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Major grant success for nanoscience and materials theme. The University of Reading's Department of Chemistry has been awarded over half a million pounds in four major grants from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. The research funded by these grants will in the future help to investigate drug synthesis, reduce our energy consumption help design new materials and learn more about Alzheimer's Disease.

Interdisciplinary Surface Science Conference (17) was held at the University of Reading 30 March - 2 April 2009 and proved very successful with nearly twice the the normal number of delegates. ISSC is the flagship UK conference series in the field of surface science and thin film research. The conference covered all areas related to surface science, fundamental catalysis and thin films. Further details may be found here, and accompanying press release here.

University awarded £1.1M to discover small solutions for big problems! Polymer scientists at the University of Reading have recently been awarded a prestigious Platform Grant by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council valued at over £1.1M, which could lead to exciting discoveries such as low-cost drinking water for the developing world, improved fuel cells for clean/renewable energy, new structural materials and adhesives, and novel therapies for protein-based diseases.

Drs Roger Bennett and Rebecca Green publish new results detailing protein aggregation at surfaces in the centenary volume of the leading journal Physical Review Letters. The article entitled "Mechanisms and Dynamics of Protein Clustering on a Solid Surface" appears in Phys. Rev. Lett. 100, 068102 (2008). University issues a press release here.

Nanoscience and Materials Theme Afternoon, Wednesday 30th January, details now available.

Diamond Research Day, Wednesday 13th June, details now available.

Dr Bennett publishes article in Physical Review Letters entitled "

Professor Mark Matsen gets cover page of Physical Review Letters with the paper

Professor Mark Matsen wins EPSRC funding to develop efficient and accurate computational techniques for predicting the behaviour of structured polymers in systems with axial symmetry (these are systems that remain unchanged when rotated about a particular axis). Our computational algorithms will then be used to study three distinct systems: nanocomposite materials, block-copolymer micelles and polymer-coated colloids. The nanocomposites have potential uses in the development of optical-wavelength photonic crystals, which some day may see the replacement of conventional electronics by much faster light-based devices.

Drs Mulheran and Bennett in Physics and Green in Chemistry win Medical Research Council (MRC) discipline hopping grant to apply theoretical models developed in Reading to a new area of research. The work will be in close collaboration with the Royal Berkshire Hospital and Prof. Malcolm Sperrin. The postdoctoral researcher position has been filled by Dr Delphine Pellenc and we welcome her to the team.

Congratulations (again!) to Edman Tsang who at the prestigious IChemE Awards Dinner received the IChemE Award for Innovation in Applied Catalysis in recognition of the work carried out at Reading in the field of catalysis with nano-magnets.

Congratulations to Edman Tsang on his promotion to a personal chair in NanoMaterials and Catalysis.

Reading has recently been awarded a large Grant by the Royal Society and Wolfson Foundation to develop nanotechnology laboratories in Physics exploiting the close proximity to the Ultra-Fast Laser Laboratory (ULL), providing intense femtosecond laser light, and the Centre for Advanced Microscopy (CfAM) for state-of-the-art microscopy and analysis.

Building work is now complete and provides bespoke experimental laboratories for nano fabrication and analysis. In partnership with the projects to further develop the CfAM and establish the ULL the refurbishment work will create the Wolfson NanoScience Laboratory in the JJ Thomson Building. The suite of facilities will underpin much of the work described on these pages.

The University of Reading hosted the inaugural meeting of the Nanoscale Physics and Technology Group of the Institute of Physics on the 23rd May 2003. The meeting was very successful with over ninety delegates participating. Further archived material can be found here.


Page last updated March 23, 2010
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