Category Archives: General interest

Back in the labs!

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It is with great excitement that the first team (of three) started to do lab work again today! It was a long break, but we are all very excited to go back – and grateful for the fantastic job done by the University of Bristol’s Estate Services, and Prof Paul Pringle and his safety team in the School of Chemistry, to ensure a safe return for all!

The lab was cleaned and decluttered on Friday and yesterday – it has not been this neat, tidy and clean since we moved in! A big thank you to everyone who contributed to make this new way of working (with socially distanced working, seating arrangements and one-way system, amongst many new procedures!) possible.

Final year project presentations!

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We enjoyed an exciting day of science earlier this week when all of our Final Year MSci Undergraduate students presented the results from their efforts of the past 5 months!

It was a great opportunity to learn about their research, but also to celebrate their success – EJ was one of the prize winners! Well done to all – fantastic job!

And, in true Faul Research Group style, we ended the day of science with a group meal!!

Luke’s paper appeared online!

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A paper on switchable azobenzene-based liquid crystals by Luke, who visited in July 2019, and supervised by collaborator Rico Tabor (and co-supervised by Charl!), just appeared online in the RSC’s PCCP.

The study, entitled “Structural relationships for the design of responsive azobenzene-based lyotropic liquid crystals” explored light-responsive binary (azobenzene + solvent) lyotropic liquid crystals (LCs), and investigated their phase behaviour by structural modification of simple azobenzene molecules. A range of scattering and microscopy techniques were employed to explore the influence of structure and light-switchable nature on phase behaviour in these very interesting systems. Well done to Luke and all collaborators!

Postdoc fellowship scheme – Newton International Fellowships

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The Newton International Fellowship scheme is now open for applications. These fellowships are for non-UK scientists who are at an early stage of their research career and wish to conduct research in the UK.

If you are interested to apply for such a fellowship with the support of Professor Faul, please contact him and attach a relevant one-page research outline and two letters of support before Monday, 17th of February. Please note that the University of Bristol has an internal deadline of at least one week before the close of the applications (i.e., by Thursday, 19th of March).

Please see the detailed guidance notes from the Royal Society here.

SPARC programme with the IIT Kharagpur

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Charl is currently visiting the Department of Chemistry,  IIT Kharagpur, as part of the active SPARC project (funded by the Indian Government) with Sanjib Patra and Sabyashachi Mishra and their groups.

This is Charl’s first visit to India, and has been a great opportunity to discuss science with many colleagues, give lectures, and enjoy the local food and culture!

Here Charl is enjoying a home-cooked meal at Sanjib’s house, with Sanjib, Ganesh (who was a post-doc in the Aggarwal group in Bristol!), and Sabyashachi.

Stone Symposium!

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The Inorganic and Materials Chemistry Section at the School of Chemistry was privileged to host the 27th Stone Symposium. It was a fantastic opportunity to listen to colleagues at all stages of their careers from Bristol (Beatrice Collins and Natalie Fey), Amsterdam (Joost Reek) … and Groningen!

It was great to have the chance to have Nobel Laureate Prof Ben Feringa as the 2019 Stone Lecture! Fantastic lectures and fantastic science!

Lecture tour in Taiwan

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Charl was invited by Prof Chien-Lung Wang (from the Department of Applied Chemistry, National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, Taiwan) to visit Taiwan and give a short series of lectures at three top universities in Taiwan.

This invitation was a great opportunity to meet colleagues and give a series of lectures at:

  • National Chiao Tung University (host – Prof. Chien-Lung Wang, Department of Applied Chemistry)

    • National Taiwan University (host – Prof. Jye-Shane Yang, Department of Chemistry)
  • National Tsing Hua University (host – Prof. Hsin-Lung Chen, Deptartment of Chemical Engineering)

Great opportunity to showcase some of the latest research from the Faul Research Group – thank you!