UCL DEPARTMENT OF CHEMISTRY NEWSLETTER 2011 UCL Chemistry NEWSLETTER Introduction Welcome to ChemUCL! This newsletter is a new format. It contains a Dear All wide range of activity related to the Chemistry Department at UCL. We have included 2010-11 has been an interesting academic year. The department has continued information that related to both 2009/10 and with buoyant recruitment of undergraduates with 105 starting this year; making 2010/11 academic years. This is because the whole school the largest it has ever been with over 350 over the four years. the previous bulletins were over a year late. The intake were again exceptional in their A-level grades. This number is further In next years letter we will only cover the swelled by a large cohort of natural science students who chose chemistry streams. 2011/12 academic year. Many thanks go to Masters recruitment has also increased to some 22 (equally split between the MSc in Peter Garratt and Alwyn Davies for their work Chemical Research and the Energy Materials Masters) and Ph.D./Eng.D. recruitment on previous newsletters. They are currently to 52 this year. This is a tremendous achievement especially down to the hard work compiling a book about the department so please feel free to forward anecdotes to them. of Nora De Leeuw (Eng.D./MRes), Dewi Lewis (BSc/MSci) and Julian Evans (MSc). This newsletter has been organised by Nicola A number of staff have been honoured with prizes and awards including Geoff Best with help from Tracy Hankey at UCL Thornton, Paul McMillan and Helen Hailes (RSC). The EPSRC industrial training Learning & Media Services. Many thanks centre run by Prof De Leeuw on materials science and materials modelling was go to the both of them. The newsletter is judged as excellent at the mid-term assessment. A team headed by Andrew Wills sub divided into eight sections, covering and including Prof. Steve Bramwell (Physics & Astronomy) were awarded the Times an introduction, student highlights, alumni Higher Education Research Project of the year in 2010 for there work in relating matters, staff highlights, research highlights, magnetism and electricity in particular for the discovery of “magneticity”. grants, publications and a current staff list. It gives a flavour of the exciting chemistry This year Roy Northeast has retired after 39 years in the mechanical workshop, and family atmosphere achieved by the we wish him well with the fishing. Two fellows, Russell Binions and Mark Crimmin, department. It is not an exhaustive document have left us to take up lectureship appointments at QMUL and Imperial College but can provide a number of contact points to respectively. We wish them every success in their careers. Three new lectureship the wide variety of activity that occurs in the appointments have been made in the area of experimental chemistry. Christoph department. Salzmann joins us from Durham University, he has research interests in graphene and ice polymorphism; Robert Palgrave joins us from Liverpool University, he has research interests in energy materials and XPS and Mathew Powner joins us from Contents Harvard University, he has research interests in organic synthesis especially in relation to protein evolution. 1. Introduction May I wish all of you a happy and successful new academic year. The landscape 2. Student Highlights and News for Universities will change a lot in the coming year with the introduction of revised 3. Alumni Matters student fees and a reduction in research council support. However with the vigour and determination of our staff and 4. Staff Highlights and News alumni we are well placed to overcome these challenges. 5. Research Highlights 6. Grants and Contracts 7. Publications 8. Staff Ivan P. Parkin, Head of Department ChemUCL 2011 STUDENT HIGHLIGHTS & NEWS Many congratulations go to the SEBASTIAN SMITH UNDERGRADUATE following Undergraduate Students MSci Chemistry (International DEGREES who graduated with a First Class Programme) Many congratulations go to the Degree from Chemistry in 2010/11 CHIOU TAN following Undergraduate Students BSc Chemical Physics who graduated with a First Class MATT BAKER MSci Chemistry TRANG TRAN Degree from Chemistry in 2009/10 MSci Medicinal Chemistry MARTIN BERNAT MARTIN BACHMAN MSci Chemistry (International MARK WHELAN MSci Medicinal Chemistry Programme) MSci Chemistry EDWARD BANNISTER MARION BROOKS-BARTLETT DANNIELLE WHITTAKER BSc Chemistry with a European MSci Chemistry BSc Chemistry Language THOMAS BYFIELD ABIDA ZABIN AISULU BOLATBAYEVA BSc Chemistry BSc Chemistry BSc Chemistry TIM CLARKE SITI ZAKARIA ATIF ELAHI BSc Chemistry BSc Chemical Physics MSci Chemistry VICTORIA CLAUSEN-THUE RYAN ELLWOOD MSci Chemistry MSci Chemistry MSc DEGREES EMMA CORKE (2011) MEETAL HIRANI MSci