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University of Warwick Chemistry Department Newsletter Issue No: 23 July 2016
The rbitalSummer Graduation 2016 and prizes
Many congratulations to all of our Graduands and Prizewinners this summer:
BSc
Rafia ASLAM, Charles Lindsay BARCLAY, Jonny BARNSLEY, Mohamed Adil BAWA, Victoria BERGSTROM, Hannah BRANCH, Daniel BULL, Ka
Ching (Claire) CHAN, Alexander CHAMBERLAIN, George CHARMAN, Clinton Tatak CHENG, Hoi Ki CHU, John Reuben CLUGSTON, Zachary COE,
Edward CROWSON, Manisha DAS, Georgia Alexandra DOWD, Jack EVERSON, Edwin John GATESHILL, Nicholas GILBERT, Emma GREAVES,
Cheuk Wing Serene HO, Katherine JACKSON, Abigail KIGHT, Sandeep Singh KUMAR, Alysha KUMAR, Cameron LEWIS, Jiatong (Mandy) LI, Kate
Louise LICENCE, Alice LYNCH, Jaabir MAHMOUD, Patrick Henry MCKINNEY, Amaar NAYAB, Joseph Chukwubuikem OKOR, Rowan PEARCE,
Francesca RACKLEY, Tharsan RATHAKRISHNAN, Urvashi SHARMA, Tajinder Minhas SINGH, Adam Alastair SMITH, Luke STOKES, Haviena
THAYALAN, Joe THORNTON, Chelsey TYE, Evangeline WHEELER-JONES, Adam WHITTALL, Jiaqi XU, Wesley Man Kit YIU, Charlie YORKE-
STARKEY, Huayang YU, Xiaohui (Genie) ZHU
MChem
Jessica Alice AINGER-BROWN, Jonathan Pedrum ALBORZPOUR, Alexander Thomas Murray ARMISTEAD, Andrew ARMSTRONG, Kate BARBER,
Matthew BEECH, Mechelle BENNETT, Jason George BINFIELD, Alix Lyle BLEASE, Emily BRAXTON, Rhiannon Louise BROOKS, Robert BROWN,
Erin BULLIONS, Dexter Prakash BUSHELL, Hiu Tung (Kelly) CHAN, Lauren CHAPMAN, Chloe CHILD, Ruth Mary CHIPPERFIELD, Alison Maureen
CLAYSON, Lucy Ann COLEMAN, Matthew CONWAY, Carri Ann COTTON, Daniel John Luke COXON, James CROSLAND, Madeleine CUMBES,
Bethany DEAN, Aivaras DIRVANAUSKAS, Luca Simone DOBSON, Matthew DONALD, Christopher ELLINGFORD, Christos Ayo FALEYE, David
FITCHETT, Thomas FLOYD, Dikivitila FUNDU, Joshua GARCIA HALL, Jedrzej Jaroslaw GOZDZIK, Lucy Clare GROSVENOR, Emily HANNA, Lucy
HOLT, Gregory JOLLY, Daniel KING, Gavin KIRBY, Thomas LAW, Shin Yiing LIM, Chloe LORAINE, Sophie NEALE, Sarah Rose Ellen ORSBORNE,
Christopher PACKER, Baljeet PANESAR, Harry PINFOLD, Kiran PRASAD, Panward PRASONGPHOLCHAI, Patrick ROWE, George SAUNDERS,
Melody SHAND, Ataulla SHEGIWAL, Sophia Greta SPADONI, Thomas STEPHENS, Benjamin TRELOAR, Jonah TRENOUTH, Sacha WALLIS, Jimmy
WANG, Stephen WEST, Georgia WOOD, Ziyang (Victor) YE
MPhil – Vidyalakshmi Chockalingam MUTHUKUMAR
MSc – Enrik NAKO, Christopher Charles PARKINS, Nathan Robert PARSONS
PhD
Barak David Bertisch AARONSON, Rehab AL BOTROS, Leo Alexander BOWSHER, Robert Barry CHANNON, Changhui CHAN, Anatolii CUHARUC,
Luke Mark DANIELS, Jasmine Lea DESMOND, Andrew Richard EDWARDS, Katherine FARRANCE, Michael David HORBURY, Hasan Tanvir IMAM,
Dhadchayini JEYAHARAN, Paul David KERBY, Sophie Laura KINNEAR, Jonathan Mark LAMLEY, Goran Mahmood M. RASHID, Edward Luke
MALINS, Vasiliki NIKOLAOU, Binoy Paulose NADAPPURAM, Andrew Henry ROSS, Alexandre SIMULA
MOAC PhD
Claire Elizabeth BROUGHTON, Benjamin Paul FITTON, Muhammad HASAN, Matthew James LOUGHER, Daniel Edward MITCHELL, Stephen
Richard NORTON, Matthew George THOMAS, Jennifer Rachel WEBB
The following 2015/16 prizes were also presented at the Graduation Day reception:
Victoria BERGSTROM – Year 3 best overall performance in Laboratories
Zachary COE, Emma GREAVES, Katherine JACKSON – Year 3 The Chemistry Departmental BSc Prize for outstanding overall performance by a
final year Bachelor of Science student
Georgia WOOD, Patrick ROWE – Year 3 MChem Industrial Training or Professional Experience Student, placement 2014-15 for outstanding
performance in year 3 The Enterprise Prize
Matthew BEECH – Year 4 MChem Prize for outstanding overall performance by a final year Master of Chemistry Student
Matthew BEECH, Carri COTTON, Erin BULLIONS, Mechelle BENNETT – The Andrew McCamley Award for outstanding Year 4 Project
Rebecca WRELTON – Bruker prize (outstanding performance by 3rd year MChem student with 82.5%)
