News

We are pleased to announce Ezat Khoshdel has been appointed as an Honorary Professorial Fellow in the department. Ezat has been a long-standing collaborator with the department with multiple projects over 25 years. Ezat has recently retired from Unilever where he was the inventor of over 150 patents, the largest number of any Unilever employee. Ezat will be more than happy to discuss ideas and work across the department and add to our impact activities. Ezat can be contacted on E.Khoshdel@warwick.ac.uk and will next be in the department on October 11^th when he gives a lecture to our new Polymer MSc cohort.

The survival mechanisms of polar fish have led researchers in Chemistry and Warwick Medical School to develop a revolutionary approach to ‘freeze’ bacteria, with potential applications within the food industry, organ transportation and medicine - as well as in laboratory research.

Environmentally friendly plastic packaging could be in the shops in future, thanks to research undertaken by Professor Tim Bugg's group.

Congratulations to the two members of the Chemistry department who were winners of WATE awards. From the staff, Russ Kitson; and from the PhD student body, Nat Das Neves Rodrigues (From Vas Stavros' group). Read the interview with Russ Kitson here.

These awards were established to recognise the commitment, dedication and innovation of our academic staff - and also our more junior colleagues from the PhD student body - in supporting learning and teaching in the department.

Congratulations to you both!

In case anyone missed it here is a link to a write-up by volunteers at Coventry’s first three-day Pint of Science event that featured leading lights from Chemistry, associated groups and alumni including

Gabriele Sosso

Peter O’Connor

Neil Cole-Filipiak

And an assembly of Tweets from the events in Wakelet.

Dr Russ Kitson and Dr Paolo Coppo have been awarded £ 20 K of research funding, in a collaboration with Prof. Tina Overton from Monash University, as part of the Alliance Education Fund. The project aims to enhance transferrable skills in the Higher Education curriculum.

Congratulations to our Departmental Winners at the University Awards 2018.

Public Engagement Winner Nick Barker and Research Contribution Winners: Interface Polymers Team (Chemistry and Warwick Ventures)

Congratulations also to all who were nominated from Chemistry

A full list of winners, highly commended and Nominees can be found at University Awards 2018

Congratulations to Sam Lawton who has just won this year's Young Persons' Lecture Competition.

Sponsored by the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining, with support from The Worshipful Company of Armourers & Brasiers, the Young Persons' Lecture Competition invites students and professionals up to the age of 28 to deliver a short lecture on a materials, minerals, mining, packaging, clay technology and wood science related subject.

There were three rounds to the competition: the regional heats, regional finals, and the national finals which took place on 25 April, and Sam wins a prize of £750 and a trip to South Africa to compete in the world finals.

Sam is a final year PhD student under the supervision of Prof Dave Haddleton, and is currently working on developing new materials for the next generation of solar cells.

Congratulations to Dr Matthew Jenner, Leverhulme Early Career Research Fellow in the Department of Chemistry, who has been awarded a BBSRC Future Leader Fellowship.

Full press release here

Peptide-mimetic metallohelices bind Alzheimer protein and extend life in an insect model

Nature Chemistry has recently published research, led by Professor Peter Sadler, that has developed a new line of attack against cancer: an organic-osmium compound, which is triggered using a non-toxic dose of sodium formate, a natural product found in many organisms, including nettles and ants.

Named JPC11, it targets a metabolic process which cancer cells rely on to survive and multiply. It does this by converting a key substance used by cancer cells to provide the energy they need for rapid division (pyruvate) into an unnatural lactate - leading to the cells’ destruction.

For the full press release see here.

Research published today in Nature Communications shows how high photoconductivity and semiconductor behaviour can be added to MOFs - which already have a huge international focus for their applications in gas storage, sensing and catalysis.

The new work, conducted by Universities in Brazil, the United Kingdom and France – including researchers at Warwick’s Department of Chemistry - found that the new MOF has a photoresponsivity of 2.5 × 10⁵ A.W^-1

The work has been highlighted in a press release.