Pat Unwin has been selected by the Society of Electroanalytical Chemistry to receive the 2018 Charles N. Reilley Award. The Award recognizes outstanding research contributions in electroanalytical chemistry and will be presented at a special symposium at Pittcon in Orlando in February next year.

Pat will be the 35^th winner of the Award and the first person from the UK to receive it. The Award is given in memory of the renowned US analytical chemist Charles N. Reilley and celebrates scientists whose work advances fundamental understanding in electroanalytical science over empiricism.

Pat’s group has made spectacular advances in instrumental electrochemistry in the past few years, developing innovative electrochemical imaging probes to visualise interfacial dynamic processes of wide applicability, from electrocatalysts to living cells.

Congratulations to Professor Greg Challis who is the Royal Society of Chemistry Interdisciplinary Prize winner for 2017.

http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/newsandevents/pressreleases/warwick_chemist_wins

For the full press release see:

http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/newsandevents/pressreleases/warwick_polymers_in/

Newton Fellow V. Venkatesh and co-workers from the Sadler group just published their work on a new way to deliver photoactivatable anticancer drugs by incorporation into hydrogels.

The group’s ongoing efforts might prove to be seminal for the development of metal-based photoactivatable topical agents for the treatment of lung, oesophageal and other accessible cancers.

http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/jacs.7b00186

On Saturday morning (east cost US time, Saturday night in UK), a team of students from Edgecombe Community College (Carolina, USA), in collaboration with NASA and NC space grant, will launch a student-lead high altitude baloon, including an experiment based on the GibsonGroups innovative cryopreservation science.

The balloon will be launched to 60 to 100,000 feet, so high that the curvature of the Earth will be clearly visible. It will contain experiments to track movement, altitude humitity and more, but also 1 additional science experiment. The students, lead by Jillian Leary approached Professor Gibson to ask if the GibsonGroup's unique ice-growth inhibiting polymers, inspired by Natures antifreeze proteins, could be included as an experiment to see how cells respond to the harsh high-altitude envirnoments. The polymers are design to stop ice crystals growing, and enables cells, which would otherwise need large volumes of toxic solvents to survive being frozen and stressed. This technology has the potential to revolutionise regenerative and transplantation medicine.

The launch will be streamed live on facebook https://www.facebook.com/EdgecombeCC/posts/?ref=page_internal

Read more here https://www.edgecombe.edu/news/students-preparing-high-altitude-balloon-launch/

Several studentship opportunities for PhD study are available in the Chemistry Department of Warwick University.

There will be a Memorial Service for Professor Mark Rodger on Saturday 1st April 2017 at 2.00pm, in Holy Trinity Church (5A Priory Row, Coventry CV1 5EX).

Full details of the arrangements can be found on Alison's page here:

http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/moac/people/staff/alison/mark/

A tribute to Mark has been posted on the University insite pages; http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/insite/news/intnews2/mark_rodger

Martin Wills, Head of Department.