Chemistry (International MSci Chemistry Programme) CHIU, Ka Lo RICKY KARIA MSc Materials for Energy and JACK DAVIES BSc Chemistry with Mathematics Environment BSc Chemistry JONATHAN KAY OGENEOVO ERHERIENE-ESSI MSci Chemistry with Management BSc Chemistry Studies PhD DEGREES EMILY GASCOIGNE (2009/10) OLIVER M KIRKBY MSci Chemistry MSci Chemical Physics DAVY ADRIAENS SAMANTHA GIBLEN-PARSONS Theoretical investigations of surface SACHA M NOIMARK BSc Medicinal Chemistry chemistry in space. MSci Chemistry with Mathematics (Supervisor: Wendy Brown) LUKE HALE JOSHUA OWEN BSc Chemistry with Mathematics NEYVIS ALMORA BARRIOS MSci Chemistry (International A computational investigation of the Programme) KATARZYNA HOJCZYK interaction of collagen molecule with MSci Chemistry NIKEEL PATEL hydroxyapatite BSc Chemistry with Mathematics (Supervisor: Nora De Leeuw) HAZEL KITCHING PREENA PATEL MSci Chemistry RAFAEL BOU MORENO MSci Chemistry The design and synthesis of complexes JAMES LEACH for the activation of carbon dioxide DAVID PLUMMER BSc Chemistry (Supervisor: Jim Anderson) MSci Chemistry HANNAH OGAHARA LUDOVIC BRIQUET RIANNA POULOS BSc Chemistry with a European Language Modelling active sites of supported MSci Chemistry metal catalysts (Supervisor: Richard Catlow) HELEN RONAN JOSEPH OLLER MSci Chemistry (International MSci Chemistry (International Programme) KEITH BUTLER Programme) Multiscale modelling of proto-zeolitic CHARLES ROPER EDWARD PARSONS solutions BSc Chemistry MSci Chemistry (Supervisor: Dewi Lewis) ALEXANDRA SKLAN SHARLIN PATEL STUART CALDER BSc Chemistry MSci Chemistry Investigation of geometric frustration in magnetic oxides RICHARD SMITH LUKE ROBBINS (Supervisor: Stephen Bramwell, Dept. MSci Chemistry MSci Chemistry Physics & Astronomy) BEN ROBINSON MICHAL SOBIESKI MSci Chemistry DENIS COURTIER MURIAS BSc Chemistry with Mathematics Molecular dynamics in collagen and MITAL SELARKA model peptides QING TEO BSc Chemistry (Supervisor: Abil Aliev) BSc Chemistry 2 UCL Chemistry NEWSLETTER EMILY CULME-SEYMOUR ELSPETH LATIMER Engineering the growth substrate for Experimental studies of surface and MPhil DEGREE’S embryonic stem cell processing gas-phase processes relevant to the (2009/10) (Supervisor: Alethea Tabor) interstellar medium and planetary atmospheres NICHOLAS CALLAN ZOSO DAVIES (Supervisor: Stephen Price) Towards the total synthesis of apo- Application of representation theory to neocarzinostatin magnetic and structural phase transitions CHIEH LEE (Supervisor: Stephen Caddick) (Supervisor: Andrew Wills) Synthetic approaches to biologically active sultonates and sultonamides. ANTHONY DEVEY (Supervisor: Stephen Caddick) Computer modelling studies of PhD DEGREES mackinawite, greigite and cubic FeS SANDRA LUENGO ARRATTA (2010/11) (Supervisor: Nora De Leeuw) Intramolecular Ene reactions of functionalised nitroso compounds JENNA AHERN JOHN EDRIDGE (Supervisor: William Motherwell) Radical hydroacylation of C-C and N-N Adsorption and desorption of model double bonds in air interstellar ices on a dust grain analogue MARCO MAZZEO (Supervisor: Stephen Caddick) surface Lattice-Boltzmann simulations of (Supervisor: Wendy Brown) cerebral blood flow NUMAAN AHMED (Supervisor: Peter Coveney) Computer simulations of dipole-dipole JAVIER GIL LOSTES interactions towards understanding A study of chemosensory effects of MARK MICHEL nanostructure formation volatile organic compounds on humans Electronic structure study of copper- (Supervisor: Dewi Lewis) (Supervisor: Michael Abraham) containing perovskites (Supervisor: Furio Cora) WILLIAM BISSON JOSEPHINE GOODALL Crystal structures and magnetism Continuous hydrothermal flow synthesis NICHOLAS MITCHELL in the jarosites: model kagomé of materials for UV attenuation and Application of chemically modified antiferromagnets photocatalysis oligonucleotides in nanopore sensing (Supervisor: Andrew Wills) (Supervisor: Jawwad Darr) and DNA nano-biotechnology (Supervisor: Stefan Howorka) ROSEMARY COATES XIAOLIANG HU Oxidation state ambiguities in cerium First principles studies of water and ice ABIGAIL NUNN organometallics - A computational on oxide surfaces Experimental and theoretical approach (Supervisor: Angelos Michaelides) investigations of the photochemistry (Supervisor: Nik Kaltsoyannis) of styrene and the creation and FARAHJABEEN ISLAM characterisation of shaped femtosecond DOMINIK DAISENBERGER The formation of molecular hydrogen in ultraviolet laser pulses Transformations among Metastable the interstellar medium (Supervisor: Helen Fielding) Amorphous and Crystalline Forms of (Supervisor: Wendy Brown) Silicon DEINIOL PRITCHARD (Supervisor: Paul McMillan) KIM JELFS Towards the total synthesis of Modelling the growth of zeolitic materials awajanomycin SHEENA DUNGEY (Supervisor: Ben Slater)