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!
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!).
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!
A study led by Prof Guangtao Li, and where Charl contributed, was accepted for publication in Chemical Science. More details on the manuscript entitled “Helically Structured Metal-Organic Frameworks Fabricated by Using Supramolecular Assemblies as Templates” can be found here.
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.
To fit in with busy schedules, this years early Christmas lunch was held at Charl’s home with great food and drink, a quiz and the infamous ‘secret santa pass the parcel’!
The invitation to ‘bring a hat’ was met with a variety of hats from across the world
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.