Years 1 & 2 Prizes
Luke SCOTT – The David Hutchinson Memorial Prize for outstanding performance in Year 2
Sian FRANKLIN – The Chemistry (Kotterman) Prize for outstanding laboratory carousel performance in Year 2
Martin LEA – The Oxford University Press Prize for most improved performance in Year 2
Sophie MILLS – The Giving to Warwick Prize for outstanding performance in Year 1
Caitlin HEFFERNAN, Hayden TOBIN, Matthew LAUREL – The Chemistry (Kotterman) Prize for outstanding laboratory performance in Year 1
2016 Science Faculty Thesis Prize Winners
Daniel PHILLIPS – ‘Biochemically Adaptive Materials based on Isothermally Responsive Materials’
Jonathan LAMLEY – ‘Methods for the Determination of the Structures and Dynamics of Proteins by Solid-State NMR Spectroscopy’
2
2016 Prizewinners
Victoria Bergstrom with Paul Kirkman from Lubrizol
Year 3 best overall performance in Laboratories
Prof Stephen R Leone with (left to right) Zachary Coe, Katherine Jackson, Emma Greaves
Year 3 The Chemistry Departmental BSc Prize for outstanding overall performance by a final year Bachelor of Science student
Prof Stephen R Leone with Georgia Wood
Year 3 MChem Industrial Training or Professional Experience Student, placement 2014-15 for outstanding performance in year 3 The Enterprise Prize
Matthew Beech with Dr Colin Morton from Infineum
Year 4 MChem Prize for outstanding overall performance by a final year Master of Chemistry Student
Background – Heather Tobin, MBE, and Dr Colin MortonFront (left to right) - Carri Cotton, Mechelle Bennett, Erin Bullions, Matthew Beech
The Andrew McCamley Award for outstanding Year 4 Project
Prof Alison Rodger with Dr Russ Kitson
The Andrew McCamley Award for Excellence in Teaching
3
4
Interdisciplinary Surface Science Symposium
The Warwick Interdisciplinary Surface Science Symposium in June was
organised to facilitate cross-departmental communication and collaboration.
The event was well-attended, attracting over 50 researchers (25% academics
and 75% PhD/PDRAs) from a wide selection of science-based disciplines,
including Chemistry, Physics, Engineering, Maths and WMG.
Dr Jasmine Desmond, IAS Early Career FellowImages of a graphene coated copper surface
(credit: Dr Alex Marsden)
While the event was primarily for Warwick researchers, there were a number of external delegates from within
the UK (Cambridge, Durham, Manchester, Birmingham, UCL) and abroad (Fudan University, China and Al-
Hikmah University, Nigeria). International guest speaker, Professor Susan Stipp (University of Copenhagen,
Denmark) gave the first talk, sharing her experience as leader of the highly interdisciplinary NanoGeoScience
Group. Warwick academics, Gavin Bell ('Surfaces, Interfaces and Thin Films Group', Physics), Neil Wilson
('Microscopy Group', Physics) and Prof Stefan Bon, together with selected junior researchers presented the
latest in their research.
Many links were formed, the day culminating in a wine reception that extended way beyond the official close of
the meeting. The relationships formed here have the potential to form the basis of many future collaborative
projects and at least one PhD exchange was proposed within the meeting. The Surface Science Symposium
was sponsored by the Centre for Scientific Computing, Warwick Institute of Advanced Study and Warwick
Global Research Priority Materials.
Awards and congratulations to…
UK universities ranked - Chemistry
The Guardian League
Table for Chemistry
Warwick remains ranked 5th in the
2016 League Table for chemistry,
published by The Guardian.
For the full results, see here.
The Research Committee welcomes early expressions of interest in
order to identify and support the best candidates through the application
process. In addition to consulting your line manager, we are available to
provide informal advice on your suitability and competiveness.
