Department of Chemistry News

Dr Beining Chen is leading a national Prion Chemical Biology Network

Beining Chen is leading a national Prion Chemical Biology Network (www.pcbnet.group.shef.ac.uk) funded by the EPSRC, BBSRC and MRC. The network is one of 8 chemical biology networks funded by these research councils, the networks will collaborate on a range of activities to enable knowledge-sharing and innovative discipline-hopping http://www.chemicalbiology.co.uk/about.html.

Prof. Tony Ryan defends and discusses chemistry on Radio 4.

1. The Infinite Monkey Cage, December 19 2011
It's the ultimate battle of the Sciences as Physics goes head to head with Chemistry. Brian Cox and Dara O'Briain take to the ring to defend Physics and Tony Ryan and Andrea Sella make the case for Chemistry, with Robin Ince as ringside referee. The CHM2301 class
provided some of the ammunition and were mentioned in the programme.

Available to listen from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b018b8cw

and as a podcast from http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/timc

2. In Our Time with Melvyn Bragg, December 29 2011
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the giant molecules that form the basis of all life. Macromolecules, also known as polymers, are long chains of atoms which form the proteins that make up our bodies, as well as many of the materials of modern life. We've only known about macromolecules for just over a century, so what is the story behind them and how might they change our lives in the future? Melvyn Bragg is joined by Athene Donald, Professor of Experimental Physics at the University of Cambridge; Charlotte Williams, Reader in Polymer
Chemistry and Catalysis at Imperial College London and Tony Ryan, Pro-Vice Chancellor for the Faculty of Science at the University of Sheffield.

Available to listen from http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b018grhm/In_Our_Time_Macromolecules/

and as a podcast from http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/iot

Chemistry department opens joint degree programme with Nanjing University of Technology

The Department of Chemistry at the University of Sheffield has initiated a new joint teaching venture with a partner in China.
Nanjing University of Technology (NJUT) will recruit outstanding students from China and south-east Asia onto a new chemistry degree programme in which the students spend three years at NJUT learning chemistry, which will include several courses taught in English by visiting academic staff from Sheffield. The students then come to the UK for their final year and join the final year of the Sheffield BSc degree programme.

The formal inauguration of this new joint venture in a ceremony at NJUT in October was attended by Prof. Tony Ryan, representing the Faculty of Science, and Prof. Mike Ward, Dr. Mark Winter and Dr. Beining Chen who will manage the joint degree programme. Prof. Ward took the opportunity to deliver the first set of introductory lectures to the NJUT students - four lectures on 'The Chemistry of Explosives'. The first cohort contains 29 students but this will be
increased in future years to a maximum of 60 students.

Drs. Steve Rimmer and Linda Swanson use light to detect bacterial infections

Steve Rimmer and Linda Swanson have joined forces as part of a collaborative team led by Dr. Rimmer to investigate the behavour of fluorescent polymers whose flourescence is modified when they interact with pathogenic bacteria, allowing much faster identification of bacterial infections than is currently possible.

See here and here for more details

Department performs well in latest National Student Survey

The Department has done well in the latest National Student Survey, due out later this year. Within the Russell Group of Universities we are:

• (joint) top ranked for "the teaching on my course"

• top ranked for "personal development"

• (joint) third ranked for "overall satisfaction"

Compared to other Russell Group Universities, we secured top-five finishes in all categories bar one (where we were joint sixth).

£1M Platform grant for Professor Steve Armes and co-workers

Professor Steve Armes and his colleagues Profs. Tony Ryan (from Chemistry) and Beppe Battaglia (from Biomedical Sciences) have been awarded a 5 year, £1M Platform grant by EPSRC to start in November 2011.  The grant is for a project entitled "Biocompatible Polymer Colloids for Bionanotechnology Applications"

New Head of Department

As from 1st September 2011 Prof. Richard Jackson succeeded Prof. Mike Ward as head of Department.  This will be Prof Jackson's second term of office as HoD as he was also Prof Ward's immediate predecessor from 2003 - 2007.

Christopher Hunter awarded RSC Prize

Professor Christopher Hunter FRS from the Department of Chemistry has been awarded the 2011 RSC prize for Physical Organic chemistry. Awarded for his contributions to molecular recognition and related weak interactions, exemplified through innovative models to explain solvation, aromatic interactions and secondary structure in DNA.

Many congratulations to Chris!

RSC Announcement

Secrets of a precision protein machine unlocked by experts

The basic details of the mechanism of FEN-1, a key player in DNA replication and repair, have been deciphered by a team of experts, including the group of dr. Jane Grasby from the Chemistry Department.

This paper appeared in the 15 April issue of Cell.

See here for more information

Mike Ward reaches 100 n.o.

Prof. Mike Ward features in a blog article on the RSC web site for having published 100 papers in their inorganic chemistry journal 'Dalton Transactions'

See here for more details.

The University of Sheffield comes second overall in latest Times Survey

The University of Sheffield has come second overall in the latest Times Higher Education Student Experience Survey. Sheffield came top for the quality of its Students' Union, and was joint first for the quality of its Library, Social Life and Extracurricular Activities and Societies.

Further details may be found here

ChemSoc explosives lecture goes with a real bang

Dr. Peter Portius gave his first ChemSoc 'Fireworks' lecture to an appreciative audience in a packed lecture theatre 1 on Thursday, November 11th, complete with all of the necessary demonstrations.

For more details see here