| Dr. Benny Theng is a soil scientist with Landcare Research, New Zealand Limited, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand (equivalent to being an Academician in China). While having a broad interest in soil science as a whole, Benny has focused on the interactions of clay minerals with small and polymeric organic compounds, both natural and synthetic. This subject is relevant to many disciplines, including soil science, agriculture, materials science, and engineering.
The focus of this short course is on the interactions of clay minerals with organic polymers, and the properties of the resultant complexes. In addition, Benny will show a series of slides on landuse and landforms in New Zealand, and give a talk about writing scientific papers in order to help young scientists improve their odds of getting published. The course is given in a series of lectures in the Lecture Hall of the State Key Laboratory of Environmental Geochemistry. Unless specified otherwise, the lectures will be given on Friday morning of every week beginning on July 27. Each lecture comprises two topics, and lasts about 160 minutes in total, with a short interval between topics. The topics and timing of the lectures are listed below:
|
Topic |
Date |
Time |
|
1. Structures and Properties of Clay Minerals |
July 27 |
9:00-10:20 |
|
2. Polymer Behavior at Clay and Solid Surfaces |
July 27 |
10:30-11:50 |
|
3. Clay-Polymer Interactions: Uncharged (Non-ionic) Polymers |
Aug.10 |
9:00-10:20 |
|
4. Clay-Polymer Interactions: Negatively Charged Polymers (Polyanions) |
Aug.10 |
10:30-11:50 |
|
5. Clay-Polymer Interactions: Positively Charged Polymers (Polycations) |
Aug. 17 |
9:00-10:20 |
|
6. Clay-Polymer Interactions: Some Practical Applications |
Aug. 17 |
10:30-11:50 |
|
7. Polymer-Clay Interactions: Nanocomposites |
Aug. 24 |
9:00-10:20 |
|
8. Clay-Polymer Interactions: Proteins and Enzymes |
Aug. 24 |
10:30-11:50 |
|
9. Clay-Polymer Interactions: Nucleic Acids, Viruses, Bacteriophages |
Aug. 31 |
9:00-10:20 |
|
10. Clay-Polymer Interactions: Polysaccharides |
Aug. 31 |
10:30-11:50 |
|
11. Clay-Polymer Interactions: Humic Substances |
Sep. 7 |
9:00-10:20 |
|
12. Clay-Polymer Interactions: Impact on Sorption and Availability of Introduced Organic Compounds |
Sep. 7 |
10:30-11:50 |
|
13. Landforms, Soils, and Landuse in New Zealand |
Sep. 14 |
9:00-10:20 |
|
14. How to write a paper for publication |
Sep. 14 |
10:30-11:50 | |
