News
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 "Structure
of Adsorbed Organometallic Rhodium: Model Single Atom Catalysts"
Phys. Rev. Lett. 98,
056102 (2007) which details the use of synchrotron radiation to determine
the structure of catalytic intermediaries on on oxide surface.
Professor Mark Matsen gets cover page of
Physical Review Letters
with the paper "Droplet Shape of an Anisotropic Liquid"
Phys. Rev. Lett. 97,
204502 (2006).
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.
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