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Johannes
Gierschner
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news: 1,6-Diazapyrene: A Well-Defined Small-Size Prototype System for Nitrogen-containing PAHs

news: Organic Photocatalyst Utilizing Triplet Excited States for Highly Efficient Visible-Light-Driven Polymerizations

news: Synthesis and Photophysics of Color-Pure Blue Emitters Featuring Oxaboraphenanthrene as a Novel Structural Motif

news: A Multi-Component Visible-Light Initiating System for Rapid and Deep Photocuring through UV-Opaque Polyimide Films

news: Paper and Pencil Design of Color-Pure Organic Emitters: The Curious Case of Xanthene Dyes

2025

Paper: 1,6-Diazapyrene: A Well-Defined Small-Size Prototype System for Nitrogen-containing PAHs

05.05.2025: Visit of Peter Gilch's group at the Inst for Phys. Chem., Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf, giving institute seminars on Excitons in Organic Solids, as well as on about scientifc integrity. Thank you again, Peter, for the kind invitation!

Paper: Organic Photocatalyst Utilizing Triplet Excited States for Highly Efficient Visible-Light-Driven Polymerizations

22.04.2025: Seminar at the Department of Chemistry, College of Science, Kyung Hee University, Seoul, with Youngmi Kim. Thank you again, Youngmi, for the kind invitation and pleasant time!

21.04.2025: Back at Seoul Nat. Univ. with Seminars on our current research, and about scientifc integrity at the Organic Materials Design and Synthesis Laboratory, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, with Minsang Kwon. Thank you again, Minsang for the kind invitation, great discussions and pleasant time!

Paper: Synthesis and Photophysics of Color-Pure Blue Emitters Featuring Oxaboraphenanthrene as a Novel Structural Motif

18.03.2025: Liangxuan Wang @ IMDEA Nanoscience & shared PhD student w. Alfred J. Meixner @ Univ.Tübingen, was invited to join, among 600 students from around the world, the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting. Congratulations, Lexie!

12.03.2025: Thank you, Iñaki Tuñon & Master Program of the Faculty of Chemistry, Univ. Valencia, for inviting me to talk about "Scientific Integrity Decline in Current Materials Research: Insights & Vistas Beneath the Tip of the Iceberg".

Paper: A Multi-Component Visible-Light Initiating System for Rapid and Deep Photocuring through UV-Opaque Polyimide Films

The next Symposium on Computing π-Conjugated Compounds CΠC-16 will take place in Warsaw, Poland, 01/02.2026. Organizer: Silvio Osella.

The Symposium on Computing π-Conjugated Compounds CΠC-15 took place in Siena, Italy, 07.-08.02.2025. Organizers: Daniele Padula & Samuele Giannini.

Thank you also, Daniele & Samuele, for inviting me to talk about 'Faces of Scientific Integrity Decline - A Case Study in Computational Chemistry ' and to have a Round Table discussion with Alberto Baccini, Univ. Siena, on the subject

03.02.2025: Seminars on our current research, and about scientifc integrity at CNR Pisa, with Fabrizio Santoro & Giacomo Prampolini. Thank you again, for the kind invitation & great time, and in particular the intense discussions with junior & senior scientists; special thanks to Antonio Rizzo for his comments.

Paper: Paper and Pencil Design of Color-Pure Organic Emitters: The Curious Case of Xanthene Dyes

10.01.2025: Andrea Landi will join the group for a 2-months PhD Internship from Univ. Parma, supervisor Anna Painelli. Welcome, Andrea!

2024

worried about Science Ethics? 03.01.2025 ‘Precocious’ early-career scientists with high citation counts proliferate: read more...

19.12.2024: An honor to preside the PhD committee for Marving Martin at Univ. Limoges. Congratulations, Dr. Martin for the successful defense, and Patrick Trouillas (here with his mural at Univ. Limoges), for the great supervision of his work!

...and, thank you as well, Patrick, for the kind invitation to talk about scientific integrity at the Univ. Limoges! ...and the great drawing :)

worried about Science Ethics? 19.12.2024 German universities surrender to one of the world's infamous promotors of Salami & junk papers, papermills and predatory praxis: read more...
...while in the north, Finland Publication Forum takes radical measures, downgrading 271 MDPI and Frontiers journals to level "0" = trash: read more...

