Issue 2 // Summer 2014 bristol.ac.uk/chemistry JEWEL PURPOSE DISCOVER HOW SYNTHETIC DIAMONDS ARE CHANGING SCIENCE HOPS & BEER: THE CHEMISTRY BEHIND THE SIMPLE PINT JAKE MACMILLAN: REMEMBERING A SCIENCE GREAT Welcome Also in this issue… Welcome to the second issue of Chemistry Explored. We’ve been delighted with the feedback from our first issue, so much so that we’ve decided to increase the pagination so we can bring you more news and features about the people and the work that makes Bristol such a great place to be. You’ll read about scientists sharing their enthusiasm for nanoscience and electrochemistry over a pint; a herbal walking tour with a chemistry focus; our prize-winning students; a retrospective on a science great and former News colleague; what our porters really think; Pint of Science 03 and a great deal more besides. Off to Princeton, Chemistry on film 04 As I write these words, we’re Bristol herb tour 05 approaching the end of another Skirting Science 06 successful academic year. Well done to We love Bristol 07 all our undergraduates who completed their exams, good luck to all those Features graduating this year, congratulations to The late, great Jake MacMillan 08 postgraduates who’ve won prizes at Diamonds are forever 10 conferences, and to staff who’ve won The chemistry of hops and beer 12 prestigious awards for their research. Meet the porter 14 With Open Day seeing thousands of Chemistry in numbers 15 hopeful students visit, we look forward Life through a lens 16 to welcoming even more people into our school. University of Bristol Group Editor Dan Linstead School of Chemistry Group Art Editor Will Slater Cantock’s Close, Bristol BS8 1TS, UK Director, Branded Content Julie Williams With thanks to Caroline Goode, Daniela Plana, Tel +44 (0)117 928 8201 Becky Brooks, Megan Shaw, Rose Silvester, Tom Web bris.ac.uk/chemistry Simpson, Rebecca Ingle, Lexy Miles-Hobbs, Email [email protected] Jenny Slaughter, Natalie Fey, Peter Crowther, Steph Harris Editor Aliya Mughal Photography Bhagesh Sachania To find out more about our courses and Unless otherwise indicated, copyright in this publication belongs to programmes, visit: bris.ac.uk/study the University of Bristol. Views expressed in Chemistry Explored do not necessarily reflect those of the University. The Editor reserves the right to edit Chemistry Explored is produced in contributions received. While care is taken to ensure accuracy of information, this cannot be guaranteed. Printed in the UK by William Gibbons. association with Immediate Media Professor Nick Norman Branded Content, Tower House, Head of the School Fairfax Street, Bristol BS1 3BN Tel +44 (0)117 927 9009 of Chemistry Web immediatecontent.co.uk 02 Chemistry Explored // Issue 2 update UPDATE The latest news from the School of Chemistry Pint of Science brings the best academic scientists in the UK to local pubs so that they can explain their latest research From bench side to bar table Daniela Plana and Becky Brooks on how scientists are taking their subject to the pub HOW can scientists engage more people On the first night Dr Rob Harniman and helping the University and Bristol’s wider in their research? By taking it to the pub! his PhD supervisor Professor Mervyn community relate to each other – here’s to That’s the solution which has proven Miles talked about their efforts to “touch a rerun next year. successful in London, Cambridge, Oxford the nanoworld”. Their simple, yet and now Bristol during a sell-out tour of thorough explanations of the different Find out what inspired Daniela, now a the country’s finest watering holes. microscopy techniques developed at Chemistry mentor, to take up science: No more is the seemingly alien Bristol University and around the world http://tinyurl.com/ncbcuec world of science the sole preserve of led to some inspired discussions between university researchers, thanks to the Pint scientists and non-scientists alike about of Science festival, which saw several of the possibilities for microelectronics and What is Pint of Science? our academics take their work into an medical diagnosis. Pint of Science sees some of the alternative environment. The resulting Professor David Fermin and his final world’s leading experts from six discussions led to some novel suggestions year PhD student David Parker talked countries and 21 cities travelling to for how science could be applied to the about “the electrochemist dream” pubs across the globe to discuss their everyday world. – championing renewable energies, latest findings with the public. Tickets for the Bristol events sold particularly solar, and the need to develop out before the doors even opened, with new photovoltaic materials that provide Find out more at: pintofscience.com a curious crowd