On the 20th January, the Chemistry Department Research Colloquium is by Professor Giuseppe Battaglia, UCL.
His talk entitled “The engineering of a Somanaut: How to get from A to B in a human body” will take place at 16:00 pm in Chemistry LTG, preceded by refreshments in the Chemistry Foyer at 3.40pm.
All welcome
On the 13th January, the first Chemistry Department Research Colloquium of the year will be given by Dr Jonathan R. Nitschke, University of Cambridge.
His talk entitled “Complex Functions from Self-assembling Systems with Simple Precursors” will take place at 16:00 pm in Chemistry LTG, preceded by refreshments in the Chemistry Foyer at 3.40pm.
Fume Cupboards upgrades
Cutting carbon emissions in Chemistry
Work beginning on Friday 13th December in the Chemistry building will make a major contribution to the University’s 35% carbon reduction target. The ventilation systems are being substantially upgraded for the fume cupboards in the 2 large Chemistry teaching laboratories, rooms 144 and 244.
Storage cabinets in these rooms will be separately ventilated, which will enable technicians to turn these particular fume cupboards off when not in use. New sensors and controls within each cupboard will mean that closing the cupboard sash will save significant energy, whilst maintaining face velocities, and new, high efficiency fans will be fitted in the building’s plant room.
As well as large energy savings, traditionally low temperatures in some parts of the building are also expected to improve, along with the negative air pressures often experienced.
This work has been driven and funded by the University’s Sustainability Team, who will report back early in the new year once the project is complete and the resulting energy savings have been measured.
On the 9th December, the Chemistry Department Research Colloquium will be given by Dr Simon Lancaster, University of East Anglia, the RSC Higher Education Award Winner (2013).
His talk entitled “Going online to enhance face-to-face chemistry teaching” will take place at 16:00 pm in Chemistry LTG preceded by refreshments in the Chemistry Foyer at 15:40.
All welcome.
On the 2nd December, the Chemistry Department Research Colloquium will be given by Professor Peter Beton, University of Nottingham.
His talk entitled “Flexibility and stacking in adsorbed linear, cyclic and two-dimensional polymers” will take place at 16:00 pm in PALMER 107.
On the 25th November, the Chemistry Department Research Colloquium will be given by Professor David Antonelli, University of Glamorgan
His talk entitled “Exploiting the Kubas Interaction in Hydrogen Storage” will take place at 16:00 pm in Chemistry LTG , preceded by refreshments in the Chemistry Foyer at 15.40 pm.
Royal Society Brian Mercer award – Oct. 31st 2013
On October 31st, the 2013 Royal Society “Brian Mercer” Awards for Innovation were announced at the annual Labs to Riches meeting, an event held at the Royal Society in London and attended by HRH Prince Andrew, Duke of York.
At this event, Professor Howard Colquhoun, from the University’s Department of Chemistry, received one of the three Brian Mercer Feasibility awards for 2103. These awards each provide funding of £30,000 to help with progressing a research discovery towards commercial exploitation.
Professor Colquhoun’s award was in recognition of research, carried out with PhD student Stephen Meehan, that resulted in the discovery of new chemistry for the synthesis of high-performance polyesters. These advanced materials are currently being developed for renewable-energy applications, for example as support-films in large-area photovoltaic cells for solar energy production. International patent specifications for the new materials and their applications, naming Prof. Colquhoun and Dr Meehan as co-inventors, were published in June this year.
The initial work at Reading was carried out in collaboration with DuPont-Teijin Films (UK) Ltd (DTF), who are now providing additional sponsorship of the project in the form of a fully-funded PhD studentship.
The Royal Society Award will fund a scaled-up reactor system for producing the new polymer at Reading, with enhanced control of stirring rate, temperature and vacuum, and it will also fund advanced computational modelling software to help understand the structure and properties of the new polymer at the molecular level. The DTF-sponsored PhD student in Chemistry, Stephen Jones, will be building the new reactor and implementing the molecular modelling program.
The Brian Mercer Awards were established in 2001 through a bequest from the late Brian Mercer OBE FRS, himself an enthusiastic inventor and entrepreneur in the field of polymer science and engineering.
On the 11th November, the Chemistry Department Research Colloquium will be given by Professor Christine Willis, University of Bristol.
Her talk entitled “Challenges in Natural Product Synthesis” will take place at 16:00 pm in Chemistry LTG , preceded by refreshments in the Chemistry Foyer at 15.40 pm.
On the 4th November, the Chemistry Department Research Colloquium will be given by Dr Michael de Podesta, National Physical Laboratory.
His talk entitled “How do you really know what the temperature is?” will take place at 16:00 pm in Chemistry LTG , preceded by refreshments in the Chemistry Foyer at 15.40 pm.
Claire Murray, research student with Professors Christine Cardin and Howard Colquhoun, passed her PhD viva today (Tues. 29th). She is now working as a Beamline Support Scientist at the Diamond Synchrotron at Harwell. Congratulations Claire!