17.12.2024: The Early Stage Researcher Workshop took place at IMDEA Nanoscience with contributions by Maria, Siyang & Indranil; well done, everyone!

worried about Science Ethics? 17.12.2024 a new trend in citation gaming: Shoddy commentaries—a quick and dirty route to higher impact numbers—are on the rise: read more...

16.12.2024: Siyang has successfully defended his thesis at UAM, presented at IMDEA. Congratulations, Dr. Feng!

06.12.2024: Seminars on our current research, and about scientifc integrity at Dept. of Chemistry, Univ. Parma, with Anna Painelli. Thank you again, Anna, for the kind invitation, intense discussions and the pleasant time.

23.11.2024: A pleasure to take part in the International Conference on Materials and Thermophysical Properties (ICMTP- 2024) in Jaipur; thank you again for the kind invitation for the online talk.

21.11.2024: Two intense days at the MPI Mainz with Xiomin Liu at the Dept. of Molecular Spectroscopy; Dir. Mischa Bonn); thank you again, Xiaomin, for the kind invitation, great discussions and the pleasant time!

worried about Science Ethics? 19.11.2024 Clarivate removes another 2000 researchers from the list of "highly cited researcher" (HCR, with a total of ca. 'top-cited' 7000), see their analysis. After the former removals (2023: 1000, 2022: 500, 2021: 300), this makes a staggering total of 35% of removed HCR researchers! Self-evidently, Clarivate is frightened to death: selling numbers is their business model, and if people game the system unnoticed, their numbers are not worth a penny...

Paper: Fluorescence Modulation through the Inverted Energy Gap Law in Triply N–B←N-Containing Windmill-Shaped Triazines

Great to be at the IQTC Meeting at Univ. Barcelona, 30.-31.10.2024; thank you again for the invitation! ...here with Carles Curutchet and Claudia Climent:

Paper: Higher Order Cavity Modes for SERS in a Gold Nanosphere-on-Mirror Configuration

The Course on Theoretical Methods for Simulation of Materials (Coord. J. Gierschner), within the European Master in Theoretical Chemistry and Computational Modelling (TCCM), took place at IMDEA Nanoscience, 21.-25.10.2024.

11.10.2024: Back in Tübingen to give my annual 30h lecture on "Photophysics of Conjugated Organic Materials, and seminar on Scientific Integrity Decline in Current Materials Research: Insights & Vistas Beneath the Tip of the Iceberg"... thank you again to everybody for the vivid participation!

08.10.2024: ten researchers from IMDEA Nanoscience, incl. group leasder JG, are listed among the "2% most influential" in the 2023 update of the original 2019 survey by Ioannidis et al. ...in any case, although this was reputably earned by the IMDEA researchers, it is reminded that such quantitative measures are easily - and increasingly - gamed by authors through scientific hyperproliferation (inter alia by AI-assisted 'salami papers' and 'honorary' authorships), excessive self-citation and citation cartels (of authors a/o institutions a/o journals), which questions such listings... read more

Enjoying the talk of Prof. Zhen-Chou Dong (Univ. of Science and Technology of China, Hefei) at the Department for Physical and Analytical Chemistry, Univ. Jaume I, Castellón, Spain, Sept 27, 2024.

The IPOE - 4th International Conference on Interface Properties In Organic and Hybrid Electronic: Perspectives & Key Challenges, took place in Barcelona, Spain, Sept 17-20, 2024.

The 1st Sino-German Workshop on Nanospectroscopy and Nanofabrication took place at Westlake University, Hangzhou, PR China, 07.-13.09.2024, organized by Prof. Dai Zhang (Univ. Tübingen) and Prof. Jiyong Wang (Westlake Univ.) within the framework of a Sino-German Mobility programme.

Thank you, Jiyong, for hosting this great event, and the splendid time together!

01.09.2024: María F. Flórez-Angarita has joined the group through the EU COFUND Marie Sklodowska-Curie program IDEAL. Congratulations & welcome, María!

