Rachel is honoured to have been elected as a Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales. She joins 41 new Fellows who include academics from across Welsh and UK universities, writers, researchers and leaders from the world of higher education, as well as law, medicine and the media.
The Learned Society of Wales is the national academy for arts and sciences. It uses this collective knowledge to promote research, inspire learning, and provide independent policy advice.
Huge congratulations to first year PhD student Georgie Burgoyne Morris who won the South East region heat of the IOM3 Young Person’s Lecture Competition. Georgie will now go on to represent the region in the UK final on 3rd May 2023 in The Armourer’s Hall, London. Good luck, Georgie!
Congratulations to final year PhD student, Abi Collins, who won first place in the Energy category for her entry into the 2023 RSC Global Twitter Poster Competition! You can check out Abi’s poster here.
Huge congratulations to 3rd year PhD student Bea Jones, who was awarded the Roscoe Medal (Gold prize) for Chemistry at the 2023 STEM for Britain event held on 6th March 2023 in the Houses of Parliament.
STEM for Britain is a major scientific poster exhibition which has been held in Parliament since 1997, which aims is to give members of both Houses of Parliament an insight into the outstanding research work being undertaken in UK universities by early-career researchers.
Bea presented a poster entitled “Controlling Molecular Delivery by Squeezing Liquid Crystal Dispersions with Light” based on her recently published JACS paper (see November 2022 paper of the month). Bea is jointly funded by EPSRC and Diamond Light Source.
Congratulations to Georgie Burgoyne Morris, a 1st year PhD student in the PAM group, who won the Cambridge heat of the IOM3 Young Persons Lecture Competition. The competition was open to students and young professionals (aged 28 or younger) in Cambridge. Georgie is now through to the South East Regional Heat, which will be held online on the 30th March 2023, with the winner going through to the national final. Good luck Georgie!
Congratulations to Kieran who successfully defended his PhD thesis on 1st March (St David’s day!). Kieran’s research focussed on the design of light-responsive Pickering emulsions and the development of computer vision methods to qualitatively assess emulsion formation and stability. You can read some of his work here.
Many thanks to his examiners – Prof Joe Keddie (University of Surrey) and Prof. Stuart Clarke (Chemistry, Cambridge).
Kieran is now working as a PDRA in Dr Emrys Evans’ group at Swansea University. Stay in touch!
This month we welcome Dr Zhihang Wang (left) and Dr Joshua Karlsson (right) to the group as researchers on the ERC SPECTRACON project.
Zhihang joins us from Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, where he undertook his PhD and first postdoc position working on molecular solar thermal energy storage materials under the mentorship of Prof. Kasper Moth-Poulson.
Joshua brings a wealth of experience in molecular spectroscopy, having undertaken his PhD under the supervision of Prof. Anthony Harriman at Newcastle University, followed by a postdoc with Prof. Elizabeth (Libby) Gibson on photoelectrochemical water splitting.
We are delighted to have you both join us and look forward to working with you!
Rachel was awarded the Mcbain medal from the RSC/SCI Joint Colloid group at a dedicated symposium held in London on 9th December. The McBain Medal is presented annually to an early career researcher (within 15 years of the award of a PhD) for outstanding achievement in colloid and interface science. The symposium featured a series of fascinating talks and posters based around the theme of Stimuli-Responsive Soft Matter and Interfaces.
Congratulations also to 3rd year PhD student Bea Jones who picked up the runner-up prize for her poster presentation!
We welcome Georgie Burgoyne-Morris, Jack Avery and Sibella Egerton to the PAM group. Georgie will be undertaking her PhD studies on triplet-triplet annihilation upconverters (TTA-UC) for solar energy conversion and contributing to the ERC SPECTRACON project. Jack, who is jointly sponsored by ISIS neutron and muon source, will be using small-angle neutron scattering to study light-responsive Pickering emulsions. Sibella joins us for her Part II project, also working on TTA-UC systems alongside Abi Collins.
Goodbye to Bethan who is moving on to her new role as a Lecturer in Renewable Energy at the University of Bristol. Bethan joined the PAM group in January 2020 and has spent her time characterising luminescent materials for spectral convertors and sensors. She helped manage the group’s spectroscopy lab and spearheaded our sustainability drive. In her new role she’ll be continuing the sustainability theme by researching sustainable solar materials and developing a renewable energy course.
Photoactive Materials Group 