Category Archives: General interest

Timms Symposium 2017 … with a great line-up of speakers!

Posted on by
Reply

We had the pleasure of hosting the annual materials chemistry, the Timms Symposium, last week here in Bristol.

Close collaborator and good friend, Prof Xi Zhang from Tsinghua University, was the Timms Lecturer for 2017.  He was supported on the day by excellent presentations by Dr Annela Seddon (Director of the BCFN), Prof. Jean-Francois Lutz (Strasbourg), Jess Gwyther (from the Manners group) and Jason Potticary (from the Hall group).

We were also very pleased that Liz Timms, the late Peter Timms wife, could join for the afternoon, and hand over a small award to Prof Zhang!

47 minutes for BISC!

Posted on by
Reply

Xiaoyu ran the Bristol 10k on Sunday for Bisc with a number of other international students, volunteers (and Jacqueline!). They all ran to help to raise money for the building project to extend the building at Bisc – a home away from home for all international students.

He ran an amazing time of 47 minutes – without any training! Well done Xiaoyu, and all the others for completing the race!

Charl giving a talk at the Shanghai Jiaotong University

Posted on by
Reply

Charl visited Shanghai as part of the University of Bristol’s China Graduation activities.  He used this opportunity to visit the Shanghai Jiaotong University, where he met up with various former postdocs and friends from Bristol.

He also gave a talk, and enjoyed discussing science with Hongjing and Huibin, both postdocs from the Manners’ group!

China graduation – and Joey graduating

Posted on by
Reply

Charl attended the University of Bristol China graduation (for the third time!).  He saw many students from Bristol, as well as three chemistry graduates! Here the three (Chuhui, Hao and Xuechun) are celebrating with Charl and Professor Tim Gallagher, Dean of Science!

More importantly, Joey Liu, who dis his extended project (as part of his MSc in Nanoscience and Functional Nanomaterials) in the Faul group, also graduated!

Well done Joey!

Charl teaching at Tsinghua

Posted on by
Reply

Charl is back in Beijing at Tsinghua, teaching an introductory course on liquid crystals and soft matter on the Tsinghua Xuetang programme. His host is prof Xi Zhang, who will visit Bristol in May this year.

Before the lecture series starts, there was an opportunity to enjoy good weather and clear skies to see Beijing from a different perspective!

Bristol the best place to live in the UK … and has the steepest street as well!

Posted on by
Reply

Bristol was voted, for the second time, as the best place to live in the UK by the Sunday Times.

“We sum the city up as cool, classy and supremely creative.”  And we agree!

We are also inclined to point towards the following important announcement:  Vale Street, in Totterdown in Bristol, has the steepest street in the UK, at an incline of almost 22°!

Dr Mills!

Posted on by
Reply

Ben had his viva at the end of last week, and performed exceptionally well! A perfect way to end his PhD, and a very good reason to end the week on a high note with cake, fizz and celebrations!benvivaHere Ben is celebrating with Simon Hall (internal examiner), Charl and Uwe Bunz (external examiner). More photos of the celebrations to follow! Well done Ben!

Talks by Pete, Carl and Uwe Bunz!

Posted on by
Reply

Pete shared some of his latest results in a mini symposium as part of Prof. Ryota Sakamota’s visit, while Carl gave an excellent talk before our main speaker of the day – Prof Uwe Bunz from Heidelberg.

uwebunzUwe gave a great talk on some exciting new approaches to chemical sensors (so-called “chemical tongues”). Great talks, and exciting science all around!

 

Busy two weeks coming up!

Posted on by
Reply

We have a busy two weeks coming up – with Pete and Carl speaking at two mini symposia connected to two international speakers this week [Prof Sakamoto and Prof Bunz]. These events will be followed by Ben’s viva on Friday, and another symposium next week (Prof Pietrangelo, where Ben will be speaking).

Updates and photos to follow!