Great to have Sorrel (who secured a RSC Undergraduate Summer bursary – congrats!), and John (new joint PhD student from the ACCIS CDT, with Valeska Ting) join the FRG!
Welcome to both!
Welcome to Sorrel and John!
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Review paper with Luke in Materials Advances!
A review by Luke, co-supervised PhD student from the Tabor group (and visitor before the pandemic!), on azobenzene isomerisation in condensed matter has just appeared in the latest issues of Materials Advances.
Azobenzene-based materials have found applications in a wide variety of systems as a convenient method to induce photo-responsive behaviour through facile trans (E) to cis (Z) isomerization. Of particular interest are condensed matter systems; however, isomerization of azobenzene faces unique challenges in condensed systems when compared with dilute states This review explored the challenges experienced in condensed matter phases, and proposes solutions for future development of light-responsive soft-matter systems.
Well done Luke!
Dr Romero and Dr Amin!
We were very fortunate to be able to celebrate two vivas recently – one by our very own Christian, and the second by our close collaborator and honorary group member from Beijing, Kamran!
Wonderful achievement – many congratulations to both!!
Seminar by Prof Ayusman Sen!
Great to have prof Sen (Department of Chemistry, Penn State Univ) giving a zoom seminar as part of our “Functional Molecules and Materials” research theme at the School of Chemistry.
Fascinating results as presented in his talk entitle “Fantastic Voyage: Designing Self-Powered Nanobots”!
Review paper with Kamran and Zhixiang!
A review just appeared in Nano Energy with our collaborators from the National Centre for Nanoscience and Technology, Bejing. The review, entitled “Conjugated microporous polymers for energy storage: Recent progress and challenges” covers the very broad and active field of energy storage, specficially highlighting challenges and opportunities.
Congrats to Kamran and all others involved in another paper in this growing collaboration!
Dr Symons!
Henry very succesfully defended his thesis last week – with Prof Dwight Seferos (Univ of Toronto) as the external examiner, Dr Pierangelo Gobbo as internal, and Prof Simon Hall as independent chair!
Not quite the same as an in-person celebration afterwards, but we could celebrate on Zoom, and made sure that Henry was made aware of his own personal bottle of bubbly for celebrations!
Well done Henry!
New lectureship advertised for the School of Chemistry!
The School of Chemistry has just started to advertise for a new teaching-only lectureship (initial 3-year fixed term position). The full advert and detailed job description can be found here.
This is an exciting new development, and provides an opportunity to join one of the top chemistry schools in the UK. Recent rankings placed the School of Chemistry 3rd in the UK for chemistry research (Times Good University Guide 2021, £), and 5th in the UK for chemistry teaching (Guardian University Guide 2021).
Belated congratulations!
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
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.
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
Two new members!
Great to formally welcome new PhD students Ciqun and Helal in the group!
Ciqun joined the Soft Robotics lab and the FRG as a joint PhD student at the end of last year, working on novel soft actuators for robotics applications. Helal joined the group very recently from Saudi Arabia, and will be working on novel perylene-based supramolecular polymers!
Welcome to both!
