BIOPHYSICAL ENVIRONMENTAL CHEMISTRY - A NEW FRONTIER FOR CHEMISTRY

The paper discusses the position and role of environmental chemistry a mong the other environmental disciplines. It discusses the various asp ects of environmental chemistry and emphasizes the need for developing fundamental studies in biophysical environmental chemistry in order t o better understand the functioning of environmental systems. These sy stems include a large number of various structures in the nanometer to meter range which play key roles on compound fluxes and consequently on the homeostasis of ecosystems and on their disturbance by anthropog enic activities. Both structures and fluxes are presently ill-known an d new concepts and methods must be developed in this field. For chemis try, this is a challenging area where supramolecular structures and pr ocesses play dominant roles. It is also a challenging field for the de velopment of environmental sciences since detailed and sound physico-c hemical processes are needed in macroscopic modeling of compound circu lation in ecosystems. In addition, teaching this discipline to chemist ry students would allow them to confront complex, structured real syst ems. This paper also discusses the relationship between biophysical en vironmental chemistry and the other environmental disciplines within i ntegrated multidisciplinary studies. The structure used at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Geneva to favour a flexible but effi cient integration is briefly described.