Conference 2: 11th Micropol & Ecohazard Conference 2019

• Where: Global Convention Plaza, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea

• When: Oct. 20th ~ 24th, 2019

I went to the 11th Micropol & Ecohazard Conference from Monday, 21th of October. It was an international conference, so all the presentations were in English, which I enjoyed more :). Compared to the conference of the Korea Chemical Society, the size was smaller, and people seemed to know each other more. Somehow, I felt more friendliness from the participants. I enjoyed talking to the poster presenters. Various topics on the water treatment - from statistical study to experimental study for chemical water purification process - were handled in this conference.

In particular, the plenary lectures and keynote speeches were the most interesting. That's maybe because I have been preparing to go to US universities, and many of the professors were from well-known US universities. I was surprised to find out that the paper that I have read was the one written in Prof. Pedro J.J. Alvarez's group at Rice University. I could ask a question regarding the problem which I have confronted in my experiment these days.

Also, the keynote speech on the title, 'Toward Single Atom Catalysis for Environmental Application,' helped me to understand how my past research experiences might help in solving other environmental problems. Indeed many noble metals could be utilized for other applications such as bio-fouling and chemical oxidation of organic pollutants. Besides, I could learn many other synthetic and characterization methods such as ALD, photoreduction, and CO adsorption.

At first, I thought the research topics of the different departments, such as environmental engineering, chemical engineering, material science and engineering, and chemistry, were all separated and distinguishable. However, now it seems like they are all interconnected so that I could develop materials not only for water oxidation but also for degrading organic pollutants or metal ions in water, for example. Overall, it was an excellent opportunity to know what could be handled as a chemistry student.