I am very proud to announce that McMaster will be hosting two exciting events this October: The Celebration of Magnetic Resonance at McMaster, and the 34th MOOT NMR Symposium!

The festivities will begin on Friday, 13 OCT 2023, when we will be hosting a Celebration of Magnetic Resonance at McMaster. This half-day Celebration will include talks by Lewis Kay (UofT) and Lindsey Cahill (MUN), followed by a mixer. President David Farrar will also say a few words about the importance of investing in Research Core Facilities. There is no charge to attend the Celebration.

We are celebrating our 65th Anniversary and the current state of the NMR Facility and highlighting some of the major investments made over the past few years. We will pay homage to those who helped lay the strong foundation upon which the Facility is built.

Upon arriving at McMaster University from University College London in 1958, Ron Gillespie purchased a Varian DP60 NMR spectrometer as part of his startup. The Royal Society recently published Ron’s Biographical Memoir. In 1964, Russell Bell joined the Chemistry Department, and Russell quickly embraced the use of NMR for the study of organic chemistry. At our 50th Anniversary In 2008, Ron and Russell sat down and recorded an interview where they recounted stories from their early days.

Years later Alex Bain joined the department, and many of you know the special contributions he made to NMR spectroscopy. A tribute to Alex can be found in a special issue of Concepts of Magnetic Resonance. We had originally planned to host this Celebration on 24 June 2020, which would have been Alex’s 72nd birthday. The COVID-19 pandemic caused the Celebration to be postponed, and I am so pleased that we can finally host it now.

On Saturday and Sunday, October 14-15, we will be hosting the 34th MOOT NMR Symposium. The MOOT will include invited talks by Aaron Rossini (Iowa State), Rui Huang (UofG), and Bruce Balcom (UNB) as well as talks and posters by graduate students and postdoc from across Ontario, Quebec and beyond.

Please watch for updates at the MOOT website (mootnmr.org). The Website will provide information about the Celebration as well as the MOOT Registration and Abstract Submission.

I encourage you to come to the Celebration and stay for the MOOT!