Undergraduate students (from left to right): Kara Bailey (MSc, underwater bio-inspired adhesives), Lydia Beynon (MSc, PVA eutectogels), Kieran Lewis (MSc, salt optimization of napthalene polyimide porous materials), and Daania Ahmad (BSc, salt optimization of perylene polyimide porous materials), have started their work in the lab from this week!
Welcome all and enjoy your projects!
In this paper from Xue’s PhD work, SolvPred, an open-source Python framework for inverse design of solvent mixtures based on Hansen solubility parameters (HSPs) is presented. SolvPred allows users to control the composition of solvent mixtures while setting essential experimental constraints. As a case study, SolvPred was applied to optimize a polyimide condensation as a model reaction (performed by Shaohua), where the hydrogen-bonding HSP term was selectively tuned.
Check the paper for more details!
Jerry attended and gave an oral presentation at the recent ePoMM (Engineering at Porous Materials at Multiple Scales) conference, held in Bath on the 16th and 17th of September 2026.
Jerry was awarded an oral presentation prize (cash!) and a Royal Society of Chemistry-sponsored certificate and mug.
Well done Jerry!
Charl was privileged to join the opening of the new Mumbai Enterprise Campus recently! In his role as APVC, Charl was involved in the launch of the new campus – from the start of the project!
Good luck to the first cohort of MEC students!
Charl was very kindly invited by former group member, Dr Neha Yadav and the PDRA committee at the School of Chemistry at the University of Birmingham to give the opening plenary lecture of this ECR-led conference.
Quoting Charl: “It was a pleasure to engage with many PDRAs and PhD students on the day, and share the story of my career journey – and listening to some great talks as well! Thank you for the invite!” And, great to see Neha again!
Aya attended the 13th Global Conference on Polymer and Composite Materials (PCM 2026) in Xi’an, China from 24th to 27th of August, where she presented a poster on MOF Composites for Hydrogen Storage. A great opportunity to connect with international researchers in the fields of MOF–polymer composites and applications!
Congratulations to Jun Yao on successfully passing his MRes viva on July 28th! With special thanks to Dr. Mengnan Wang (University of Exeter) and Prof. Wuge Briscoe (University of Bristol) for their time and contributions as examiners! A well-earned achievement, well done, Jun!
This bright July marks the graduation of several Faul Research Group members. Congratulations once again to Ben Harker, Talia Pearce, Alastair Chua, and Yuerong Tian on their achievements!
All the best from the group to their next chapters!
Charl had the pleasure of visiting Kazakhstan for the first time – joining the 5th International Symposium on Emerging Materials and Devices, hosted by the Renewable Energy Lab at National Laboratory Astana, Nazarbayev University.
It was a pleasure to visit – not only the honour to be asked to give the opening plenary, but to experience the warmth and hospitality of many colleagues in Astana (including the kind hosting Dr Bakhytzhan Baptayev and Prof. Nurxat Nuraje). In addition, former Masters’ student, Dauren (now doing a PhD in Kazakhstan), travelled from Almaty to join the conference as well!
And, to top it off, Charl had the pleasure to meet with a Bristol alumna, Professor Siti Fairus, from UKM Malaysia. Not only did Siti do her PhD at the School of Chemistry (with the late Prof. Ian Manners), but Charl was her internal examiner for her PhD! What a joy!