Please contact Dr Adrian Chaplin (current URF) or Prof Greg Challis
(chair of the Research Committee), and see here for more details.
Internal fellowship applications
The new Leiden Ranking 2016 has now been
published, and overall, as an institution, Warwick
was ranked as follows:
In the UK: 18
In Europe: 90
In the world: 257
The CWTS Leiden Ranking 2016 offers key insights
into the scientific performance over 800 major
universities worldwide. A sophisticated set of
bibliometric indicators provide statistics on the
scientific impact of universities and on universities’
involvement in scientific collaboration. For the full
list, see here.
The new Collins AQA A-level Chemistry
textbook is now available, authored by Andy
Clark, Lynne Bayley and Paolo Coppo.
This updates and improves the previous edition
and hopefully will inspire a new generation of
awesome students to come to Warwick.
Publications
Prof Andrew Dove – the American Chemical Society 2016 Biomacromolecules/Macromolecules Young Investigator Award
Dr Józef Lewandowski – the RSC 2016 Marlow Award for the development and applications of solid-state NMR
methodology to study structure and dynamics of biomolecules.
Prof Rachel O'Reilly – the RSC 2016 Gibson-Fawcett Award for her contributions to the fields of polymer synthesis,
nanostructures and enzyme mimetic constructs.
Dr Russ Kitson – the Andrew McCamley Award for Excellence in Teaching
PhD student Zoë Ayres – the RSC 2016 Ronald Belcher Award for the development of a robust boron doped diamond pH
sensor for in-situ pH measurements in extreme environments.
Interface Polymers Ltd wins major grant and RSC PrizeNew Warwick Chemistry spin-out, Interface Polymers Ltdis pioneering a new way of making plastic alloys andcomposite materials using its patented range of polymeradditives named Polarfins™. The technology works bymodifying the interfacial properties of commodityplastics such as polyethylene and polypropylene. Theteam led by Prof Peter Scott and his former PhD studentChris Kay recently won £500,000 from Innovate UK tofund production scale-up and application development,although as Pete points out, the products are alreadyavailable by the bucket thanks to Chris’ innovativechemistry.
The company has now put together an experiencedmanagement team. The latest news is that InterfacePolymers won a prize in the Royal Society of Chemistry’sEmerging Technologies Competition following atechnical and business pitch to commercial R&D leadersand investors. This annual competition aims toaccelerate the commercialisation of innovativetechnologies. For more details, see here.
“Just a quick update on my tennis activities: after my exams I travelled to Spain to train at an
Academy joining players ranked up to the top 100 ATP. After training there for a week, it brings
me to my first tournament of the season in Palma Del Rio Spain – a $25000+H ITF/ATP
professional event. The summer holds a wide range of exciting venues for my Professional
tournament circuit plan including Portugal, Belgium, Canada and Netherlands, as well as
continued training in Spain. The support as a Gold scholarship holder at Warwick has enabled me
to access vital training facilities needed for my sporting development. Liaison with Sport England
TASS at Birmingham University has allowed me to implement my physical conditioning
programmes and other services with the team at Warwick.
On a final note I would like the Warwick Chemistry department and WBS for their understanding
of my sporting needs and would like to wish all the very best over the summer break.”
Troy Dixon, Year 1 Chemistry with Management Student; TASS Sport England Scholar; Warwick University
Gold Scholarship Holder 5
Troy’s Tennis News
Annual Postgraduate Research Symposium
The Annual Postgraduate Symposium 2016 comprising of talks and posters from PhD Students took place on Wednesday 1 June in the
Mathematics Institute and Maths Street. Over 200 PhD students, staff and researchers were in attendance. Prizes were awarded for the
best talks (in sessions) and posters. Congratulations to the following:
In May, the publication Role Models Guide:
Celebrating LGBTUA+ at Warwick was launched
across campus. Curated by chemistry PhD student
Ross Jaggers, the guide shares the stories of 11
LGBT+ persons at Warwick, as well as messages of
support from the E&D team and Warwick Chaplaincy.
These accounts celebrate the diversity of Warwick
and encourage staff and students to bring their whole
selves to their work and studies, as who they are is
important to what they do in their lives both at
Warwick and beyond. Of the students, staff and
alumni featured, you’ll find our very own Prof Stefan
Bon, Dr Ben Douglas and PhD student Federico
Floris. Read the guide here.
