December 16th-17th, the 2nd All-Russian Conference on the “Modern Materials and Methods of Solving Ecological Problems in Post-industrial Agglomerations” with international participation is being held at South Ural State University. This event has gathered together chemists, ecologists, and biotechnologists from universities of the Urals, Moscow, Saint Petersburg, as well as participants from Belgrade, the capital city of Serbia.
The conference was opened by the SUSU First Vice-Rector, Vice-Rector for Research Anton Korzhov and Director of the Institute of Natural Sciences and Mathematics Alena Zamyshlyaeva.
“This is a second conference devoted to modern materials and problems of ecology,” noted Anton Korzhov. “Jointly with our colleagues from Serbia, we have successfully fulfilled work on these topics under a megagrant. I wish everyone to have fruitful discussions, since the issues of ecology are very relevant and science-intensive today.”
The first plenary report was presented by the Head of the Department of Ecology and Chemical Engineering Vyacheslav Avdin. He shared on the history of the photochemical and electrochemical programmes at SUSU: about their origin in the 1980s and rebirth in 2000s.
Senior Research Fellow of the Nanotechnology Research and Education Centre Oleg Bolshakov delivered a report on the new approaches to functionalization of metal oxides. Three main directions were covered: environment monitoring (sensors, etc.), safe methods of chemical production, and biocompatible nonhazardous materials. Oleg Bolshakov talked about such innovations as the creation of new materials for cardiology, implants, and electrochemical methods of detecting herbicides and drugs (adrenaline, enalapril) in food and water. In a week, Oleg Bolshakov is planning on defending his doctoral thesis at SUSU.
During day one and day two, plenary reports were presented by scientists from the University of Belgrade, with whom the SUSU Institute of Natural Sciences and Mathematics has established a long-term collaboration. Development of a joint project under a megagrant of the Russian Federation Ministry of Education and Science has been completed recently. Doctor Dalibor Stanković reported on the electrochemical methods of water treatment, while Doctor Dragan Manojlović – on the clean-water storage tanks of the future.
Within the course of two days, three conference sections are working, which cover the work under the main chemical and ecological research programmes of SUSU.
Section one, headed by the SUSU Associate Professor Dmitry Drozin, is devoted to monitoring of the atmospheric environment in urban agglomerations.
Section two, headed by Director of School of Medical Biology Irina Potoroko, discusses biocompatible materials and regeneration technologies.
Section three on the “Sorbing Photo- and Electrocatalytic Methods of Water Treatment” is headed by the Head of the Department of Ecology and Chemical Engineering Vyacheslav Avdin.
“We will continue our research even after works under the megagrant are complete. And this means that we can hope to continue organizing conferences as well: if not annually, then at least every couple of years,” shared Vyacheslav Avdin. “The reports in all the three sections spark interest not only in the grant executors, but also in representatives of other SUSU institutes. Environment monitoring, sorbing materials, and biomaterials – all that is relevant for the work of our colleagues and allows to unite such a range of specialists.”