Paper: Rational Design of Color-Pure Blue Organic Emitters by Poly-Heteroaromatic Omni-Delocalization

The 29th IUPAC Symposium on Photochemistry took place in Valencia, Spain, July 14-19, 2024

Iskandar Tulanboev has successfully defended his MSc thesis at Univ. Valencia on July, 8th, 2024. Congratulations!

Congratulations to Siyang for his 'Best Poster Presentation' sponsored by Advanced Materials Technologies, at the ICSM2024 - well done indeed!

...see also the Wiley Advanced Awards winners 2024

The International Conference on Science and Technology of Synthetic Electronic Materials (ICSM) 2024 took place in Dresden, Germany – June 23-28, 2024, with participation of Lexie, Siyang & Indranil; here with Frank

18.06.2024: Talking about Erosion of Scientific Integrity Fueled by Quantitative Evaluation Metrics at my home institution, IMDEA Nanoscience, read more ...thanks for the vivid discussion and the great feedback

paper: Deuterium Isotope Effect in Single Molecule Photophysics and Photochemistry of Hypericin

The Conference on Electronic Structure Priciples and Applications (ESPA) took place in Tarragona, Spain, 03.-07.06.2024

paper: Molecular Packing Topology and Interactions to Decipher Mechanical Compliances in Dicyano-distyrylbenzene Derivatives

paper: Explicit Modelling of Spectral Bandshapes by a Mixed Quantum-Classical Approach: Solvent Order and Temperature Effects in the Optical Spectra of Distyrylbenzene

22.04.2024: It was a pleasure to talk at the ICMM-CSIC, Madrid, in the Directors Team Seminar series on Erosion of Scientific Integrity Fueled by Quantitative Evaluation Metrics read more

22.03.2024: Thank you again, Ángela & Fernando, for hosting us at the University of Elche, with talks about Solving a 25 Years Old Riddle on Solid State Luminescence Enhancement & Quenching of Conjugated Organic Compounds (in memoriam Michael Hanack), and
Scientific Integrity Decline in Current Materials Research: Insights & Vistas beneath the Tip of the Iceberg (organizer: Fernando Fernandez) read more

20.03.2024: Great to discuss with David Curiel at University of Murcia, and thank you, David, for inviting me to speak about Charge Transfer State Engineering for Tailor-Made Luminescent Organic Materials read more

01.03.2024: Marco Terruzzi will join the group for a 3-months MSc Internship from Univ. Milano Bicocca, supervisors Adele Sassela & Alessadro Minotto. Welcome, Marco!

01.03.2024: Thank you, Juanjo, for inviting me to speak about Scientific Integrity Decline in Current Materials Research: Insights & Vistas beneath the Tip of the Iceberg at the IFIMAC Condensed Matter Physics Center, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM), organizer: Juan José Palacios read more

12.02.2024: according to a recent report in the journal 'Nature', China conducts first nationwide review of retractions and research misconduct; Nature analysis reveals that since 2021 there have been more than 17,000 retractions with Chinese co-authors.

paper: Ultraviolet Light Blocking Optically Clear Adhesives for Foldable Displays via Highly Efficient Visible-Light Curing
read more...

The next Symposium on Computing π-Conjugated Compounds CΠC-15 will take place in Toscany, Italy, 01/02.2025. Organizer: Daniele Padula & Samuele Giannini.

The Symposium on Computing π-Conjugated Compounds CΠC-14 took place in Donostia/San Sebastian, Spain, 08.-09.02.2024. Organizer: Claire Tonnelé.

Thank you also, Claire, for inviting me for the seminar on 'Scientific Misconduct in Current Materials Research' at DOPC just before the CΠC read more

02.02.2024: Dr. Juan Carlos Roldao (now ICMol, Valencia) has received the "Premio Extraordinario de Doctorado" of the University Autónoma de Madrid for his PhD thesis in Condensed Matter Physics. Congratulations, Juan! read more..., and see BO-UAM

worried about Science Ethics? 31.01.2024: according to a recent report in the journal 'Science', the recent removal of 1000 researchers from Clarivate's HCR list concerns the entire field of mathematics, due to the formation of a citation cartel (read more), pushing unknown authors of irrelevant papers into the HCR list.
Apparently, Clarivate is mortally terrified to loose it's business model, as 'citation gaming' becomes a popular 'sport' among certain researchers, fulfilling Goodhart's law.
Citation Cartels are found also in other fields and countries, see e.g. Clarivate Crackdown on Biochar Citation Cartel'' ...for our own research field, take a look also at these profiles (example-1, example-2), to conceive a qualified opinion.

