UCL DEPARTMENT OF CHEMISTRY UCL Chemistry NEWSLETTER Contents Introduction by Head of Department 1. Introduction 2. Staff Highlights and News As I come towards the end of my first academic year as Head of Department it is a pleasure for me to introduce the 2017 newsletter. I hope this year has been a productive and enjoyable 3. Student Highlights and News year for you all as it has been for the department. There have been lots of exciting activities 4. Alumni Matters and awards, many of which you can read about in this newsletter. 5. Equalities, Diversity and We have had a number of arrivals and departures and hence some new appointments. We Inclusion had two retirements – Professor Julian Evans and Mrs Jill Maxwell both of whom contributed greatly to the department for many years and we wish them well in their retirement. 6. Research Highlights Dr Caroline Knapp has been appointed as a Lecturer in Molecular Inorganic Chemistry. 7. Grants and Awards Dr Gemma Davies joins us from the University of Warwick as a Lecturer in Materials Chemistry and Dr Anna Roffey from Kings College London as a Teaching Fellow. Dr Tom 8. Publications Macdonald will start a Ramsay Trust Fellowship in October. Dr Laura Fenner (Research Administrator) has moved to a position as School Research Facilitator in BEAMS and Dr 9. Staff Jorg Sassmannhausen has moved to the University of Westminster. Research in the department continues to go from strength to strength. A few highlights include the excellent news that Professor Sally Price was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society for her outstanding contributions to science. In addition, Dr Christoph Salzmann was awarded a prestigious ERC Consolidator Grant. An EPSRC grant led by Dr Abil Aliev, Introduction Prof. Ivan Parkin and Dr Matt Powner, has allowed the department to purchase a 700 MHz broadband cyroprobe and NMR spectrometer, which will be a highly versatile solution-phase Many thanks go to Nicola Phillips NMR, offering the largest selection of nuclei at the highest sensitivities. for organising this year’s newsletter and to Tracy Hankey at UCL Digital There have been a number of changes in the undergraduate curriculum this academic Media Services for her help. year, which has been led by Dr Katherine Holt, our Director of Teaching. A large redesign of the 3rd year laboratory courses took place to develop a more research-led approach We hope this newsletter gives a to teaching practical chemistry in place of just following recipes. We were delighted when flavour of the exciting chemistry and our dedicated technical team (Martyn Towner, Alan Philcox, Mike Parkes, David Webb, Phil family atmosphere achieved in the Hayes, Nitin Bagha, Crosby Medley and Claire Gacki, Helen Grounds and Debbie Allen) department. It is not an exhaustive were awarded the RSC Higher Education Technical Excellence Award. This was excellent document but can provide a number recognition of the hard work involved in restructuring the laboratory course, as well as testing of contact points to the wide all new experiments. In addition, a new skills course was introduced in the 1st year – which variety of activity that occurs in the aimed to prepare students for ‘life as a professional chemist’ and incorporated specific department. chemical skills as well as other transferable skills. The students took part in a large-scale citizen science research project measuring air pollution in London, aiming to understand the social context and chemical concepts behind the project. The excellence of this course, which was led by Professor Andrea Sella, was recognised by winning the Provost Award for Team Collaboration and Achievement in Teaching. Well done to all involved in #UCLChemAirPoll, as this involved the whole 1st year undergraduate class and many colleagues in the department. I look forward to seeing many of you at the Lab Dinner this year. Yours sincerely, Claire Carmalt ChemUCL 2015 NEWSLETTER 2017 STAFF HIGHLIGHTS AND NEWS NEW APPOINTMENTS gold and aluminium. Insightful ligand design is used to create metal complexes that will undergo reduction Academic Appointments following external treatment (typically heat) yielding highly conductive metallic features. Formulation of these precursors into inks with suitable characteristics, Gemma-Louise Davies in particular viscosity and low thermal conversion in Lecturer in Materials Science combination with inkjet printing facilitates application in Gemma-Louise joined the department a wide range of electronic devices. in July 2017 as a Lecturer in Materials Chemistry. She graduated from Trinity College Dublin (Ireland) with a Degree in Natural Sciences (Mod. Chemistry) and remained there to undertake a Teaching Appointments PhD in Materials Chemistry, working on