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’

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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 : chem-sec@warwick.ac.uk 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