...if you are interested in these issues, take a look at my seminar on Scientific Integrity Decline in Current Materials Research: Insights & Vistas Beneath the Tip of the Iceberg.

Talking about 'Good Scientific Practice' at the 'Science Days' of the Institute of Materials Science (IUMA), University of Alicante, 18.-19.01.2024. Thank you, Juan Carlos Sancho García, for the invitation to the great event, your kind post, and everybody for the excellent discussion!

2023

worried about Science Ethics? 12.12.2023 More than 10,000 research papers were retracted in 2023 — a new record, R. Van Noorden, Nature, 2023, 624, 479-481, read more ...now reaching a broader public: ‘The situation has become appalling’: fake scientific papers push research credibility to crisis point (R. McKie,The Guardian), read more

11.12.2023 Thank you, MªCarmen to invite me to the Department of Physical Chemistry, Faculty of Sciences, University of Málaga, to talk about Scientific Misconduct in Current Materials Research: Aspects, Conditions and Perspectives (oraganizer: MªCarmen Ruiz Delgado)

worried about Science Ethics? 24.11.2023 Clarivate removes +1000 researchers from the list of "highly cited researcher" (HCR), see their analysis, and the article in El País. Already, in 2022, Clarivate removed 500 researchers, and 300 in 2021. Thus the total amount of removed HCR researcher amounts staggering 21%!

10.11.2023: seven researchers from IMDEA Nanoscience are listed among the co-called "2% most influential" in the 2023 update of the original 2019 survey by Ioannidis et al. The list also includes group leader JG [subfield Chemical Physics; 0.8% (#9 in ES) in 2022, 1.6% for the entire career], read more
...but caution: lists based on citation indices can – as all quantitative measures – be manipulated by authors, here in particular through scientific hyperproduction (inter alia by AI-assisted 'salami papers' and 'honorary' authorships), excessive self-citation and citation cartels (of authors a/o institutions a/o journals), which are in fact increasingly seen in the community...
...therefore, Clarivate's predictable statement that "highly cited researchers have demonstrated significant and broad influence reflected in their publication of multiple highly cited papers over the last decade" becomes increasingly erroneous, evidently fueling scientific misconduct by creating revenants (German: "Wiedergänger") of such 'highly-cited researchers' as a grotesque farce...

Arnold Böcklin (1827-1901)
Fiedelnder Tod (fiddling death)

Paper: Donor-Acceptor-Donor Triads with Flexible Spacers: Deciphering Complex Photophysics for Targeted Materials Design

worried about Science Ethics? 03.11.2023 The Spanish science ministry takes action, establishing a ethics committee. In it's first report it defines rules on scientists' affiliations read more

Congratulations to Siyang for his 'Best Poster Award' of the RSC Journal 'Materials Horizons' at the ECME2023 - well done indeed!

...see also the RSC Journal of Materials Chemistry Blog

The 16th European Conference on Molecular Electronics (ECME2023) took place in Bari, Italy, 01.-06.10.2023.

worried about Science Ethics? ...finally, also scientific hyperproduction, fake authorships, scientific paper mills, and misuse of public funds are receiving attention in the society, see the articles in El País (in Spanish):
21.11.2023: Los científicos pagaron unos 1.000 millones de euros en cuatro años a las grandes editoriales para publicar sus estudios en abierto read more
31.10.2023: La burbuja de las revistas científicas se traga millones de euros de dinero público read more
...the El País article is based on the study by M. A. Hanson et al:
The Strain on Scientific Publishing
05.10.2023: Una megafábrica de estudios científicos falsos salpica a un vicerrector español y a tres colaboradores read more
03.06.2023: Un científico que publica un estudio cada dos días muestra el lado más oscuro de la ciencia read more
20.04.2023: Se nos pudre la ciencia read more
19.04.2023: Joan Subirats: “Una persona que hace un artículo cada tres días es algo complicado de entender” read more

The 14th International Conference on Optical Probes of Organic and Hybrid Semiconductors (OP2023) took place in Como, Italy, 11.-15.09.2023.

