Highlights from Faraday Discussion 168: Astrochemistry of Dust, Ice and Gas, Leiden, The Netherlands, April 2014

Abstract

The morning of the 7th April 2014 saw the arrival of around 120 astrochemists from around the globe in the quiet South Holland town of Noordwijkerhout, just outside Leiden. The delegates for Faraday Discussion 168 were treated to a premier view of Holland’s famous tulip fields en route via coach from Schiphol airport (Fig. 1). Hosted at the NH Conference Centre Leeuwenhorst, FD168 was the 5th Faraday Discussion in the field of astrochemistry, following from previous discussions on the Chemistry of the Interstellar Medium in 1992, Chemistry and Physics of Molecules and Grains in Space in 1998, Chemical Evolution of the Universe in 2005 and the Chemistry of Planets in 2010. Faraday Discussions have a legacy going back 100 years and have covered a wide range of topics in physical chemistry. The field of astrochemistry is an excellent example of an interdisciplinary field: it brings together astronomers, chemists, and physicists working on observations, theory, and experiments to advance our understanding of the unique and exotic chemistry that occurs in space.