches and careers. It was in fact the work of Profs. Kunsagi here in Pécs and Silaghi in Cluj, Romania, which got me interested in the supramolecular chemistry of calixarenes.
Lets hope we can manage to keep this collaboration between our labs going on for many years to come. For the sake of humor here are some old and new photographs.
Back to Romania
After two months of working at Pécsi Tudomanyegyetem in the research group of Prof. Kunsági-Máté Sándor, I go back now to my previous office at the Babes-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. Working here at Pécs has been a stimulating experience as well as a very productive one. We managed to obtain enough data as to prepare a couple of papers, which should be ready for submission in about a month. Several calculations on the hosting properties of a selected series of calixarenes were performed in order to further shed light on their skeletal properties with and without guests. NBO calculations were also carried out to assess the bonding properties within these molecules. Most calculations were carried out at the HF/6-31G(d) level of theory and only some DFT (B3LYP) were performed for comparison only. We expect to further understand the mechanisms by which calixarenes work as molecular recognition agents.
Be this a public recognition of the Hungarian hospitality, specially that of Prof. Kunsagi Sandor.
Kösönöm!
Moving out
As part of the research project I’m working on here at the Babes-Bolyai University in Romania, I must now pay a visit to prof. Sandor Kunsagi-Mate in Pecs, Hungary. I’ve met prof. Kunsagi in several occasions before and I’m looking forward to working with him in his research team, although unfortunately he will have to leave next week to the far east to check on some of his multiple collaborations around the world. I’m also looking forward to use their computer facilities which I think are physically located in Budapest. Living near Budapest is something I’m also very much excited about since it’s one of my favorite cities in the world.
I haven’t read much about the University I’m going to, other than it’s the oldest university in Hungary dating back from the days in which King Matei Corvin ruled the Hungarian Empire. King Mathias was born in Cluj-Napoca, by the way. That’s a good 600 years now!
It’s always exciting to start anew in a completely different environment with a new research team. This time my chances of learning a bit of the language are pretty slim. In fact I’ve heard a lot of Hungarian here in Cluj and I haven’t learned too much, other than some isolated words.
Despite all the problems we face on a daily basis here at UBB I will miss Romania while I’m gone; it could be for a month or two. Romania has crawled under my skin, so even if I -often- complain about their ways and customs, it is now a part of me and I think I’m starting to feel homesick.
Pecs will be a nice adventure, I’m sure.