15.09.2023: Our new National Project ENCENDER (MICINN-FEDER PID2022-138222NB-C21), 09/2023-08/2027 was approved, being a coordinated Project between IMDEA Nanoscience (PI: J.Gierschner) and Univ. Valencia (PI: Begoña Milián Medina)

Miguel Ródenes has successfully defended his MSc thesis at Univ. Valencia, July, 2023. Congratulations!

The 16th International Conference on Organic Electronics (ICOE) took place in Madrid, Spain, 03.-07.07.2023.

María F. Flórez-Angarita has successfully defended her MSc thesis at Univ. Tolouse on June, 30th, 2023. Congratulations!

worried about Science Ethics? ...if you want to see the whole updated international paylist of the "King Saud University", take a brave look at their 2023 "International Conference and Exhibition for Science" ...here all the resourceful 'scientrepeneurs' met together, including well-known faces who affiliated themselves with that 'extraordinary' Saudi institution while receiving their ordinary salaries from naive Spanish taxpayers... highlight of the conference was a future Nobel prize winner, to speak to this illustrious community of top Saudi scientists ...or to sum it up with Roman Emperor Vespasian: pecunia non olet

Seminar Series Photophysics of Organic and Hybrid Supramolecular Nanosystems.
09.06.2023, 17:00h: Prof. Ji Eon Kwon, Functional Composite Materials Research Center, Institute of Advanced Composite Materials, Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST), South Korea: Designing organic electrode materials for future battery applications.

worried about Science Ethics? ...good to see that there is (finally) increasing awareness in the society about fake affiliations in science, see the articles in El País (in Spanish):
08.11.2023: El CSIC abre expediente disciplinario a cinco científicos implicados en la trama saudí para amañar el ‘ranking’ de universidades” read more
04.05.2023: Un científico saudí que rechazó ser coautor fantasma en estudios españoles: “Debemos detener esta bufonada académica” read more
03.05.2023: Ética científica: ¿Cuántos escándalos tendrán que producirse para que tomemos medidas? read more
20.04.2023: Un catedrático capta con su empresa tapadera a científicos españoles para que mientan y digan que trabajan en una universidad saudí read more
19.04.2023: Una de las científicas más citadas del mundo, Ai Koyanagi, obligada a renunciar a su polémico contrato con una universidad saudí read more
18.04.2023: Arabia Saudí paga a científicos españoles para hacer trampas en el ‘ranking’ de las mejores universidades del mundo read more
31.03.2023: Suspendido de empleo y sueldo por 13 años uno de los científicos más citados del mundo, el español Rafael Luque read more

...on the conditions of these violations of 'good scientific practice, see my seminar on Scientific Misconduct in Current Chemistry Research: Aspects and Conditions.

Paper: Anomalous Deep-Red Luminescence of Perylene Black Analogues with Strong π-π Interactions
read more...

worried about Science Ethics? Take a look at NanoBubbles, an ERC-funded project, dedicated on "how, when and why science fails to correct itself".

Paper: Formation and Degradation of Strongly Reducing Cyanoarene-Based Radical Anions towards Efficient Radical Anion-Mediated Photoredox Catalysis
read more...

03/2023: Back in South Korea! ...giving lectures for the groups of Min Sang Kwon, Seoul National University

and talks at Hannam University, Daejeon, with Dong Ryeol Whang, and at KIST, Jeonbuk, with Ji Eon Kwon and Sang Kyu Park.
Finally, celebrating Prof. Soo Young Park's retirement... "All the best, Soo Young, for your active retirement!"

Paper: Highly Efficient Photocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution using a Self-Assembled Octupolar Molecular System

read more... This article also appears in:
Hot Topic: Water Splitting

03/2023: Group leader JG was elected as Outstanding Reviewer for Organic Chemistry Frontiers in 2022.

The next Symposium on Computing π-Conjugated Compounds CΠC-14 will take place in San Sebastián/Donostia, Spain, 01/02.2024. Organizer: Claire Tonnelé.

The Symposium on Computing π-Conjugated Compounds CΠC-13 took place in Madrid, Spain, 26.-28.01.2023. Organizer: Javier Cerezo & Lara Martínez-Fernández.

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