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ChemistryNEWSLETTERIssue 22 | Summer 2017

DepartmentOfChemistry.

3 Sheffield tops student experience polls

4 Welcomng back a Nobel Prize winner

6 Polymer soil project could help refugees

7 Electron transfer work earns top prize

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Sheffield tops polls for student experienceOur Students’ Union, library services, and the great overall experience we offer our students led to some fantastic results for the University of Sheffield in the latest Times Higher Education Student Experience Survey.

The Students’ Union, across the road from the Chemistry building, was rated best in the country for the ninth year running, and our library services were ranked in joint first place.

Sheffield was also top of the Russell Group for student experience, and in the UK top three for the sixth year in a row.

Dominic Trendall, President of the University of Sheffield Students’ Union, said: “We’re thrilled that students have rated

Sheffield Students’ Union the best in the UK and the University in the top three of UK universities.

“This is a testament to our brilliant services and facilities available to students and all the dedicated staff, students and volunteers who work incredibly hard to create a truly inclusive community.

“I’m proud to think that we offer one of the best university experiences that students will cherish for the rest of their lives.” ●

Left: Multi-million pound new library facilities at The Diamond Above: Our Students’ Union, consistently voted best in the UK

We’ve had a lot to celebrate recently.First, we’re proud to say that the University of Sheffield did brilliantly in the latest Times Higher Education Student Experience Survey. It’s wonderful to know that our students have such positive things to say about their time here.

In Chemistry, we’ve also been celebrating a major prize that’s been awarded to Professor Julia Weinstein, as well as spending time with an old friend – Nobel Prize winner Professor Sir Fraser Stoddart.

Not that we’ve forgotten about the challenges that our chemists are committed to solving. On page six you can read about a project Professor Tony Ryan is working on, that could help refugees fleeing violence in Syria.

If there’s anything else you need from us, don’t hesiate to get in touch. You can find our contact details on the back.

Professor Mike Ward Head of Department

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Welcoming back a Nobel Prize winnerIn October 2016, former University of Sheffield chemistry lecturer Professor Sir Fraser Stoddart was the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. He returned to Sheffield for the Sheffield Festival of Science and Engineering to give a lecture and meet our students.

The lecture was on The Rise of Mechanical Bond: From Molecules to Machines. Sir Fraser covered the research he did in Sheffield into rotaxanes – structures where a wheel is trapped around an axle with no covalent bonds between them.

Later roxtanes could be used as molecular memory for computers or could be applied to drug delivery, he explained.

Sir Fraser worked here in the Department of Chemistry for almost 20 years, in the run up to publishing his highly cited paper on molecular machinery. It was this paper that led to him being jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry alongside Ben Feringa

and Jean-Pierre Sauvage.

He joins three other Nobel Prize winners who have worked or studied in our department – Lord Porter, Sir Richard Roberts and Sir Harry Kroto.

As well as the talk, Sir Fraser took part in a Q+A session with our final year undergraduate students and postgraduate students who got the chance to present findings from their own research projects during a poster session. ●

See more from Sir Fraser’s visit and watch his lecture in full at www.sheffield.ac.uk/chemistry

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Electron transfer work earns top prizeProfessor Julia Weinstein has been awarded one of the most prestigious prizes in chemistry. She has been named as the 2017 Royal Society of Chemistry Chemical Dynamics Award winner for her work on electron transfer.

Electron transfer is fundamental to everything from electrical conductivity in materials, to nerve signalling in the human body, to photosynthesis and man-made systems for solar energy conversion.

The Chemical Dynamics Award is awarded for outstanding innovative research on the dynamics of molecules, including spectroscopy, kinetics or molecular interactions in the gas, liquid or solid phase.

Previous winners include the winners of the 2016 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Jean-Pierre

Sauvage, Ben Feringa and Fraser Stoddart.

Julia said: “It is an amazing feeling, it is such a high honour. I feel surprise, excitement, and immense gratitude to all the collaborators with whom we have been working together for many years.

“I have been very fortunate to be able to work with the extremely talented scientists of all generations, who created a wonderful, intellectually stimulating atmosphere – and without whom none of this exciting research would have been possible.” ●

Professor Julia Weinstein, centre, with her lab group outside the Department of Chemistry’s Dainton Building

Polymer soil project could help refugeesA new project led by Professor Tony Ryan OBE could help refugees grow food in some of the most challening conditions. Tony’s PhD student Harry Wright is investigating ways to use polymer foams as an artifical soil for growing crops.

Last year, Tony visited the Zaatari and Azraq refugee camps in Jordan, on the Syrian border, which are home to thousands of refugees fleeing violence.

"Resources are scarce in a camp like Zaatari, where 80,000 people are squeezed in six square kilometers," he said. "Nothing is left to waste."

But camp residents weren't sure how best to use the dozens of spare mattresses that

Tony saw piling up in a warehouse.

"My mind raced to the PhD student we'd just recruited to help us work out how polymer foams can be used as artificial soil to grow crops," he said.

The hope is that Tony and PhD student Harry's project will help make it feasible for refugee camps to recycle the foam from old mattresses and use it to develop a sustainble agriculture system. ●

Left: Professor Tony Ryan at the refugee camp Above: Tony explains how the artificial soil idea works

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Further information on all our courses can be found at www.sheffield.ac.uk/chemistry

Contact: Admissions OfficeEmail: chemistry-admissions@sheffield.ac.uk

Department of ChemistryThe University of SheffieldBrook HillSheffield S3 7HF

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