eager to learn about cheap, efficient alternatives. Both were everything from nanotechnology to grilled by pub-goers on the green energy, to the brain and volcanoes. The credentials of such technologies and calls School of Chemistry was well represented to develop a complete, systematic approach in the ‘Chemistry and Physics’ themed to energy. evenings held at Channings in Clifton. The festival was hugely successful in Chemistry Explored // Issue 2 03 UPDATE Chemistry on film You can take a look inside the School of Chemistry in a series of new videos in which staff and students show what’s on offer in some of the UK’s best teaching laboratories. The School offers up world-class lecturers and boasts an active student society which helps undergraduates develop the confidence and skills for life after university. n Chemistry in 60 seconds – Head of School Nick Norman reveals how he went from being a Bristol undergraduate to Professor of Inorganic Chemistry n Student views – hear what current students have to say about their time at Bristol n The student experience – explore the School of Chemistry labs, lecture theatres, library and social spaces bristol.ac.uk/chemistry/courses/undergraduate/videos/ PHD STUDENT HEADS TO PRINCETON INTERNATIONAL AWARDS, recognition from one of the UK’s leading agrochemical centres, and a prize-winning talk - that’s all before Megan Shaw completes her PhD at the Bristol Chemical Synthesis Centre for Doctoral Training. Megan’s research in the Bower research group sees her working with agri-business Syngenta, developing catalytic methods for the construction of novel types of complex molecules which are of interest to both the pharmaceutical and agrochemical industries. In 2013, she took the Synfacts poster prize at the 17th IUPAC International Symposium on Organometallic Chemistry Directed Towards Organic Synthesis in Colorado, followed by first prize for her poster presentation at the Syngenta Chemistry Collaborative Research Conference back at Jealott’s Hill. In May 2014 Megan won first prize for her talk at the Third Year PhD Research Symposium. “My PhD gave me the opportunity to choose a research project I was interested in, and my experience at Bristol has increased my desire to continue working in academia,” says Megan, who in 2015 will head to Princeton University to become a postdoctoral researcher. 04 Chemistry Explored // Issue 2 UPDATE Bristol’s herb tour Rose Silvester goes on a tour of the city’s herb hotspots One of the many wonderful things about science is the new perspectives it can provide, especially when combined with another area of expertise. Staff, students and friends of the School of Chemistry recently discovered this for themselves during a mini herbal tour of the city. Bristol-based medical herbalist Max Drake led the group of curious chemists from the doorstep of Cantock’s Close, home to the main Chemistry building, on through some of the city’s most notable hotspots, exploring some of the herbal and medicinal plants that are a constant source of inspiration for science. From the cultivated varieties in the raised bed at the entrance to Chemistry, to the Medical herbalist Max Drake (left) practices in Bristol at the common wild plants found on Brandon Urban Fringe Dispensary in Colston Street Hill, to the impressive herb garden just below Cabot Tower, Max gave the group 1 an education in how the flora and fauna we A4018 School of Close admire for their superficial qualities have Chemistry Cantock’s University of infinitely more to teach us. B4051 Park St Bristol As well as showing the group more Park Row than 30 different plants and telling them Berkeley Pl about their uses and some of the known active compounds involved, Max discussed Upper Berkeley Sq making tinctures and teas and how to dry Byron Pl The Route herbs. He talked about the relative merits 1 FlowerPark bed St at corner of Cantock’s Close and Woodland Road: Charlotte St of wild and cultivated varieties, how the 2 wildHill opium St lettuce, verbascum, 3 achillea, verbena bonariensis chemical understanding of plant remedies Charlotte St often lags behind their successful use, and Cabot Tower 2 Entrance to Brandon Hill Park from Berkeley Square: Park St the economics of gathering wild plants dandelion, herb robert, plantains: versus buying herbs already picked and dried. broadleaf, narrowleaf or ribwort Max, who runs the nearby Urban Bridgewood Ln 3 Herb bed just below Cabot Great George St Tower: Fringe Dispensary, was an excellent guide 4 feverfew, borage, lemon balm, comfrey, St George Rd and showed how the School of Chemistry’s camomile, sage, mint, Froglavender, Ln fennel, angelica, nigella, rosemary, thyme, location gives us easy access to so many nepeta, tansy, hypericum Jacob’s Wells