Charl (and Jacqueline) arrived in Beijing last week. Charl was formally awarded an adjunct professorship by Prof Xi Zhang (Head of the Department of Chemistry and Dean, Faculty of Science) after an introduction by Dr Huaping Xu (associate professor, Department of Chemistry). Huaping ended off his introductory remarks with the following quote from Henry Ford:

Coming together is a beginning,

Staying together is progress,

Working together is success.

Charl then proceeded to give a short acceptance speech, before launching into his first lecture (of a series introducing liquid crystals and soft matter) as part of the Tsinghua Xuetang programme. Charl and Prof Zhang then worked together, with Prof Zhang kindly providing some help and further explanations in Chinese to some of the students!

Arne, one of the keynote speakers at the School of Chemistry’s Timms Symposium, is visiting the Faul Research Group today (Tuesday, 11th of March).

Arne, who is based at the Technical University in Berlin, Germany, is spending the day talking to various FRG group members about their research.

Alex Bell, from the FRG, is also speaking at the Timms Symposium, talking about some of his exciting work on tetra(aniline)-graphene composites!

The FRG had the pleasure of hosting Prof Iain McCulloch, from Imperial, on Wednesday.  Iain’s talk was preceded by a student mini symposium, where Angel also spoke! Angel gave a great presentation, which was then followed by a fantastic lecture by Iain on the “Design of Polymer Semiconductors for Solar Cells and Organic Electronics”.

It was great to hear the latest results from Iain’s group, and an exciting opportunity to hear about some of our own students’ research!

Charl had the chance to experience the world-leading research activities in materials chemistry, supramolecular chemistry and self-assembly at the University of Tokyo. Prof Takashi Kato, the perfect host, organised an excellent visit for Charl, including a research seminar on Tuesday morning, and many interesting discussions.

Takashi also ensured that Charl experienced excellent Japanese food!

Charl also had the chance to look around Tokyo on Sunday (especially Shinjuku district).