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!