NEWS REPORT Gordon research conference on photosynthesis: from evolution of fundamental mechanisms to radical re-engineering Fabrice Rappaport • Alize ´e Malnoe ¨ • Govindjee Received: 24 October 2014 / Accepted: 4 November 2014 Ó Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014 Abstract We provide here a News Report on the 2014 Gordon Research Conference on Photosynthesis, with the subtitle ‘‘From Evolution of Fundamental Mechanisms to Radical Re-Engineering.’’ It was held at Mount Snow Resort, West Dover, Vermont, during August 10–15, 2014. After the formal sessions ended, four young scientists (Ute Ambruster of USA; Han Bao of USA; Nicoletta Liguori of the Netherlands; and Anat Shperberg-Avni of Israel) were recognized for their research; they each received a book from one of us (G) in memory of Colin A. Wraight (1945–2014), a brilliant and admired scientist who had been very active in the bioenergetics field in general and in past Gordon Conferences in particular, having chaired the 1988 Gordon Conference on Photosynthesis. (See an article on Wraight by one of us (Govindjee) at http://www.life. illinois.edu/plantbio/Features/ColinWraight/ColinWraight. html.) Keywords Ute Ambruster Á Han Bao Á Gordon research conference Á Arthur Grossman Á David M. Kramer Á Nicoletta Liguori Á Photosynthesis Á Fabrice Rappaport Á Anat Shperberg-Avni Á Colin A. Wraight Introduction The 2014 Gordon Research Conference (GRC) on Photo- synthesis was held during August 10–15, 2014, at Mount Snow Resort, West Dover, Vermont. For a brief history of this conference, see http://www.grc.org/conferences. aspx?id=0000207. The 2014 conference was chaired by David M. Kramer (Michigan State University; Fig. 1, top left; and bottom left); the Vice Chair was one of us (Fabrice Rappaport; Fig. 1, top left; and bottom right). Arthur Grossman (Carnegie Institute of Science, at Stanford; Fig. 1, right) will serve as Vice Chair at the 2015 Gordon Research Conference on Photosynthesis, where Fabrice will be the Chair. All are welcome to watch for the announcement in Science and apply in advance. The 2014 conference had an emphasis on ‘‘From Evo- lution of Fundamental Mechanisms to Radical Re-Engi- neering’’ that can contribute to the development and use of solar energy as a renewable energy source. This conference was quite international. Although about 50 % of *170 participants were from USA, 10–15 each came from Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom, and 2–7 each came from Australia, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Italy, Israel, Japan, and Poland. Lastly, one each came from Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Canada, China, Hungary, New Zealand, Norway, and Taiwan. In fact, more than 20 countries were represented at this conference. Fig. 2 shows a group photograph of most of the participants. F. Rappaport (&) Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Institut de Biologie Physico-Chimique (Inst. Biol. Phys. Chim.), Universite ´ Pierre et Marie Curie, UMR 7141, 13 Rue Pierre et Marie Curie, 75005 Paris, France e-mail: fabrice.rappaport@ibpc.fr A. Malnoe ¨ Physical Biosciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, University of California Berkeley, 371 Koshland Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720-3102, USA e-mail: alizee.malnoe@berkeley.edu Govindjee Department of Plant Biology, Department of Biochemistry, and Center of Biophysics & Quantitative Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 265 Morrill Hall, 505 South Goodwin Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801, USA e-mail: gov@illinois.edu 123 Photosynth Res DOI 10.1007/s11120-014-0058-9