We had the pleasure of hosting Dr Samuel Chigome, Secretary of the African Materials Research Society and based at BITRI, Botswana, for a quick one-day visit. This was a a great opportunity to continue discussions and expansion of our Bristol chapter of the AMRS (BCAMRS).
More updates and information to follow about BCAMRS soon! See below a photo from our recent launch event, kindly hosted by Jacqueline at the Bristol International Student Centre (BISC).
We had the pleasure of hosting a number of top international scientists at our annual flagship materials chemistry event, the Peter Timms Symposium, including Pol Besenius (Mainz, Germany), and Marina Kuimova (Imperial College). We also had great contributions from two early career researchers from Bristol – Laura Fox (from the Briscoe Group) and Emily Baker (Woolfson lab).
The day ended on a very high note with a fantastic Timms Lecture given by our colleague and close collaborator Ian Manners – a fitting way to celebrate his exciting science and showcasing his contributions to the School of Chemistry as he prepares to leave for Canada. We were delighted that Liz Timms, the wife of the late Peter Timms, could join us to hand over a small award!
Basiram has very recently joined the Faul Research Group from the Central University of Tamil Nadu, India. He secured a prestigious National Overseas Scholarship of India for his PhD studies that will focus on the preparation of functional conjugated microporous polymers for CO2 capture and conversion.
Welcome Basiram!
… since our last post! Apologies! Lots have been happening since the end of March, with Charl teaching at Tsinghua, visiting Jilin and attending the UoB’s graduation ceremony (see the video here!).
In addition, Basiram has joined the group as new PhD student, and Sebastien has joined as independent research fellow, with several more visitors arriving over the summer! And, as always, someone will be leaving – this time Maciek, who will be taking up an independent academic position in Bath (congrats!).
And, finally, we hope to have some good news on some big publications very soon! More news, updates and pictures to follow soon!
Grace, who did her final year research project in the FRG, won one of two prizes for the best “materials” talk last week – what a great way to mark the end of all UG research projects!
Here Grace (on the right) is with Prof Emma Raven, Head of the School of Chemistry, and other prize winner Hannah Taylor.
And, finally, a photo of Charl, Grace, Matt and Sam at the wine reception at the end of the presentation day – well done all!
Prof Hiroshi Kitagawa (Department of Chemistry, Kyoto University) spent two days with the Faul Research Group. It was a pleasure to have a world-leading scientist interacting with many in the group (and enjoying some of the group’s local activities!).
Prof Kitagawa gave a fantastic talk on his “Conductive Coordination Networks“, showcasing some of the very detailed studies on his various porous metal-containing MOF architectures. Very impressive!
Charl was invited to join the International Advisory Committee for Donghua University‘s State Key Laboratory for Fibers and Polymer Materials in Shanghai. It was a great opportunity to have a fantastic overview of the science done in this exciting area, but also to meet friends and colleagues from China, the USA, Europe, Singapore and Africa!
It was also a great opportunity to catch up with former postdoc (and now professor at Donghua), Yaozu Liao, and to meet a fellow African, Dr Samuel Chigome from the Botswana Institute for Technology Research and Innovation (BITRI)!
