Xiaoyu ran the Bristol 10k on Sunday for Bisc with a number of other international students, volunteers (and Jacqueline!). They all ran to help to raise money for the building project to extend the building at Bisc – a home away from home for all international students.
He ran an amazing time of 47 minutes – without any training! Well done Xiaoyu, and all the others for completing the race!
Charl visited Shanghai as part of the University of Bristol’s China Graduation activities. He used this opportunity to visit the Shanghai Jiaotong University, where he met up with various former postdocs and friends from Bristol.
He also gave a talk, and enjoyed discussing science with Hongjing and Huibin, both postdocs from the Manners’ group!
Dicker had no problem navigating his viva (with two external examiners!) earlier this week, even whilst wearing a tie!
The event was celebrated with the usual beverages, and then continued in a favourite pub on St Michael’s Hill! Well done Dr Dicker!
Charl attended the University of Bristol China graduation (for the third time!). He saw many students from Bristol, as well as three chemistry graduates! Here the three (Chuhui, Hao and Xuechun) are celebrating with Charl and Professor Tim Gallagher, Dean of Science!
More importantly, Joey Liu, who dis his extended project (as part of his MSc in Nanoscience and Functional Nanomaterials) in the Faul group, also graduated!
Well done Joey!
The Faul and Hall groups got together to say goodbye to Kazu, who is about to leave the UK and return to Japan! Kazu will be sorely missed in the group!
Safe travels and all the best Kazu! Hope to see you back in Bristol soon again!
Charl is back in Beijing at Tsinghua, teaching an introductory course on liquid crystals and soft matter on the Tsinghua Xuetang programme. His host is prof Xi Zhang, who will visit Bristol in May this year.
Before the lecture series starts, there was an opportunity to enjoy good weather and clear skies to see Beijing from a different perspective!
Bristol was voted, for the second time, as the best place to live in the UK by the Sunday Times.
“We sum the city up as cool, classy and supremely creative.” And we agree!
We are also inclined to point towards the following important announcement: Vale Street, in Totterdown in Bristol, has the steepest street in the UK, at an incline of almost 22°!
Liam contributed to a paper that just appeared online at JACS entitled “Uniform “Patchy” Platelets by Seeded Heteroepitaxial Growth of Crystallizable Polymer Blends in Two Dimensions“.
The study demonstrates that the 2D crystallization-driven self-assembly approach (developed by close collaborator, and Liam’s joint supervisor Ian Manners) can be extended to heteroepitaxial growth by the use of different crystallizable polymers with compatible crystal structures. This allows the formation of well-defined “patchy” rectangular platelets and platelet block co-micelles with different core chemistries.
Well done Liam!
Ben had his viva at the end of last week, and performed exceptionally well! A perfect way to end his PhD, and a very good reason to end the week on a high note with cake, fizz and celebrations!
Here Ben is celebrating with Simon Hall (internal examiner), Charl and Uwe Bunz (external examiner). More photos of the celebrations to follow! Well done Ben!
Pete shared some of his latest results in a mini symposium as part of Prof. Ryota Sakamota’s visit, while Carl gave an excellent talk before our main speaker of the day – Prof Uwe Bunz from Heidelberg.
Uwe gave a great talk on some exciting new approaches to chemical sensors (so-called “chemical tongues”). Great talks, and exciting science all around!
Faul Research Group 