UCL DEPARTMENT OF CHEMISTRY UCL Chemistry NEWSLETTER Contents Welcome to the Newsletter 1. Introduction 2. Staff Highlights and News This is my last newsletter address. I am stepping down as Head of Department after six and a half years to take up the Dean of MAPS position. I would like to thank everyone in the 3. Student Highlights and News department, you all have really supported me as HOD and helped the department to grow in size and research impact. The new Head of Chemistry will be Professor Claire Carmalt, the 4. Alumni Matters seventeenth Head of Chemistry at UCL and the fi rst women to take on the role. I am sure 5. Research Highlights you will join with me in supporting Claire in the years to come. 6. Grants and Awards The undergraduate and postgraduate admission look very strong again this year and we expect over 140 new undergraduates to be studying chemistry. These students will benefi t 7. Publications from some major changes in the way that we will administer the laboratory courses. Katherine 8. Staff Holt, Head of Teaching Committee, has overseen major changes to how we deliver third year laboratories and we will have closer synergy in aspects of synthesis and analysis. The department was successful in getting virtually all of our courses credited by the Royal Society of Chemistry. They were very impressed by how we deliver material and the depth and rigour of our courses. We have been given a few pointers for the future to make sure that analytical chemistry and practical elements of physical chemistry are given a bit more attention. The department has continued its success in grant applications and has a portfolio of Introduction current grants in excess of £50M. It has the highest EPSRC grant portfolio of any Chemistry Department in the country. Amongst many successes this year I wanted to highlight Beppe Many thanks go to Nicola Best for Battaglia and Tracey Clarke who have both been awarded EPSRC Fellowships. organising this year’s newsletter and to Tracy Hankey at UCL Digital We have a new professorial appointment, Professor Graeme Worth, who joins us from the Media Services for her help. University of Birmingham to take up a Chair in Computational Physical Chemistry. We hope this newsletter gives a The Christopher Ingold building has been showing its age. With the large amount of building flavour of the exciting chemistry and work that has been going on around the department we have had a number of windows family atmosphere achieved in the that have cracked and in some places fallen out. The college have been quick to respond department. It is not an exhaustive to this and we have a current window replacement project in place for every window in the document but can provide a number department. These will be double glazing units with energy control coatings and tints to help of contact points to the wide us to reduce our energy usage and help to reduce external sound. I was particularly pleased variety of activity that occurs in the that the windows will have a self-cleaning coating on the exterior surface; this is something department. I fi rst worked on in 1996 at UCL. So we should have no need for window cleaning in the future... I wish you all a successful and healthy 2016-17 Yours sincerely Professor Ivan Parkin ChemUCL 2015 NEWSLETTER 2016 STAFF HIGHLIGHTS AND NEWS STAFF HIGHLIGHTS AND NEWS NEW STARTERS a cornerstone of the quantum dynamics field. After 9 pedagogical research involved the introduction of tablets David Scanlon years in Heidelberg, Graham returned to the UK to work to first-year undergraduates and development of the lab Promoted to Reader in Professional Services appointment in the group of Prof. Mike Robb at King’s College London skills acquisition record. His efforts were recognised in Computational Materials and before moving to Birmingham. 2016, when students voted him “Teacher of the Year” at Michael Kelly the Queen Mary Student Union awards. Inorganic Chemistry Chemistry Senior Teaching & Learning Studies in the Worth group aim to describe what happens in the first few hundred femtoseconds after a molecule At UCL, aside from undergraduate teaching, Stephen’s “I am delighted to be promoted Undergraduate Administrator absorbs a photon. These are complicated processes role has a particular focus on e-learning methods for to Reader. It is the culmination of Michael has joined the department with competing pathways that are key to understanding enhancing the student (and staff) experience. He is nearly 10 years of work and career after a year working as the Senior photochemical behaviour. He works closely with laser looking forward to working with you all on any e-learning development, and recognises work carried out with a Programme Administrator for spectroscopists, whose time-resolved studies often need ideas you might have. myriad of excellent collaborators at UCL, Diamond Light Computer Science, King’s College theoretical support for an interpretation. He is looking Source, nationally and internationally, as well as with a London. Prior