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!
An Akagi group poster session was organised on the day that Charl visited. This was a great opportunity to discuss science, and see some of the beautiful results from the students in the group!
Everyone had a great time, especially as we went for a lovely dinner afterwards! We now look forward to hosting some colleagues from Kyoto in Bristol!
Ben is spending two weeks in Kyoto, working in the group of Professor Kazuo Akagi (Dept. of Polymer Chemistry, Laboratory of Functional Polymer Synthesis).
He is collaborating with members of the Akagi group on a joint project funded by the Bristol-Kyoto strategic fund.
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!
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.
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Angel’s fruitful visit to Prof. Kaner’s lab in UCLA has come to an end. Angel concluded the two month visit with a talk about how the visit has helped him with his project. In particular, he spoke about the synthesis … Continue reading
Ben has just returned from visiting Prof. Gregory Salamo and Dr. Michael Hawkridge at the Arkansas Nano-Bio Materials Characterization Facility, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, USA.
He made use of their X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) equipment, which provided information about the atomic composition of his films with approx 10 µm resolution (X-Y) and sub-10nm resolution (Z). The XPS experiments allowed him to characterise any chemical changes that may take place in his film to result in the changes in conductivity observed.
Ben travelled to the US with Dr. Loren Picco, a colleague in the Nanophysics group in Bristol, and the trip was funded by an EPSRC “Building Global Engagements” grant. Loren specialises in high-speed AFM (HSAFM) and was visiting Arkansas to help them set up a high-speed AFM to be based in the Nano-Bio Materials Characterization Facility
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Angel is visiting the Kaner lab at UCLA in Los Angeles, California. This visit represents a good opportunity to exchange ideas and learn different techniques to characterise organic semiconductors. Angel’s project involves the use of bio-inspired motifs to achieve control … Continue reading
Charl is currently in China, and gave a talk this morning at the Department of Chemistry, Tsinghua University, Beijing (hosted Prof Xi Zhang, head of department).
Here he is trying his best to prepare for a difficult question! Very nice periodic table behind him!
He is spending the rest of the day in discussion with Prof Zhang and Assoc. Prof. Huaping Xu (who visited Bristol recently).
He will be visiting the Chinese Academy’s Institute of Chemistry tomorrow (visiting prof. Wenping Hu), and then off to Xiamen for the RSC conference “Challenges in Nanoscience, ISACS 9”, where he is speaking on Saturday morning.
More to follow soon!
Faul Research Group 