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!
Congrats to Sheue-Lin (who recently completed her MSc with the BCFN, with her research project done in the group)! Her family (and friend!) celebrated with her! Well done Sheue-Lin!
We have a busy two weeks coming up – with Pete and Carl speaking at two mini symposia connected to two international speakers this week [Prof Sakamoto and Prof Bunz]. These events will be followed by Ben’s viva on Friday, and another symposium next week (Prof Pietrangelo, where Ben will be speaking).
Updates and photos to follow!
Another important funding scheme specifically for international post-doctoral fellowships has also just been published for 2017.
Please contact Professor Faul if you are interested to apply for a Newton International Fellowship. Please ensure that you provide two letters of reference.
Faul Research Group 