EaStCHEM News
Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) belong to the list of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) included in the Stockholm Convention. The destruction of PCBs is often performed by incineration, which raises environmental concerns. A catalytic system capable of efficiently promoting the hydrodehalogenation of PCBs using isopropanol as the hydrogen source and NaOH as the base was developed by the Cazin group, as described in this Chemical Communication article, which has been awarded "hot article" status
Dr P.Wormald and Dr W. Nazaroz have been awarded an initial £300,000 funding for studentships. We have diverse NMR instrumentation to be installed shortly and traditional instrumentation for the analysis of polymers synthesised in our laboratory using Living Free-Radical Polymerization by Reversible Addition-Fragmentation Chain Transfer (RAFT) techniques. The laboratory is aimed at creating new materials for high energy laser matter interactions, aiding fusion energy research and low carbon emission technologies with UK and international partners and developing novel NMR techniques for polymer systems. Further areas of interest are phosphorus and fluorine containing polymer membranes. Research capabilities to be added later to complement our solid state NMR include a 20 MHz TD NMR for monitoring polymerisation reactions and diffusion mechanisms and a 43 MHz Fast Field cycling NMR.
Research Assessment 2008
Chemistry in the East of Scotland has shot to the top of the latest UK league table, in the most in-depth analysis of research outputs for seven years.
EaStCHEM, the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) research pooling partnership in Chemistry between St Andrews and Edinburgh Universities, has scored highest in Scotland in the latest Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) announced on 18th December 2008. The EastCHEM partners submitted 73% of all world leading outputs (4*) in Scotland and 12% of world leading outputs in all of the UK. From 31 submissions EastChem was the largest in UK Chemistry. EaStCHEM comes joint 4th with Bristol in the Grade Point Average (GPA) metric, and first when staff numbers are factored in (the power ranking), sitting above Oxford and Cambridge.
| Quality GPA x staff numbers | Quality GPA | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | EaStCHEM | University of Cambridge |
| 2 | University of Oxford | University of Nottingham |
| 3 | University of Cambridge | University of Oxford |
| 4 | University of Bristol | EaStCHEM = University of Bristol |
out of 31
This is an outstanding performance and demonstrates world class breadth and depth in the chemical sciences in the East of Scotland. The spectacular rise in research quality as judged by peer review, is a result of a sustained commitment by the respective Universities and the Scottish Funding Council in supporting excellence in chemistry over the last five years. It also reflects the dedication and commitment of many academics, support staff and their students in succeeding in ground breaking research over a wide range of challenging programmes.
The School of Chemistry provides an excellent environment for research and study. The laboratories are housed in the Purdie Building and the adjoining Centre for Biomolecular Sciences (CBMS), shown right. Chemical research has a long and distinguished history at St. Andrews. In recent years, several named prizes of the Royal Society of Chemistry have been awarded to current members of the School. The School was rated as Excellent in the Teaching Quality Assessment of 1994 and is placed in the top 5 UK chemistry departments in the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise. Read more: research programme, undergraduate (UCAS) admissions, including news of our Purdie Scholarships for applicants, and postgraduate admissions.
EaStCHEM
Chemistry research at St Andrews and Edinburgh has combined to form EaStCHEM, which is a world-class research grouping based at both St Andrews and Edinburgh, demonstrating our commitment to excellence in research. EaStCHEM is itself part of ScotCHEM.
Read more about EaStCHEM's research programme.
Prof Nolan features in List of Most Cited Papers
One of Prof Steve Nolan's research papers has entered
the list of most cited papers in chemistry. Entitled
"Determination of N-Heterocyclic Carbene (NHC) Steric and Electronic
Parameters Using the [(NHC)Ir(CO)2Cl] System” and published in
Read more about Prof Nolan's research programme.
St Andrews Chemistry Postgraduate Open Day:
Friday 12th February 2010
Are you interested in studying for a Chemistry PhD in St Andrews? Come to the Open Day to visit the department and talk to prospective PhD supervisors. Further Information.
Free Electron Microscopy Access to UK Academics
Dr Wuzong Zhou is pleased to announce free access for UK academics to electron microscopy services at St Andrews. Please click on the picture (right) for more information.
St Andrews School of Chemistry Colloquia, 2009-10
All colloquia are held on Wednesdays at 4:00pm, Purdie Building, unless otherwise indicated.
Anyone is welcome to arrange to meet the speaker. Please contact Dr Sharon Ashbrook and/or the Host/Organiser of the event. Semester 1 Programme Semester 2 Programme
See also the Organic seminar programm Autumn 2009
Centre of Magnetic Resonance (CMR)
The Centre of Magnetic Resonance (CMR) is an interdisciplinary platform serving the Schools of Chemistry, Biology and Physics, joining research groups that are active in all fields of magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Established in 2008, the Centre combines expertise in liquid– or solid-state Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR), Dynamic Nuclear Polarization (DNP), Electron Paramagnetic Resonance (EPR), Muon Spin Rotation (mSR) and Computational Magnetic Resonance, and aims to encourage synergy between researchers using these tools.
Website. Contact: Dr. Graham Smith - Email: gms@st-and.ac.uk
School of Chemistry Newsletter
The School of Chemistry Newsletter is published every week during each Semester. It contains details of recent events, forthcoming events and news and profiles about people working in the School of Chemistry. View the current edition of the Newsletter.
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