Thanks to the fantastic cooking team!

Fantastic effort by members of the FRG who helped, with other volunteers, to prepare 225 meals for new international students at BISC last week – a new record!  What a wonderful way to help to make those who are new to the UK, and to Bristol, feel welcome!

Well done to all who helped throughout the busy evening!

CSC/UoB Joint Scholarship call announced!

The China Scholarship Council and the University of Bristol has announced the new round of their joint scholarship scheme – this year with 60 4-year fully funded PhD studentships available!

The scheme will formally open for applications on the 3rd of October, with a formal submission deadline of 18 January 2019, for a September 2019 start. This is a fantastic opportunity to apply to join the Faul Research Group – if you are interested to explore this scheme then you are encouraged to please contact Prof. Faul as soon as possible.

Please note that having both a good academic record (minimum of two publications) as well as the required English qualifications (see the page here for full details) is crucial for success in this highly competitive scheme.

Talk at the CAS Institute of Process Engineering!

Charl finally had the chance to visit an old friend, Prof Dan Wang, at the Chinese Academy of Science’s Institute of Process Engineering. Prof Wang and his group focus on the production of functional hollow multi-shell particles for a wide range of energy applications – with some very impressive results!

After an exciting series of talks by PhD students from Prof Wang’s group, Charl gave a seminar and provided an overview of FRG research activities! Here he is being questioned by Prof Wang!

Jam-packed Changchun visit!

Charl visited the College of Chemistry, Jilin University, in Changchun, for a quick series of presentations and lectures last week! He had the privilege to speak to 300 freshman and a group of 2nd year students from the College of Chemistry about the School of Chemistry at Bristol, and future opportunities for exchange.

He also spoke to a large group of new PhD students (many from the very well-known State Key Laboratory for Supramolecular Structure and Materials) about planning your PhD project and writing scientific papers!

 

中英联合研究创新基金博士生交流项目! Up to one year in Bristol!

If you are a PhD student in China, and interested to spend up to a year in my laboratories, then please explore the following opportunity – a call for PhD placement applications is currently open!

This joint call between the British Council and the CSC provides opportunities for PhD students, working in the area of “energy” to apply for support (airfare, living allowance and consumables) for visits between 3 and 12 months! Please look at the call documents here from the CSC, and, in addition, also from the British Council.

Please contact Prof Charl Faul by email with your CV as soon as possible, as the call is now open, and the deadline for submission is the 5th of September!

 

Seminar at the National Centre for Nanoscience and Technology

Charl gave a seminar at the Chinese Academy of Science’s National Centre for Nanoscience and Technology (NCNST) in Beijing very recently! Charl spent two months at the NCNST in 2012 as visiting professor, so great to visit again!

Even better was the fact that Charl was hosted by his former postdoc, and now very successful academic, Professor Zhixiang Wei. Charl found the following photo when Zhixiang, and fellow postdoc (and equally successful academic!) Tierui Zhang, were enjoying time out at a Max Planck Institute for Colloids and Interfaces weekend away 14 years ago!

 

Visiting Shu-Hong at USTC, Hefei

It has been more than 10 years since Charl’s last visit to Hefei, where Shu-Hong Yu is based at the University of Science and Technology (USTC). It was great to visit his very productive laboratories, doing very impressive science, whilst also giving a talk and discussing new collaborative opportunities!


Great to catch up with old friends again – thanks for a great visit!

Cover feature for ChemNanoMat invited review!

Our invited Focus Review will be highlighted by a cover feature, showing some of Kazu’s very nice artwork (thanks Kazu!)!

This is the second cover feature this year for the group – well done to all involved!! See our Research Highlights page for the full collection!

 

Poster prize!

A School of Chemistry event was held to showcase the research from all early career researchers (M.Res., PhD and postdocs), with talks, a wine reception and posters!

Great news is that Veronica from our group won the poster prize! Congratulations Veronica! Here some photos of some other group members at their posters! Well done to all on a great effort, and thanks to Tom Oliver, Carmen Galan and Simon Hall for organising this event!

 

Visiting Xiaoyu Li at BIT

Charl had the pleasure to visit Xiaoyu, collaborator and co-author on our Nature Communications paper last year, at the Beijing Institute of Technology.

It was a great opportunity to catch up with Xiaoyu, listen to some talks from his students, and finally for Charl to give a research seminar as well. Hopefully there will be many such future interactions, and continued collaboration!