Head of Graduate Education Dr Deborah Longbottom introduces student prizewinners, courtesy Department of Chemistry Photography
The Department of Chemistry threw open its doors to researchers from academia and industry when it held its annual Chemistry Networks event at the end of September – a get-to-know-us day for current and prospective research partners
The day is held to give an overview of the department and the wide array of science research going on here within our five core research areas: biological, materials, physical, synthetic and theoretical chemistry. Head of Department Professor John Pyle told guests, “Our Chemistry Department is made up of around 60 academic leads covering a truly wide spectrum of forefront science.”
The Chairs of our five different Research Interest Groups outlined the work being undertaken by researchers and its relevance to real world challenges and industrial applications such as drug discovery, oil recovery, ageing, energy research, fuel cells and batteries, synthetic medicine, computer memory and sensors, among many others.
And this year for the first time, guests also heard from some of our PhD students who had been taking part in a week-long departmental Chemistry Showcase. The students judged to have given the best talks in their research group were invited to come and present at the Chemistry Networks event.
Professor Pyle told attendees: “This event has grown since last year. About 20 companies are here, including collaborators old and new and spin-out firms. We also have representatives here from local government and the charitable sector. We hope you will all get a lot out of the day and will want to take forward work in areas of mutual interest.”
The attendees clearly enjoyed the day. Cambridge ATS (the Cambridge Academy of Therapeutic Sciences) tweeted during the event: “Fascinating insight into the range of research @ChemCambridge. #ChemistryNetworks.”
And Bioscience Impact tweeted: “Visiting our colleagues in @ChemCambridge this afternoon for their Chemistry Networks event. #interdisciplinary #research.”