Prof Bert Meijer from Eindhoven, Netherlands, and leading international scientist visited Bristol on the 18th of February. Prof Meijer gave the named Timms Lecture at the Timms Symposium. Prof Fiona Meldrum and Prof Rasmita Raval also spoke, with Drew Thomson and Becky Boston (now in Sheffield) showcasing their work too!
Charl spent the day at the Department of Chemistry at Monash, where he gave a talk and interacted with a number of colleagues, including Dr Rico Tabor!
He also had the chance to have a look at their brand-new and very impressive chemistry building on campus! Great day in very summery Melbourne!
Charl was invited to speak at the Australasian Colloid and Interface Society’s Biennial symposium in Hobart, Tasmania! He spoke about some of the work from the FRG in the area of electroactive materials.
It has been a great meeting so far and a good chance to meet up with some old friends (like Dr Rico Tabor, now from Monash University)! And all of this taking place in a wonderful setting!
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!
James and Piotr, both BCFN-funded students, presented at the BCFN’s annual student conference. As a senior PhD student in the current BCFN student cohorts, James gave an (excellent!) talk. Piotr presented a poster on his latest results!
A great day with some very exciting science!
Yaozu gave an excellent talk on some of his recent results at the first mini-symposium on the I&M Chemistry section programme for the new academic year! Here Yaozu is thinking hard before answering a question!
He was joined by Jess Gwyther (postdoc from the Manners group), before the main speaker of the day, prof Michael Morris, University of Cork, Ireland.
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!
Prof Steve Armes, who was very recently elected as Fellow of the Royal Society, gave the RSC Tilden Award Lecture at the School of Chemistry on Wednesday, showing some of his exciting results on polymerisation-induced self-assembly. Ben from the FRG was the first speaker of the afternoon’s mini symposium!
Here he is in action, starting of a great symposium and an afternoon of excellent talks!
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!
Faul Research Group 