The top 10 most popular spectroscopy and material science papers published in Analytical Chemistry throughout the last year have been listed in the recent issue of Chemical and Engineering News Magazine.

Among the top 10 was work conducted by members at WEIG, Binoy Nadappuram, Kim McKelvey, Rehab al Botros, Alex Colburn and Pat Unwin on the "Fabrication and Characterization of Dual Function Nanoscale pH-Scanning Ion Conductance Microscopy (SICM) Probes for High Resolution pH Mapping".

The work features the quantitative power of dual function SICM probes to monitor pH as well as topographical changes during the dissolution of a calcite crystal. Congratulations to all those involved!

On the 7th of July the Chemistry Department hosted the annual Students vs Staff departmental cricket match in memory of Arthur Hartwell. Several members of WEIG took part in the match, with other members of WEIG on the sidelines giving support to their colleagues.

Despite starting the match in the rain and coming off after two overs, a full 12-a-side, 22 over game was possible. The staff (heavy on technicians, light on academics) put the students (mostly PhD's and a few undergrads) into bat in moist conditions.

The Arthur Hartwell Memorial Trophy was won by the Students (136 for 7 vs 86 for 6) and triumphantly accepted by the student captain Rob Channon. The day was a contrast of strong performances by newcomers and several dropped catches. In the end, faster hitting and better fielding granted the students a 50 run victory.

The Harry Wiles Sporting Performance Cup was awarded by Alison Rodger to Sophie Kinnear for "a fantastic spell of death bowling (2-0-4)".

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.

A fully funded 3.5 year PhD studentship has just become available within the Warwick Electrochemistry and Interfaces Group under the supervision of Prof. Julie Macpherson. The group hosts a significant array of state-of-the art equipment including a clean room for materials processing, AFMs, confocal microscopes, electrochemical workstations, electrochemical imaging capabilities and finite element modelling capabilities and has access to world leading electron microscopy facilities and spectroscopic equipment. The project is in collaboration with Astra Zeneca, a British-Swedish multi-national Pharmaceutical and Biologics Company and Element Six, the world’s leading supplier of synthetic diamond. The project will involve the development and application of all diamond electrochemical sensors, for the detection and removal of impurity species, in particular metal catalysts, from solution. The project will build on recent developments in the group on the fabrication of novel electrochemical sensors made entirely of diamond [1], capable of functioning for long periods of time in complex environments and combined spectroscopic – electrochemical sensor technology, capable of chemical species identification, quantification and removal from solution [2]. For further information please contact j.macpherson@warwick.ac.uk

Funding Notes:

Applicants must be from the UK/EU and hold a first degree (equivalent to 2:1 and above) in Chemistry or a related discipline. Interested applicants should contact Prof. Julie Macpherson (j.macpherson@warwick.ac.uk) in the first instance.

On Sunday 8^th of June, 7 members of the Electrochemistry group (Pat, Aleix, Jenny, Rob C, Rob L, Josh and Dmitry) fought it out to complete a 10 kilometre run from Warwick castle to Kenilworth castle. The Two Castles run has now become part of WEIG tradition, with the group having taken part in the race for the past 6 years. There was huge anticipation as to who in the group would cross the finish line first, and in the end it was Pat that raced through to victory!

Congratulations to all those that participated, for their commitment and dedication to the race. We now look forward to next year's event, and to see if anyone can beat Pat!

The electrochemistry group also came 20th overall in the run! Congratulations guys!