Charl is currently attending the International Conference on Synthetic Metals, ICSM2014, in Turku, where he gave a talk on Thursday. The conference, organised by Ronald Osterbacka and colleagues in Turku, has attracted a large number of research active in the fields of conducting and semi-conduncting organic materials.
Great conference, with a great conference dinner in Turku Castle!
We have the pleasure of having Jasper (from Wageningen, the Netherlands) and Paul (from the Institute of Molecular Engineering, Chicago, USA) visiting Bristol as part of the BCFN‘s seminar series. James, from the FRG, also gave a short talk as part of the afternoon’s activities.
Lots of exciting science, great talks, and very nice to have two excellent speakers from outside Bristol here!
After a bit of a dry spell, we are entering into birthday season again, kicked off with Yumeng’s birthday!
Happy birthday Yumeng!
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!
