TWINNING PROGRAM WITH ESTONIA, LATVIA, AND LITHUANIA

This U.S.-Lithuanian research partnership is aimed at studying the electronic structure of biliverdin and related compounds resulting from heme degradation. Alan Balch and his group at the University of California - Davis have expertise in the isolation of heme degradation products and their physical characterization by spectroscopy and x-ray structure determination, while Arvydas Tamulis and his colleagues at the Institute of Theoretical Physics and Astronomy in Vilnius have extensive experience in theoretical chemistry and electronic structure calculations. They began their joint work in late January 2000, when Tamulis arrived in Davis for a month-long visit. During his stay, Tamulis began computations on the electronic structure of various biliverdin model complexes and related compounds. He and Balch also discussed problems regarding the electronic structure of fullerenes and similar all-carbon molecules, and Tamulis' contributions to the topic were acknowledged in a recent article in the Journal of the American Chemical Society published by Balch and his colleagues. The Twinning-sponsored visit also provided Tamulis with the opportunity to attend a related conference in San Jose, Photonics West 2000, on his way to Davis.

Balch's first visit to Lithuania was initially scheduled for June 2000 but has now been postponed until the summer of 2001. In the meantime, one of Tamulis’ graduate students, Jelena Tamuliene, arrived for a visit to Balch's lab in February 2001 to continue the joint project. The two groups also remain in e-mail contact regarding both their original biliverdin work and the newly-initiated collaboration on fullerenes. Balch is also contacting other Lithuanian chemists to arrange for side visits during his planned visit to Tamulis' lab this coming summer.

Update-2001

Although Balch now plans to visit Lithuania in late spring of 2002, he and his Baltic collaborators are continuing their extensive computations on the electronic structures of these ligands and their metal complexes gained through Tamuliene's visit. During the visit, she attended meetings of the Balch research group and learned of ongoing research in the Davis laboratory. Further, the scientists exchanged data and information relevant to the progress of the project.

Both research groups intend to continue their collaboration beyond the duration of this particular project. Additional collaborations between these groups in the fullerene field, in which both participants have interests, are likely to emerge. Balch has been attempting to correspond with other chemists in Lithuania in order to have the opportunity to visit other laboratories during his 2002 visit.