LGBTUA+ latest
Materials and Polymers Session: 1st place Lewis Blackman; runner-up Zoe Roberts
Chemical Biology and Synthesis Session: 1st place Daniel Griffiths;
runner-up Ben Martyn
Physical and Theoretical & Computational Chemistry Session:
1st place Theoretical and Computational Chemistry:
1st place Max Saller; runner-up Maria Adobes Vidal
Posters:1st place Anne Mabire; runners-up Ashley Page,
James Coverdale
2015 Publication Prize:
David Withall
2015 Thesis prize (administered by the Faculty of Science) jointly to:
Jonathan Lamley and Daniel Phillips
Leading Lights 2016
On Thursday 15 September, Prof Sébastien Perrier will be
giving an inaugural lecture on ‘Molecular Engineering to
Probe the Nano-Bio Interface’. This will take place at
12 noon in the Lecture Theatre at the Medical Teaching
Centre.
To register your attendance, please see here.
Postgrad student Chris Thoroughgood has recently been
awarded the Royal Society of Chemistry Research
mobility Grant for £5,000 and £2500 from the EPSRC
Integrate AMR: bridging the gaps networking grant to
Warwick which will enable him to travel to Columbia
University (New York, USA) for a 3
month secondment in Dr. Jonathan Dworkins lab.
During his visit he will study the cellular localisation of
proteins involved in Vancomycin Resistance
to further understand the mechanisms of action. He is
jointly supervised by Dr. David Roper (School of
Life Science) and Dr Ann Dixon.
Prof Greg Challis took up the
Warwick-Monash Chair in
sustainable chemistry on 1 July.
His main link at Monash will be
with the Department of
Biochemistry and Molecular
Biology within the Faculty of
Medicine, Nursing and Health
Sciences.
Edgar
Knowing me, knowing you… Chris Birchall
Miles Harrison Bayley
Dr Lona Alkhalaf – Senior Research Fellow
Joe Bauwens – Teaching Laboratory Technician
Chris Birchall – RSC Teaching Fellow
Melanie Carty – Online Communications Officer (3
month contract/secondment from Central Marketing)
Sètuhn Jimaja – Marie Curie Early Career
Gareth Richings – Research Fellow
Ajay Sehijpal – Finance Manager (12 month
secondment to cover Sam Roberts’ maternity leave)
Michael Snowden – KTP associate
Baolei Zhu – Research Fellow
Arrivals …..
Please email your items for the October newsletter to : [email protected] 6
…. and Departures
And finally, many congratulations to
Lynne Bayley on the birth of her
first baby, Miles Harrison in April,
weighing 8lb 12oz.
Staff
We extend a warm welcome to the following:
Visitors
We say thank you and goodbye to:
Nicolas Barry – Leverhulme Early Research Fellow
Claire Broughton – Research Fellow
Evan Charles – Stores Technician
Leo Calvo-Bado – Research Fellow
Dr Annalaura Del Regno – Research Fellow
Paul Kerby – Research Fellow
Vasiliki Nikolaou – Research Fellow
Natalia Scibisz – Laboratory Technician
Born – Liverpool
Education – Masters degree and PhD working with Dr Debbie Kays at the University of Nottingham.
Career – After completing my PhD I combined some sessional teaching back at Nottingham with
some volunteer work while on the job market. I soon settled down working at Loughborough college
both coordinating and teaching on the science apprenticeship program. This involved going out and
visiting apprentices all over the east midlands in addition to classroom teaching back on campus.
I recently left the college to pursue my interest in science outreach which I developed during my PhD,
where I tried to get out and about as often as I could.
Interests – At work, anything that makes a impressively large bang or flash is always nice. Back at home most of my
time is now spent with our baby daughter Iris desperately trying to both keep her entertained and keep us awake with
varying degrees of success.
Did you know – Me and two friends once got a free holiday to Kosovo after emailing the author of a guide book who
then put us up for the week free of charge.
Role – RSC Teaching Fellow, trying to get out and do some impressive chemistry with as many budding young chemists
as possible.
Miss Tanja Claus
Dr Chris Kay
Mr Kristian Kempe
Ms Yakiong Kong
Dr Dmitry Momotenko
Dr Vincent Poon
Ms Qian Wang
Anyone for… rounders?
Many thanks to Olvi Luur for doing much of the organising, and to the
teams themselves: Team Electrochem, Habershon's Heavy Hitters!, Team
PJS, Where there's a Wills, there’s a way, The A Team, 5th Floor Fliers,
Shiplin United, and the overall winners, the Bat-Street Boys.
On a day when the weather forecast had threatened rain of biblical
proportions, none of which actually arrived, eight intrepid teams took to the
rounders pitches of Cryfield. Much hilarity ensued, the balls were hit more
often than not and fortunately no-one was clobbered by a flying bat.
Each team played twice and after a close-fought competition, a clear winner
emerged: the Bat-Street Boys. The same team were the only ones to play
in fancy dress (at least we hope they don’t wear Hawaiian shirts and floral
wreathes in the lab on a day-to-day basis) and scooped the second
prestigious prize. The barbecue that followed was very welcome, as were
the drinks from the bar.
Congratulations