Inside Volume 79, No.1, January 2014 Articles and Features 11 A Cursory Study of the Bulk and Glaze Composition plus Metal Leaching Properties of a Selection of Antique, Vintage and Present Day Food and Drink Ceramic Wares using XRF, FTIR, 27Al, 29Si, 31P MAS NMR and ICP-MS for Providing a Characterisation of the Types of Domestic Ceramic Ware used in New Zealand Currently Prajusha V. Velayudhan and Michael R. Mucalo 29 Biochars and Carbonised Biomass: A New Zealand Perspective with a Focus on Chemistry John McDonald-Wharry 34 Tales of the Periodic Table (The Ytterby Odyssey) Richard Rendle 38 The 2013 Nobel Prize in Chemistry Brian Halton 41 Some Unremembered Chemists: Alexander Porfirevich Borodin (1834-1887) Brian Halton 50 SciFinder® Future Leaders in Chemistry Andrea Kolb Other Columns 2 Comment from the President 40 Chemistry in the News 2 From the Editor 47 Marsden Awards 3 NZIC January News 48 Dates of Note 28 Science in the News 51 Patent Proze 37 Letter to the Editor 52 Conference Calendar 1 Chemistry in New Zealand January 2014 Comment from the President Welcome to the start of a new conference. The Maurice Wilkins Centre Prize for Chemical year and to the first issue of Research was awarded to Professor Robin Smith of the Chem- Chemistry in New Zealand istry Department, University of Otago and was presented at for 2014. The journal now an Otago NZIC Branch meeting, while the ABA Books Denis has a new editor, Catherine Hogan Prize for Contribution to Chemical Education went to Nicholson and I would like Duncan Smith of St Paul’s Collegiate School, Hamilton and to warmly welcome her to was presented at the school by Graeme Abbott of ABA Books. this role and to thank Peter Congratulations to all of the prize recipients for 2013. Hodder for his past efforts NZIC President On an international scale, the 2013 Nobel prize in Chemis- with the journal. No doubt try was awarded to Martin Karplus, Michael Levitt and Arieh Catherine and the publishing Warshel for the “development of multiscale models for com- team will continue to produce plex chemical systems” or in other words, for computer mod- a quality product. elling of chemical reactions. Their work and that of those that As the incoming President of followed have enabled chemists to simulate reactions in an the Institute, I would like to express my gratitude to outgo- extremely realistic manner and gain real insight into chemical ing President Michael Edmonds for his excellent work over processes. Of course we also have Martin Karplus to thank the past year. I would also like to acknowledge two council for the Karplus equation, which describes the relationship be- members in particular who do a huge amount of work behind tween three bond coupling constants and dihedral angles in the scenes for the Institute, Honorary General Secretary Rich- NMR spectroscopy and is well known to students of chemistry ard Rendle and Treasurer, Colin Freeman. Thank you both for for its ability to predict stereochemistry in rigid systems! your tremendous efforts to keep everything running well. Why is the NZIC relevant to chemists throughout New Zea- The 2013 conference in Wellington was a great success and I land? There is an astounding degree of chemical ignorance would like to thank Convenor Rob Keyzers (VUW), Confer- amongst the general public, with television presenters telling ence Chair Richard Furneaux (Callaghan Innovation) and the us that the lead in pencils is made of lead and with many ad- other members of the organising committee; Matthias Lein vertisers touting their “chemical free” products. As I vividly (Treasurer) and Joanne Harvey (both from VUW), Tim Kem- remember one of my lecturers, the late Gordon Rodley telling mitt and Ralf Schwoerer (Callaghan Innovation) and Wendy me, “Chemistry is everywhere”. I feel that one of the roles of a Popplewell (ESR) for their hard work in making the confer- professional body such as ours is to help educate the public of ence a memorable event. this fact and to ensure that Chemistry is seen as relevant and important, not the evil thing that taints all but our “chemical We have many very talented chemists amongst our members free” products! and there were very strong fields of candidates for each of the 2013 prizes. This year the Easterfield Prize was awarded I look forward to an exciting year as President of the Institute to Dr James Crowley from the Chemistry Department at the and to meeting many of you during my Branch visits through- University of Otago and the Shimadzu Prize for Applied and out the year. Industrial Chemistry went to Dr Nigel Perry of Plant & Food Michèle Prinsep Research, Otago. Both of these prizes were presented at the NZIC President From the Editor Happy New Year to you all! I everyone who has submitted items for this issue. I would hope you were able to enjoy like to take this opportunity to genuinely encourage feedback some