to his last post, Michael forward to working at UCL, in particular to strengthening host of dedicated and talented students. Moving forward has also held posts at SSEES-UCL and Warwick his existing collaboration with Helen Fielding and starting PROMOTIONS my group will continue to use the tools of Computational University, and has actively worked in academic Chemistry to design the next generation of materials for new work with his new colleagues. Please join us in congratulating the following people administration since graduating from the University of renewable energy applications.” on their promotions. The department is pleased to Wales, Aberystwyth in 2010. Stephen Potts say that we had a 100% success rate this year. Martinus Zwijnenburg Michael is the primary administrator for the department’s Chemistry Teaching Fellow undergraduate taught programmes and activities. Furo Cora Promoted to Reader in Any questions concerning undergraduate students Stephen joined the Department as a Promoted to Professor of Computational Chemistry and activities should be raised with Michael in the first Chemistry Teaching Fellow in June Computational Chemistry instance. 2016. He graduated from UCL with “I am delighted to be promoted to an MSci degree in Chemistry (2005) Reader, something that would not Academic appointment and stayed on to undertake a PhD have been possible without the hard sponsored by a CASE award from Epichem Ltd. under work of my group and our excellent Graham Worth the supervision of Prof. Claire Carmalt. During this time, collaborators in and outside UCL. Moving forward, we Lecturer he designed and synthesised a variety of novel imido-, will continue our efforts on modelling the electronic cyclopentadienyl- and guanidinate-based precursors Stefan Howorka properties of complex organic and nanostructured Graham joined the department as for chemical vapour deposition (CVD) and atomic layer Promoted to Professor of materials and use this, together with our experimental Professor of Computational Chemistry collaborators, as input for developing new materials for deposition (ALD) processes to tungsten and zirconium Biological Chemistry in July 2016 and has appreciated the carbonitride films. application such as photocatalysis, photoconductors and warm welcome he has received. His sensors. “Being Professor raises my profile previous post was at the University of In 2008, Stephen moved to the Netherlands to take a and helps me attract good candidates Birmingham where he had been since 2005, starting as postdoctoral position at the Eindhoven University of for PhD and PDRA positions.” Alekseys Sokols Technology in the Plasma & Materials Processing group, a University Research Fellow before becoming a Senior Promoted to Principal Lecturer and then Professor in 2013. His degree was in led by Prof. Erwin Kessels. He focused on the testing of Research Associate chemistry at the University of Oxford, where he stayed to new metalorganic precursors to oxide, nitride and metallic Ben Slater do a DPhil with Graham Richards calculating equilibrium films and the development of low-temperature (<150 “Good news. I will be carrying on constants for molecules in the condensed phase. This °C) ALD processes suitable for temperature-sensitive Promoted to Professor of projects with the focus on development lead to postdoctoral work at the European Molecular substrates and corrosion protection. During his time in Computational Chemistry and application of hybrid QM/MM Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg with Rebecca Wade. Eindhoven, he was the winner of the Electrochemical methodologies in the fields of catalytic While at the EMBL he realised that his real interests Society’s Norman Hackerman Young Author of the Year and energy materials, complemented by further work on lay in more fundamental studies and he obtained a Award (2010) for his article “Low Temperature Plasma- new types of interatomic potentials.” Human Capital and Mobility Fellowship (the fore-runner Enhanced Atomic Layer Deposition of Metal Oxide Thin of the Marie-Curie scheme) to work at the University Films” (S. E. Potts et al., J. Electrochem. Soc., 2010, of Heidelberg in the group of Lenz Cederbaum on the 157, P66). development of quantum dynamics simulations to study Christoph Salzmann molecular reactivity. In 2013, Stephen returned to the UK to focus on Promoted to Reader in Physical teaching matters as a Lecturer in Inorganic Chemistry and Materials Chemistry This development remains at the heart of his work, in (Teaching & Scholarship) at Queen Mary University of particular developing efficient algorithms for the direct London. He was responsible for teaching undergraduate “I was absolutely delighted to hear the solution of the time-dependent Schrödinger equation chemistry courses from foundation up to third year level, news about my promotion. It certainly for nuclear motion, and applying this to studying photo- with a particular focus on transition metal coordination gives additional momentum to push excited systems.