Speakers Doug MacFarlane, Alan Bond and Jie Zhang provided insight into the great advances in electrochemistry occuring at Monash University at the "ACES: ElectroMaterials Down Under" talks hosted by the University of Warwick. Excellent talks were also given by WEIG's very own postdocs Aleix Guell and Maxim Joseph on carbon nanotubes and diamond respectively.

Monash University and the University of Warwick form the electromaterials alliance, providing a link between the two universities in order to improve on electrochemical research. Doug MacFarlane presented a plaque as a symbol of the partnership.

Several of the Marie-Curie sponsored PhD students (Maria Adobes Vidal and Roy Meyler) currently studying for PhDs in WEIG, recently attended 3-day event in Venice to present their work to industrial and and academic collaborators in an international setting. The event provided a variety of workshops and networking events to assist the students with their professional development. Representatives from industrial sponsors included AstraZeneca and Pfizer.

The 2014 Chemistry PG Symposium was held on 28th May 2014 and featured 45 talks by final year PhD students in the department and 37 posters. There was an excellent attendance at all three of the lively sessions.

Congratulations to Changhui Chen (second from left) for the best talk award and Tania Read (fifth from left) for winning the poster prize! Photo by Ken Westwood.

The 2014 Midlands "ISE Satellite Student Regional Symposium on Electrochemistry: The Midlands Electrochemistry Group (MEG) meeting was hosted on Monday, 1st April in the Department of Chemistry, University of Loughborough, sponsored by the RSc, ISE, Alvatek, Metrohm Autolab UK. The annual event is designed to bring together electrochemistry groups from universities across the midlands to share research, and provide a platform for PhD researchers to talk about their work with peers in the same field.

This year, there were close to 100 attendees, with delegations from University of Warwick, Nottingham University, University of Birmingham, Loughborough University, the University of Leicester and the University of Bath. 12 talks covering a wide variety of electrochemistry were given by postgraduate students, along with over 10 poster presentations.

WEIG student Barak Aaronson was awarded the prize for the best talk (High Resolution Electrochemical Imaging in Ionic Liquids: Surface Structure Effects on Triiodide Reduction at Platinum Electrodes) and Lingcong Meng recieved a prize for his poster (Laser Heated Diamond Electrodes). Barak will now go forward to deliver his talk at the UK national meeting Electrochem 2014, and the work on laser heated diamond electrodes will be presented at the Faraday Discussion 172 in Sheffield later this year.

The group went for an evening meal in Loughborough to celebrate (kindly organised by Rob Channon and Barak).

An interdisciplinary conference reflecting the wide range of applications of Molten Salts (also known as Ionic liquids) to research and industry was held on the 10^th of January at the University of Warwick. The conference was hosted by the Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG) and attracted molten salts research students from around the UK.

Many congratulations to Barak Aaronson who was awarded the Best presentation prize for his talk: ‘Spatially Resolved Electrochemistry in Ionic Liquids: Surface Structure Effects on Triiodide Reduction at Platinum Electrodes’. SECCM goes far and wide - here with the first signs of impact on the Ionic Liquid community.