Charl in China…

Charl has been in China for the past two weeks, lecturing at the Department of Chemistry, Tsinghua University, in their Tsinghua Xuetang programme for undergraduate students (“Introduction to Liquid Crystals and Soft Matter”), as well as joining in discussion with Prof Xi Zhang and his group on various collaborative projects.

Tsinghua XuetangHe has just arrived in snowy Changchun today, where he will give a research seminar at the College of Chemistry, Jilin University, invited by Prof Junqi Sun.

Ben back from the University of Arkansas

Ben has just returned from visiting Prof. Gregory Salamo and Dr. Michael Hawkridge at the Arkansas Nano-Bio Materials Characterization Facility, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, USA.

UnivArk

He made use of their X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) equipment, which provided information about the atomic composition of his films with approx 10 µm resolution (X-Y) and sub-10nm resolution (Z). The XPS experiments allowed him to characterise any chemical changes that may take place in his film to result in the changes in conductivity observed.

Ben travelled to the US with Dr. Loren Picco, a colleague in the Nanophysics group in Bristol, and the trip was funded by an EPSRC “Building Global Engagements” grant. Loren specialises in high-speed AFM (HSAFM) and was visiting Arkansas to help them set up a high-speed AFM to be based in the Nano-Bio Materials Characterization Facility

JACS communication!

The final paper from Rumman’s efforts (during his PhD and one-year postdoc here in Bristol) appeared in the latest edition of JACS!  This output forms part of a very fruitful collaboration between the Faul and Manners research groups.

Rumman_PFS3D

The use of ionic self-assembly to access non-conventional block copolymer morphologies, including tetragonal and helical structures, from a combination of polyferrocenylsilane diblock copolymer polyelectrolytes and AOT-based surfactants, is described in the communication. Congratulations to all involved!

An excellent start to 2013: Kyoto-Bristol joint symposium

The year has started on a high note with a large delegation (>100) from Kyoto University visiting Bristol on the 10th and 11th of January.  A number of parallel sessions are being held across campus, actively investigating opportunities for further collaboration. Charl is actively involved in the Materials Chemistry sessions.

KyotoUni

Read this University of Bristol news article here for more details.