Category Archives: General interest

Funded postdoc position available

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As part of the £6M newly EPSRC-funded project “emPOWER: in-body artificial muscles for physical augmentation, function restoration, patient empowerment and future healthcare”, we are excited to advertise a research associate/senior research associate position within the Faul Research Group, with a focus on conjugated and block copolymer synthesis for implantable artificial muscles. This position will be available for up to 5 years.

Please note that the closing date for applications is the 28th of February.

https://www.empowermuscles.com

In addition to this exciting opportunity to join the FRG, there are a further 4 positions in the emPOWER project available in Bristol (also for up to 5 years):

  • one position in the Perriman group, focussing on the bio-engineering aspects and tissue engineering
  • 3 positions within the Soft Robotics group in engineering with Prof Jonathan Rossiter, focussing on soft robotic actuation, artificial muscles, smart materials and mechanical metamaterials

Two new members!

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Great to formally welcome new PhD students Ciqun and Helal in the group!

Ciqun joined the Soft Robotics lab and the FRG as a joint PhD student at the end of last year, working on novel soft actuators for robotics applications. Helal joined the group very recently from Saudi Arabia, and will be working on novel perylene-based supramolecular polymers!

Welcome to both!

Online conferences continue – GWPore!

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GWPore – the local GW4 network for porous materials activities at the univerisities of Cardiff, Bath, Exeter and Bristol – has had an excitiing online conference, focussed on giving early career research the opportunity to present posters and oral presentations.

A number of FRG group members attended and gave posters (Julia, Connie, Merve, Safa). There were also two talks from the group (Neha and Veronica), as well as a talk by our colleague and close collaborator Kamran (from the Beijing)!

Fantastic effort by all, and a great opportunity to network and see what other exciting porous materials research is currently being performed in the South West of the UK and beyond!

Talk by Anita Etale… on water purification

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Great to have Anita and her research group (from the Global Change Institute and School of Chemistry, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa) visit on Zoom.

Anita gave a great talk on the challenges around acid main drainage, and the consequent impact on drinking water quality in informal settlements around Johannesburg.

Looking forward to developing some of the ideas generated and discussed into some exciting science with real impact! Thanks Anita!

Welcome to Connie and Julia!

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Great to have the first new graduate students of the year joining the FRG! Connie (left) and Julia (middle) are both on the Cabot Institute’s Master’s by Research in Global Environmental Challenges degree programme, and about to start their projects in our laboratories!

 

Here they are, COVID safe, and socially distanced, on their first day in the lab with Veronica (right). Welcome! Trust that you will have a inspiring and productive year, despite things being done very differently than before!

Paper with Wei and Yaozu in Chemistry of Materials!

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Continuing the Faul Research Group’s long-standing collaboration with Yaozu and Wei (and Yaozu’s group at Donghua University in Shanghai), our latest paper just appeared in Chemistry of Materials! And of course great to have Arne Thomas (TU Berlin) involved in the study as well!

The study, entitled “Conjugated Microporous Polymer Network Grafted Carbon Nanotube Fibers with Tunable Redox Activity for Efficient Flexible Wearable Energy Storage” explores novel fiber-shaped supercapacitors (FSCs) as promising flexible energy storage devices.

Congrats to all involved – especially Wei as first author of this very nice study!

 

Back in the office … for the first time since March!

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It was Charl’s first day back in his office since March! Although Faul group members have been back in the labs since early June (with labs currently at 50% occupancy), Charl has been working from home! His office has also been used by the group as an additional safe working space.

Was great to be back in the office today, for the whole day! And to be able to enjoy the glorious sunshine view from the 6th floor!

Nan and Basi’s Twitter posters!

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Nan (joint PhD student with close collaborator Natalie Fey) and Basi are taking part in the RSC’s Porous Materials Interest Group’s Twitter Poster Competition! Fantastic effort from both! Well done!

Find them on Twitter, or on Twitter to stay up to date with the latest news.

 

 

Back in the labs!

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It is with great excitement that the first team (of three) started to do lab work again today! It was a long break, but we are all very excited to go back – and grateful for the fantastic job done by the University of Bristol’s Estate Services, and Prof Paul Pringle and his safety team in the School of Chemistry, to ensure a safe return for all!

The lab was cleaned and decluttered on Friday and yesterday – it has not been this neat, tidy and clean since we moved in! A big thank you to everyone who contributed to make this new way of working (with socially distanced working, seating arrangements and one-way system, amongst many new procedures!) possible.