Department Of Chemistry.
Chemistry Issue 24 | Summer 2018
NEWSLETTER
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Thanks for thinking about chemistry at the University of Sheffield. We’re sending you this newsletter to bring you up-todate on what’s been happening in our department. There have been new labs opened, student trips to China, staff prizes, and innovative approaches to environmental sustainability. We’ve also included some great new data on our students’ career prospects, which came out just after our open day in June. Don’t forget to get in touch if there’s anything else you’d like to know from us. Our contact details are on the back. Dr Jim Reid, Senior Tutor for Undergraduate Admissions
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Chemistry’s a great career option – stats New employment statistics show that even more of our students are going on to great jobs after graduation. We’ve seen a big increase in our Graduate Prospects score – one of the main benchmarks of a quality undergraduate course. In the latest Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education survey results, 83 per cent of our 2016 graduates were in a graduatelevel job or further study position, within just six months of graduation – that’s up almost 10 per cent on last year. A big part of our courses revolves around helping you get a great job after your degree. We run dedicated career skills training sessions, and every year students get to hear from employers that hire chemistry graduates at our undergraduate careers day (pictured). The University’s Careers Service also run workshops on CV and application writing, job hunting and preparing for interviews. They’ll continue to support you for three years after you graduate.
“Without a doubt I would not have been able to obtain my current role without the qualifications, transferable skills and network I developed at Sheffield. I now work for a fast-moving consumer goods company as an ice-cream research scientist – I’m not sure that would’ve made my top 100 guesses when I first started my university career!” Liam Ratcliffe, Sheffield chemistry graduate
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Sustainble chemistry: Plastics and the planet Professor Tony Ryan is passionate about the planet. He’s also a polymer chemist who has spent three decades working with plastics. At a time when plastic waste is in the spotlight for its impact on the environment, this might seem like a contradiction. But Tony’s take on it is clear: “Plastic itself is inanimate and cannot be evil – what’s morally wrong is what humans do with it.”
on the topic for news website The Conversation, and chaired a discussion on single-use plastics at a polymer science conference France.
We need to cut down where we can, but it’s not as simple as abandoning plastics altogether. For example, plastics have key roles in agriculture and healthcare. Some can even benefit the environment: plastic food packaging helps reduce food waste.
And, as Director of the University of Sheffield’s Grantham Centre for Sustainable Futures, Tony’s been trying to find ways to use plastics to solve, rather than create, environmental problems.
Tony’s taken this message to listeners of Plastic Fantastic, a recent BBC Radio 4 series that explored humans’ relationship with plastics. He’s also written an article
He’s currently developing a type of polymer foam that can be used as an artificial soil, by working with Syrian refugees in Jordan to grow crops in old mattresses. ●
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Major prize for Harrity Professor Joseph Harrity, our Professor of Synthetic Organic Chemistry, has won the 2018 Royal Society of Chemistry Bader Award. The Bader Award is awarded for the development of innovative strategies for the synthesis of functionalised heterocyclic scaffolds. Professor Harrity’s work focuses on the field of organic synthesis. This branch of chemistry allows scientists to design new compounds at the molecular level, and then to prepare and study them in the lab. He said: “I have been very fortunate to work alongside a large number of scientists with a range of experiences and backgrounds: from undergraduates to postgraduates, as well as colleagues from academia and industry. Tony at Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan.
“Plastic itself is inanimate and cannot be evil – what’s morally wrong is what humans do with it.”
“My research programme has been shaped by their hard work, inspiration and creativity, and I am extremely honoured to accept the 2018 Bader Award on their behalf.”
Professor Tony Ryan OBE
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New laboratory named for Nobel Prize winner Our new laser spectroscopy laboratory will help scientists investigate all aspects of light-matter interaction in condensed phase. It’s been named after George Porter, one of the four Nobel Prize winners who have worked or studied in our department. The Lord Porter Ultrafast Laser Spectroscopy Laboratory was opened by the late scientist’s widow, Lady Stella Porter, at a ceremony earlier this year. It has been designed to help accelerate research in a variety of areas including charge and energy transport in molecules and materials, solar cells, artificial photosynthesis, biological imaging and lightinduced therapies in healthcare.
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Lord Porter was our Professor of Physical Chemistry between 1955 and 1966. He shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1967 with Ronald G. W. Norrish and Manfred Eigen for the discovery of flash photolysis. This technique enabled chemists, for the first time, to measure the speed and mechanism of certain reactions that occurred too quickly for detection by conventional methods. ●
Undergraduates help cement Chinese links Two chemistry undergraduates went to China to help students there prepare for studying in the UK. Jasmine Catlow and George Hunter met students on the chemistry degree programme we run in collaboration with Nanjing Tech University. On this course, students are based in Nanjing and taught by visiting University of Sheffield academics for their first three years. They then have the chance to come to the University of Sheffield for their final year, under a “3+1” arrangement.
who have already done a 3+1 course. They also visited Nanjing University and Southeast University, and explored the nearby cities of Shanghai and Suzhou. ●
Part of Jasmine and George’s role was to help 3+1 students currently in Nanjing find out more about living in Sheffield and studying at the University. They attended student forums and events for graduates
George Hunter,left,and Jasmine Catlow, right, in China with fellow University of Sheffield science students Benjamin Jolly, Eloisa Paver, Elizabeth Sheppeck and James Watkins.
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The photographs on the cover were taken at our fourth year poster day, where students on our MChem courses present findings from their own chemistry research projects.
Further information on all our courses can be found at www.sheffield.ac.uk/chemistry Contact: Admissions Office Email: chemistry-admissions@sheffield.ac.uk Department of Chemistry The University of Sheffield Brook Hill Sheffield S3 7HF SheffieldChem SheffieldChem sheffield.chem 8