Sandile Mtetwa wants to transform the energy sector in her country. She'll begin a PhD here this autumn, investigating alternative energy sources that can produce and store hydrogen and could give Zimbabwe access to cost effective solar energy.

Congratulations to our PhD student Jerelle Joseph who has jointly won the sixth annual Bill Gates Sr. Award in recognition both of her outstanding research and her social leadership.

Three department researchers have been honoured with Royal Society of Chemistry 2018 awards.

Researchers led by our own Professor Michele Vendruscolo have shown how cholesterol – a molecule normally linked with cardiovascular diseases – may also play an important role in the onset and progression of Alzheimer’s disease.

Researchers here have successfully modified a well-known chemical reaction in such a way that it can produce drug molecules in a purer and more effective form.

"Preventing and treating Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative conditions are huge challenges. But we are confident that this plague will be defeated in due course."

Researchers in the department have helped to create a low-density polysulfide which acts like a sponge to soak up oil spills.

Professor Clare Grey has been awarded a 2018 Royal Society Research Professorship, the Society's premier research award.

Schoolchildren aged 11-13 became forensic chemists for a day. They conducted experiments to solve The Mystery of the Missing Trophy as they took part in the Salters' Festival of Chemistry we hosted here.

We will use our upcoming Linnett Symposium to honour a scientist who "changed the course of physical chemistry not just once, but several times." 

"Chemistry began with magic: the alchemists devised complex schemes to hide their wizardry. But today chemistry is open to all and creating new materials, from better batteries to miracle medicines, to transform our lives."

An international team of researchers – led by Dr Gonçalo Bernardes in this department – has developed a simple yet effective method of modifying proteins that could enable them to precisely deliver drugs to diseased tissues.

The super-whiteness of an Asian scarab beetle has inspired Chemistry researchers to develop a new material "20-30 times whiter than common paper".

We are saddened by the death last week of Sir John Sulston. An alumnus of the department, he shared the Nobel Prize for cell lineage research in the nematode worm and went on to lead the UK research in the Human Genome Project.

'Hydrogen Pistols at Dawn', a look at the 18th century texts that prompted a revolution in chemistry, is one of the Sandars Lectures Dr Peter Wothers will deliver this week.