Charlie (Jarret-Wilkins) joined the Manners and Faul groups as a joint PhD student.
Charlie started his PhD career in the Bristol Chemical Synthesis CDT, and after working in various laboratories over the last 6 months, has now chosen a joint Manners/Faul project for his PhD. Welcome!
Charl visited the Xi’an Jiaotong University earlier this week to meet up with a former FRG group member and collaborator Jiangtao Feng! Jiangtao is now a member of faculty at the Department of Environmental Science and Technology.
Charl gave a lecture, met with several of the students in Prof Yan’s group, and discussed various joint projects! It was great to catch up with Jiangtao again!
Charl (and Jacqueline) arrived in Beijing last week. Charl was formally awarded an adjunct professorship by Prof Xi Zhang (Head of the Department of Chemistry and Dean, Faculty of Science) after an introduction by Dr Huaping Xu (associate professor, Department of Chemistry). Huaping ended off his introductory remarks with the following quote from Henry Ford:
Coming together is a beginning,
Staying together is progress,
Working together is success.
Charl then proceeded to give a short acceptance speech, before launching into his first lecture (of a series introducing liquid crystals and soft matter) as part of the Tsinghua Xuetang programme. Charl and Prof Zhang then worked together, with Prof Zhang kindly providing some help and further explanations in Chinese to some of the students!
We had the pleasure of having a great line-up of speakers for the Peter Timms Symposium (named after the late Peter Timms, a pioneering chemist and the perfect gentleman!).
Arne (Thomas), Alex (from the FRG), Zac (Hudson, from the Manners Group) gave excellent lectures. The 2014 Timms Lecture was then given by Prof Craig Hawker (UCSB) – an exciting overview of some of the activities from his research laboratories. It was then our pleasure to have Liz Timms, Peter’s wife, hand over the Timms award to Craig.
The day was wrapped up with a wine reception! Thanks to all who were involved and helped to make it such a successful day!
Arne, one of the keynote speakers at the School of Chemistry’s Timms Symposium, is visiting the Faul Research Group today (Tuesday, 11th of March).
Arne, who is based at the Technical University in Berlin, Germany, is spending the day talking to various FRG group members about their research.
Alex Bell, from the FRG, is also speaking at the Timms Symposium, talking about some of his exciting work on tetra(aniline)-graphene composites!
Charl and colleagues from the University of Bristol are attending the British Council’s UK recruitment fair held in Mexico City over the weekend. See the link to the fair’s Facebook pages, with a photo of Charl discussing the details of a course with a prospective student!
The fair is held in the very impressive and very colourful Camino Real Polanco hotel.
Emma Turner (Bristol Chemical Synthesis), Terry McMaster (Bristol Centre for Functional Nanomaterials) and Charl visited the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) on Friday. Terry and Charl visited the Institute of Materials Research to discuss future collaboration and student exchanges in a very successful meeting!
Here a photo of the central library (left) and the rector’s tower on the massive UNAM campus!
The FRG had the pleasure of hosting Prof Iain McCulloch, from Imperial, on Wednesday. Iain’s talk was preceded by a student mini symposium, where Angel also spoke! Angel gave a great presentation, which was then followed by a fantastic lecture by Iain on the “Design of Polymer Semiconductors for Solar Cells and Organic Electronics”.
It was great to hear the latest results from Iain’s group, and an exciting opportunity to hear about some of our own students’ research!
Charl had the chance to experience the world-leading research activities in materials chemistry, supramolecular chemistry and self-assembly at the University of Tokyo. Prof Takashi Kato, the perfect host, organised an excellent visit for Charl, including a research seminar on Tuesday morning, and many interesting discussions.
Takashi also ensured that Charl experienced excellent Japanese food!
Charl also had the chance to look around Tokyo on Sunday (especially Shinjuku district).
After a good Christmas break, the year has started on a high note! A large number of academic staff members from the University of Bristol traveled to Kyoto for the 2nd Kyoto-Bristol Symposium.
A number of colleagues from Bristol (the School of Chemistry and the BCFN) and Kyoto took part in the “Physical Chemistry and Materials Chemistry Session”, co-organised by Prof Mitsuo Sawamoto and Charl.
A number of new collaborative projects were explored, and all participants had a fantastic time in beautiful Kyoto!
Faul Research Group 