Charl visited Beijing and the China PhD workshop last week to talk about graduate opportunities for study and research at the School of Chemistry. Although very short, it was a busy trip meeting with students interested in studying in Bristol and giving a presentation (with Dr Terry McMaster from the BCFN, and Dr Emma Turner from the Bristol Chemical Synthesis CDT) at Beihang University.
Here Charl is talking to an interested candidate at the workshop!
Although also Christmas season, it is also viva season in the FRG. Emily successfully defended her thesis on Monday the 2nd of December, Ben his on Thursday the 5th of December, and Tom is defending his thesis today! Well done Emily and Ben, and good luck Tom!
More details and photos to follow soon!
A formal announcement was made this morning by the Universities and Science Minister, David Willetts, concerning funding of centres for doctoral training (CDTs).
Bristol performed very well, and managed to secure funding for 7 CDTs, while also partner and closely involved in a further 4 CDTs. Of particular interest was the successful funding bid for the BCFN, where Charl was closely involved in both the writing and the interview stages of the bid!
Well done Bristol!
It was recently announced that Charl has taken up an adjunct professorship at the Department of Chemistry at Tsinghua University, Beijing, China. This 3-year position will certainly contribute to strengthen the ties between Bristol and Tsinghua!
The FRG took the opportunity to volunteer and help out at the Bristol International Student Centre (BISC) last night. We helped to cook welcome meals for new international students, and as it was the last night of these meals, it was very busy!
Here we can be seen in action, with some other Bisc staff and volunteers, and taking a break after a hectic evening! We served more than 140 meals! Well done!
Angel is looking at the use of molecules found in biosupramolecular systems as building blocks, such as guanine, to produce oligo(aniline)-based materials with anisotropic properties. Thus, the understanding of the self-assembling properties of these kind of building blocks becomes crucial to achieve control over the morphology and the molecular architecture of the final material. The Symposium on Nucleic Acids, Hydrogen Bonding and Supramolecular Chemistry has provided to him the opportunity to talk and listen to various scientists experts in the area such as Jeffery Davis, University of Maryland, USA, and Stefano Masiero, University of Bologna, Italy. Both experts in the study of self-assembly of nucleobases and their use as functional materials. Angel is now back in Bristol, after an exciting scientific day at University of Warwick, with new insights and ideas in how to take advantage of the different self-assembling properties of guanine-based complexes to face his current scientific challenges to produce anisotropic oligo(aniline)-based materials.
There are, as always, people leaving the group (Feli taking up a new job in Germany – congrats!), and new people joining! Yaozu just joined the group from China as Marie Curie fellow – welcome! More to follow soon!
A great new blog has been launched by our Drs Natalie Fey and Jenny Slaughter. The idea is that “a picture can be worth a thousand words”. In this project they have combined interesting and striking photographs of familiar objects with representations of some of the molecules they contain, which contribute to their properties and uses.
It already contains some very interesting and exciting entries on plants, so please go ahead and take a look!
Graduation at the University of Bristol is one of the high points in the academic year. It is the opportunity for our students, alongside their families, friends and the University’s staff, to celebrate their achievement.
This time various members of the Faul research group were taking part in this important celebration. Chinwe was awarded her PhD degree in Chemistry, Lizzy and Carl are now Masters of Science in Chemistry, and Fraser was awarded with his Bachelor of Science in Chemistry.
Congratulations to all of them for this important achievement!!!
Angel has been part of the Science Communication (SciComm) workshop held at Cumberland Lodge, in the Great Windsor Park. This course was specifically oriented towards dealing with the media – journalism, television and radio. The course involved plenty of practical work, including time in a BBC radio recording studio in Central London.
Faul Research Group 