rest and relaxation time from all members on any aspect of our publication that you with friends and family over feel is good, bad or indifferent. Is the current format work- the festive season so that you ing well? Are there any regular columns that could be added are feeling refreshed and or improved? Unsolicited material including short articles, ready for what will no doubt news, reviews and comment is always welcome. Please get be another busy year ahead. in touch – your thoughts and suggestions are important for keeping content fresh and relevant to readers. It may not be This issue of Chemistry in possible or practical to implement all new ideas but they will New Zealand is my first as certainly be considered and discussed. editor. Thanks are due to Pe- ter Hodder for all of the hard Congratulations to everyone involved in organising the 2013 work and dedication that he has brought to this role in the NZIC conference held in Wellington at the beginning of De- past. I am very pleased that Brian Halton has agreed to re- cember. I attended the first day and was impressed by the main as consulting editor. Peter and Brian, along with Rich- quality and variety of the oral and poster presentations. Ev- ard Rendle, our honorary general secretary, and Rebecca erything appeared to be running very smoothly which is no Hurrell, our publisher, have all been extremely helpful over small task for this type of event. I enjoyed catching up with the past few months as I have been learning the ropes. I very some old faces and meeting members from throughout the much look forward to working with everyone involved in country. I hope to work with many more of you over the producing each issue over the coming year. course of producing future issues. Of course there would be no Chemistry in New Zealand Best wishes for 2014. without the contributions of NZIC members. Thank you to Catherine Nicholson 2 Chemistry in New Zealand January 2014 New Zealand Institute of Chemistry NZIC News supporting chemical sciences January News NZIC News tinguished Professor Bill Denny Congratulations to our PhD student, Dr Gary Evans of the Carbohydrate has been named as the recipient of Wan-Ting Chen, who was awarded th Group of Callaghan Innovation (The the American Chemical Society’s the best poster prize at the 7 Asia- Ferrier Institute when this is in print) 2014 Medicinal Chemistry Award. Oceania Forum for Synchrotron Ra- has been created a Member of the Or- This award is presented every sec- diation Research held in Himeji, Ja- der of New Zealand (MNZM) in the ond year and recognises a scientist pan. Wan-Ting's poster was entitled or team of scientists from the U.S. CuO/TiO – Low cost semiconductor New Year Honours list. 2 or abroad whose research has made, photocatalysts for solar hydrogen The Royal Society of New Zealand either directly or indirectly, a signifi- production. Also, Dr Jon Sperry was has elected 1997 Nobel Prize Win- cant contribution to the discipline of awarded a 2013 Rutherford Discov- ner Professor Sir John Walker FRS medicinal chemistry. Bill is the first ery Fellowship for the project Inert to Honorary Fellowship. He is at the recipient of this prestigious honour C-H bonds: A gateway to molecular MRC Mitochondrial Biology Unit, from outside the United States for complexity. Our student Jane Leung Wellcome Trust, UK, and has used more than 30 years. was awarded a Woolf Fisher PhD protein chemical methods to gain scholarship to study polymer science critical insights into the function of In addition to being co-Director of at Cambridge. Tom Wright who com- the key enzyme involved in cellular the ACSRC, Bill is also a Principal pleted Honours in SCS last year, has energy production, the adenosine tri- Investigator of the Maurice Wilkins also departed for Oxford University phosphate (ATP) synthase. Centre for Molecular Biodiscov- to start his PhD funded by a Ruth- ery, and was President of the NZIC erford Foundation scholarship. As- John Walker’s interactions with New in 1994 and Chair of the Auckland sociate Professor Bob Anderson was Zealanders began with hosting vis- Branch in 1984-85. He was appoint- granted a full Marsden Fund award iting New Zealanders at the MRC ed an Officer of the New Zealand Or- for developing the project Improv- Laboratory of Molecular Biology der of Merit in 2003, and his many ing radiotherapy outcomes: Chain in Cambridge. Then, in the 1980s a other awards include the NZIC ICI release of drugs to kill refractory longstanding collaboration began Prize (1986), Rutherford Medal of cells and inhibit metastatic spread with Dr David Palmer and Professor the Royal Society of New Zealand in collaboration with Dr Jeff Smaill, Bob Jolly from Massey University, (1995), the Adrien Albert Medal of Associate Professor Adam Patterson on the protein in lysosome derived the UK Royal Society of Chemistry and Associate Professor Brent Copp.