Belated congratulations!

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Rather late than never – congratulations are in order to both Robert and Xue who successfully passed their MSc (Research) vivas at the end of 2020! Robert has now joined the group of Jean Hubert Oliver at the University of Florida as PhD student, and Xue secured a prestigious China Scholarship Council studentship to continue in the FRG with her PhD.

Thanks also to Pol Besenius from Mainz (Robert’s external examiner) and Emily Draper from Glasgow (Xue’s external).

Not sure how we missed making these important events known to the world – sincere apologies! Well done to both!

Funded postdoc position available

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As part of the £6M newly EPSRC-funded project “emPOWER: in-body artificial muscles for physical augmentation, function restoration, patient empowerment and future healthcare”, we are excited to advertise a research associate/senior research associate position within the Faul Research Group, with a focus on conjugated and block copolymer synthesis for implantable artificial muscles. This position will be available for up to 5 years.

Please note that the closing date for applications is the 28th of February.

https://www.empowermuscles.com

In addition to this exciting opportunity to join the FRG, there are a further 4 positions in the emPOWER project available in Bristol (also for up to 5 years):

  • one position in the Perriman group, focussing on the bio-engineering aspects and tissue engineering
  • 3 positions within the Soft Robotics group in engineering with Prof Jonathan Rossiter, focussing on soft robotic actuation, artificial muscles, smart materials and mechanical metamaterials

Online conferences continue – GWPore!

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GWPore – the local GW4 network for porous materials activities at the univerisities of Cardiff, Bath, Exeter and Bristol – has had an excitiing online conference, focussed on giving early career research the opportunity to present posters and oral presentations.

A number of FRG group members attended and gave posters (Julia, Connie, Merve, Safa). There were also two talks from the group (Neha and Veronica), as well as a talk by our colleague and close collaborator Kamran (from the Beijing)!

Fantastic effort by all, and a great opportunity to network and see what other exciting porous materials research is currently being performed in the South West of the UK and beyond!

Conference season…

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Huan and Veronica recently joined the RSC Materials Chemistry Division poster symposium. This was a virtual conference, and held on the RSC’s conference platform.

Attendees had to create a one-minute flash presentation, as well as a full poster! Both Huan and Veronica did a great job, and engaged with this new platform – congratulations!

Huan’s screen cast! Very nice!

Veronica’s poster, also showing the layout of the conference platform with various virtual meeting rooms!

Christmas gone … and 2021 off to a bumpy start!

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After a very unusual year, a fun online Christmas party with some great prizes (cleaning someone else’s FH, changing the base bath, to mention some of the more interesting prizes!), we all retreated for a quiet, peaceful and restful Christmas.

So, 2021 started with another lockdown, but we are grateful for testing faciltiies and the opportunity to be back in the lab.

Wishing all a safe and healthy 2021!

Talk by Anita Etale… on water purification

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Great to have Anita and her research group (from the Global Change Institute and School of Chemistry, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa) visit on Zoom.

Anita gave a great talk on the challenges around acid main drainage, and the consequent impact on drinking water quality in informal settlements around Johannesburg.

Looking forward to developing some of the ideas generated and discussed into some exciting science with real impact! Thanks Anita!

Another joint paper with the Manners group!

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Another joint paper with our long-standing collaborators, the Manners Group (now at the University of Victoria). Charlie (lead author) and Liam (another former joint student) contributed to a paper on the surface patterning of uniform 2D platelet block co-micelles – published in ACS Macro Letters! We show the formation of rectangular platelets containing two block copolymers with different coronal chemistries. On addition of a solvent that is only able to solvate the corona of one block,  colloidally stable micelles with patterned surfaces via coronal collapse are formed.

Well done to all involved in this productive and long-standing collaboration!