Kansai University

Charl spent a day at Kansai University, kindly hosted by Prof Fumio Sanda at the Polymer Design and Creation Laboratories.  Except for interesting discussions with faculty members, Charl also spent the afternoon with Prof Sanda’s students, where they presented their latest (and very exciting) results! Charl ended the afternoon by giving a talk (before a delicious dinner in downtown Osaka!).

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Heliotropic Sun-Tracking Cornish Mallow…

The inspiration of Dicker’s research project, sponsored by the Leverhulme Trust, is the sun-tracking movements of the Cornish Mallow.

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Dicker, a joint PhD student with Prof Paul Weaver and colleagues from ACCIS, recently posted this Youtube time-lapse video of his prized Cornish Mallow’s laboratory activity!

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Professor Charl F. J. Faul

Congratulations Prof. Charl on your recent promotion to full professor at the Department of Chemistry, University of Bristol!

Charl started at the University of Bristol in 2005 as a lecturer and reader in materials chemistry.  Thanks to all of his hard work and the work of group members, past and present, his recent application for full professorship has been successful!

ICMAT2015 in Singapore

Charl is currently in Singapore at the ICMAT2015 meeting.  Great meeting, with the chance to see presentations from Nicola Pinna (now in Berlin, former colleague from the MPI in Golm), Uwe Bunz (Heidelberg), Stefan Kaskel (Dresden), Dorota Koziej (ETH Zurich, working with former MPI colleague Markus Niederberger), and former FRG member, Tierui Zhang (Beijing).

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A Visit From Rico Tabor

Rico, a graduate from Bristol, returned to the chemistry lecture theatres to give a lecture rather than receive one! His talk on functional, fluorinated and unconventional surfactants highlighted his group‘s current research at the School of Chemistry, Monash University, Australia.

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It was fantastic to have a great academic visit the department and interact with the group!

Maria Forsyth visiting from Australia

Professor Maria Forsyth, from Deakin University’s Institute of Frontier Materials, and Associate Director of ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science, is visiting the UK from Australia.   She visited Bristol today, and gave a talk entitled “Ionic Liquid And Organic Ionic Plastic Crystal Electrolytes For Energy Storage Devices”.

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Great to be able to host Maria during her short visit to Bristol!

Soft matter matters at Tsinghua!

Charl finished his “Introduction to Liquid Crystals and Soft Matter” course for undergraduates at the Department of Chemistry at Tsinghua University earlier this week.

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As part of the course, the students spent a morning in the laboratories, making their own liquid crystals, and observing the fascinating textures using polarised light microscopy!

Graduation in Beijing

Charl attended the UoB’s graduation ceremony in Beijing on Saturday … and had the chance to celebrate with 4 BCFN MSc students who also received their degrees! Congratulations!

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Charl was privileged to meet with Prof Chunli Bai, the President of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and pioneer of SPM techniques in China.  Prof Bai was awarded an honorary degree by Bristol on Saturday.