Charl visited Prof Xiangke Wang, who recently joined the North China Electric Power University (Beijing) to set up a new Environmental Chemistry and Engineering department.
He gave an introductory research presentation to (mostly) undergraduate students.
Charl is currently in Beijing in his role as adjunct professor at Tsinghua University, teaching an introductory course on liquid crystals and soft matter. This visit is also an opportunity to discuss research and collaboration with colleagues in the Department of Chemistry.
Charl is also attending the University of Bristol’s China graduation ceremony (and alumni meetings) this weekend, where he is representing the Faculty of Science. Busy weekend ahead!
Updates and photos to follow soon!
Frank, a professor of organic materials and nanosystems at the University of Würzburg, Germany, visited Bristol on 4th March to present his exciting work on perylene diimide materials and their supramolecular assembly.
His lecture was preceded by a series of excellent talks by Bristol postgraduate researchers on topics from nanoparticle assembly at interfaces to the monitoring of micellular growth using the latest fluorescent techniques!
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!
Emily Baker, a joint student between Charl and Dek Woolfson, has had her paper on protein structure published in Nat. Chem. Bio! Her work focused on the interactions within protein alpha helices and how the dipole forces holding them together may be less influential than previously thought.
Read a short summary of the work, or see the full article here. Well done Emily (and collaborators!).
Congratulations to Geri for getting her paper entitled “Chiral Perylene Diimides: New Building Blocks for Ionic-Self Assembly” accepted in Chemistry – A European Journal.
More details on this full paper in collaboration with Prof. Guy Lloyd-Jones (now at Edinburgh) to follow…
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.
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.
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 