novel routes to nanoscale imaging agents, under the supervision Anna Roffey of Prof. Yurii Gun’ko, which she was awarded in 2011. Analytical Chemistry Teaching Following a brief industry-supported Postdoctoral Fellow position, Gemma-Louise moved to the University of Anna joined the Department as a Oxford as a Postdoctoral research assistant for 2 years Teaching Fellow in May 2017. She in the group of Prof. Jason Davis, working closely with studied an MSci degree in Chemistry Profs Paul Beer and Stephen Faulkner on bifunctional at the University of Bristol (graduating 1H and 19F MRI contrast agents. In 2013, she joined 2007), and undertook her PhD at UCL the University of Warwick as a Global Research Fellow, under the supervision of Graeme Hogarth (graduating where she grew her independent research strands 2014). Her work was part of a large collaborative and group. EPSRC funded project, and involved the synthesis of inorganic molecular and nanoparticulate catalysts for Gemma-Louise’s research at UCL will focus on the CO2 reduction. In between these qualifications Anna design and development of nanostructured materials worked at the Royal Society of Chemistry and learnt for three main applications: i) to understand and some valuable lessons about the peer-review process. solve current healthcare challenges, with a focus on MRI contrast agents; ii) to overcome obstacles In 2014, Anna moved to Sweden to take a postdoctoral in important industrial processes, through the position at Chalmers University of Technology working exploration of novel functional nanostructures; and iii) with Kapser Moth-Poulsen on Molecular Solar Thermal to assess the fate of commercial nanomaterials in the (MOST) systems. There she focussed on the energy environment. Her work is highly interdisciplinary and release from the norbornadiene/quadricyclane system, collaborative, and she looks forward to forging new testing new catalysts and designing a MOST solar partnerships in UCL; she has been overwhelmed by energy conversion prototype device. the warm welcome she has already received. Gemma- Louise will also be President of the department’s In 2016, Anna returned to the UK to focus on teaching Chemical and Physical Society (CPS) in 2017-2018. matters at the fledgling chemistry department at King’s College London, where she lectured in Inorganic Chemistry. She was responsible for teaching Caroline Knapp undergraduate chemistry courses from foundation up Lecturer in Molecular to third year level, and led the department’s outreach Inorganic Chemistry activities, building on previous work as an Explainer at the Science Museum. Caroline joins us as a lecturer in Molecular Inorganic Chemistry from At UCL, aside from undergraduate teaching, Anna is September 2017. Many of you will helping to launch the new MSc in Applied Analytical know Caroline as she undertook Chemistry. She is also Green Champion and an Outreach her MSci and PhD studies here in representative - please see her if you are interested in Chemistry, UCL. She was also a Ramsay Memorial Spectroscopy in a Suitcase! Fellow and President of the department’s CPS (2016-17) before undertaking this new appointment. Her research aims are to develop molecular precursors using the least resistive metals of the periodic table: silver, copper, 2 UCL Chemistry NEWSLETTER STAFF HIGHLIGHTS AND NEWS Vicky Hilborne Yael Moscou Teaching Fellow Research Administration Vicky Hilborne is a Teaching Fellow Officer in the Department of Chemistry. Yael joined the department in July Her areas of expertise are physical 2017 as the Research Administration chemistry applied to analytical and Officer. The Research Administration environmental chemistry. Vicky has Officer (RAO) is the key member of considerable experience in the design staff working in support of research and delivery of teaching and learning in higher education. activity including impact, knowledge transfer and Particular interests are developing integrated and studentships, and is responsible for the management blended learning in problem based learning with lectures of the department’s research grants and contracts, and practical-workshop based teaching. This includes from advising staff of available funding opportunities research informed teaching and developing research to submission of final reports. Yael has several years’ skills that are highly valued by graduate employers. research experience. Yael started as an editorial Vicky has a BSc (Hons) in Environmental Chemistry researcher, researching funding opportunities for from Edinburgh University. She gained her PhD in researchers worldwide before gradually moving up measurement of contaminant dispersion in ventilated to the role of Funding Operations Manager and finally indoor air and predictive model