Congrats to Angel, who passed his viva on Wednesday! Celebrations had a Mexican flavour, as could be expected!
Well done Dr Sanchez Sanchez, who is now working with Dr Nikolay Houbenov in the molecular materials group of Professor Olli Ikkala at Aalto University, Helsinki, Finland!
Charl is in Mexico City on a short recruitment trip. He met a number of alumni at the UKAAM alumni event on Friday evening, which was a great way to connect and talk about what a great place Bristol is!
He also met many students at the British Council Recruitment Fair yesterday interested in doing a Masters by Research or PhD at the School of Chemistry. Charl will be at the fair again today, and be visiting the Institute of Chemistry at UNAM on Monday.
Bristol is a great place to live and study, and this great video of the city is certainly worth having a look at!
Prof Bert Meijer from Eindhoven, Netherlands, and leading international scientist visited Bristol on the 18th of February. Prof Meijer gave the named Timms Lecture at the Timms Symposium. Prof Fiona Meldrum and Prof Rasmita Raval also spoke, with Drew Thomson and Becky Boston (now in Sheffield) showcasing their work too!
Charl spent the day at the Department of Chemistry at Monash, where he gave a talk and interacted with a number of colleagues, including Dr Rico Tabor!
He also had the chance to have a look at their brand-new and very impressive chemistry building on campus! Great day in very summery Melbourne!
This £210,000 collaborative grant has been awarded to a research team from engineering (aerospace and engineering mathematics) and chemistry. Efforts in the lab are led by Dicker, and his work with biomimetic devices that re-orientate in response to light. See the University of Bristol’s news article here
The work is inspired by sun-tracking plants and uses pH-sensitive hydrogels in combination with photoacids to achieve actuation. These devices could be used to maximise the efficiency of photovoltaic panels by tracking the sun throughout the day.
To fit in with busy schedules, this years early Christmas lunch was held at Charl’s home with great food and drink, a quiz and the infamous ‘secret santa pass the parcel’!
The invitation to ‘bring a hat’ was met with a variety of hats from across the world
Charl went to China to attend the annual PhD workshop in Beijing, where he met many outstanding candidates interested in joining the School of Chemistry, as well as the BCFN and the BCS, as PhD students. What a pleasure to talk to motivated and bright candidates! There were also two alumni events (Shanghai and Beijing) which Charl attended as part of this short trip.
Finally, Dr Terry McMaster (Director – BCFN), Dr Emma Turner (Course Manager – BCS) and Charl visited Jilin University, hosted by the College of Chemistry. They met with Prof Junqi Sun and a number of colleagues from across JU to talk about collaboration and student exchange. Terry, Emma and Charl also had a chance to speak to interested students in the afternoon!
Congratulations to Yaozu for making the front cover of Macromolecular Rapid Communications this month with his research on amine-linked oligocarbazole hollow microspheres!
This latest work has real-world applications in providing an alternative, reusable material for the absorption of lead from contaminated water sources.
Charl is currently in Thailand, with a number of academics from the UoB (including Dr Emma Turner from the BCS) and Janie Digby-Lee from the UoB’s International Office. Charl and Janie attended an OCSC Placement day on Friday, as well as various recruitment events.
They also visited Harrow International School earlier the week, where Charl spoke to science students about his research. Charl and Emma will be visiting Kasetsart University tomorrow, talking about the BCFN and the BCS, amongst others!
To celebrate a birthday within the group, Carl used his expertise in 2-photon polymerisation and 3D lithography to produce this 15 micrometer scale birthday cake! The cake was part of Carl and Alex’s birthday celebrations, a much larger scale event!
Too small to be seen with the naked eye, this image was taken with a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). Happy birthday Carl and Alex!
Faul Research Group 