Newsletter 225, 25th May 2012

Chemistry Update

Calendar of Events

Date of Next Issue: 29th June 2012

Thesis Presentation Briefing for

Research Students

Date: Thursday 31st May

Time: 10.15am—12:15pm

Location: C/A122

Professor Alan Katritzky Lecture

Date: Wednesday 6th June

Time: 2.15pm—4.15pm

Location: C/A128

Departmental Research Seminar

Date: Wednesday 20th June

Time: 2.15pm

Location: C/A101

Graduate students and postdocs will be

speaking from a number of research

groups. This is a great opportunity to find

out more about the breadth of research in

the Department. Please note this date in

your diary; the programme will be sent

round shortly. For more information please

contact Sue Couling or Alice Clifford.

Careers in Sustainable Chemistry

All graduates and post-docs welcome

Date: Friday 27th July

Time: 1.00—4.00pm

Location: C/A101

Chemistry Success in VC Awards 2

Sir John Holman Joins the Royal Society’s ‘Vision’

Teaching Award for Nigel Lowe 3

Senior Research Fellowship for Fred Antson

Three York Chemists win RSC prizes 4

Green Chemistry Wins EU FPVII Grant 5

Starbons Day

Nobel Scientist Delivers Public Lecture 6

Year 1 Undergraduate Photo 7

New Candidates for Anti-malaria and Anti-leishmaniasis Drugs

8

Responding to Graduate Student Feedback 9

Statistics Workshops 10

EPSRC Call for Proposals 11-14

The Enterprising Researcher 2012 14

BBSCR Public Engagement Training 15

Four Spectrometers for £200 16-17

Linköping Staff Exchange Week 2012 18-19

From the Archive 20

Baby Boy for Katie Read and Jim Hopkins 21

Nature Chemistry Blog Post

Volunteers for Graduation Ceremonies

Alumni Weekend 2012 22

Top 5 Position in the Guardian University

Guide 2013

Inside this issue:

Page 2

Three York Chemists win RSC prizes

Professor David Smith, Professor Ally Lewis and Professor Richard Taylor have all been

awarded Royal Society of Chemistry prizes.

Prof Dave Smith has been awarded the 2012 Corday-Morgan

Prize by the Royal Society of Chemistry. The Corday-Morgan

Prizes are awarded for the most meritorious contributions to

chemistry and are the highest honour the RSC can bestow on a mid

-career (around 40) chemist. Winners receive £5000, a medal and

a certificate and get to deliver a lecture at up to four venues within

the UK over the period October 2012 to May 2013.

Dave is the first British Chemist to receive both the RSC Corday-Morgan prize for research and

the main RSC Teaching Award.

Prof Ally Lewis has won the prestigious John Jeyes Award

for chemistry in relation to the Environment, Sustainability and

Energy. There is a lectureship associated with the Award to be

given at four UK universities. The Award itself consists of

£2000 and a medal to be presented at a symposium arranged

around one of the lectures.

Prof Richard Taylor has been awarded the 2012 RSC Natural

Product Chemistry Award (for continued creative and

imaginative contributions to the synthesis of natural

products). There is a lectureship associated with the Award to

be given at four UK universities. The Award itself consists of

£2000 and a medal to be presented at a symposium arranged

around one of the lectures.

Page 3

Congratulations to Dr Nigel Lowe who has been

awarded a Vice-Chancellor's Teaching Award for 2012.

Following Dr Seishi Shimizu, Dr Jason Lynam, Dr

Andrew Parsons and Professor David Smith, Nigel is

the fifth member of the Department of Chemistry to win

an individual award, which recognises and rewards

excellence in teaching at York.

The awards panel commended Nigel on his innovative

approaches to transferable skills teaching across the

Department, and his use of e-learning to support

practical Chemistry. They were also impressed by his engagement with the UK chemical

education community through publications and collaborative projects.

Nigel is a champion of teaching within the University through his work for the Forum for the

Enhancement of Learning and Teaching.

Teaching Award for Nigel Lowe

Senior Research Fellowship for Fred Antson

Dr Fred Antson has been awarded a 1.3 M grant by the

Wellcome Trust to support his Senior Research Fellowship

for a further five years. The project titled “Structure and

mechanism of multicomponent protein-nucleic acid

assemblies” will enable Fred to investigate how viruses,

such as bacteriophages and evolutionarily related herpes

viruses, translocate their genomic DNA into capsids during

viral particle assembly. Funding includes support for four

researchers, equipment and consumables.

Fred has been a member of the Structural Biology Laboratory since 1992 and was first appointed

as a Wellcome Trust Senior Fellow in 2002. This award recognises his achievements to date and

the relevance of his programme of research to the aims of the Wellcome Trust.

Page 4

The Department of Chemistry has received the following Vice Chancellor's Awards for

Outstanding Achievement:

Gold Award in the Internationalisation Category for the Chemistry Postgraduate

Administrative Team: Alice Clifford, Alison Edmonds, Rachel Crooks

Silver Award in the Excellence Category for Professor Gideon Davies, FRS

Silver Award in the Excellence Category for the Atmospheric Chemistry Group – Lucy

Carpenter, Mathew Evans, and Alastair Lewis (plus Jacqueline Hamilton, James Lee and

associated staff): Biosphere-atmosphere interactions and their role in air quality and climate.

Silver Award for Outstanding Achievement for the adept handling of the fire in Chemistry

and its consequences— This was a team award and included Dr Moray Stark, Jon Meacock

and Tom Fleming.

Chemistry Success in VC Awards

Sir John Holman Joins the Royal Society’s ‘Vision’

Sir John Holman has been invited by the Royal Society to join its ‘Vision’ group that is developing

the Society’s long-term strategy for science and mathematics education. The group is chaired by

Sir Martin Taylor and also includes there former Secretaries of State for Education.

Page 5

Green Chemistry Wins EU FPVII Grant

Green Chemistry has won a new EU FPVII grant to carry out research on new bio-based

standards. The research is meant to support the European Technical Committee on which

Professor James Clark is a member, who are tasked with developing new bio-based standards

meant to define what is meant by "bio-based" including how to measure bio-content. The

research will include studies on how to determine biomass content for elements other than

carbon.

Starbons® Day

The Green Chemistry Centre’s first spin-out company, Starbons® Ltd, has been established with

the support of a Venture Capitalist company. The company specialises in the production and

application of polysaccharide-derived mesoporous materials; some of its products are already

available in small quantities from Sigma-Aldrich. You can find out about why Starbons® are so

interesting and how they can "green" your process by attending Starbons® Day at the Kings

Manor in York on 16 July 2012.

This will be a unique one day conference with talks from invited speakers who are experts in

Starbons® research and technology across various fields. You will learn about current research

and development surrounding Starbons®, in addition to discovering how Starbons® have

developed form a lab curiosity into a commercially available product. The goal of this event is to

bring together not only those who are currently using Starbons® but also others who currently

work with, or have an interest in carbonaceous materials, to provide opportunities for knowledge

transfer, discussion and networking. Speakers include Dr. Robin White of the Max Planck

Institute and Prof. Steve Tennison of MAST Carbon.

If you are interested in attending, please e-mail

katy.holiday@york.ac.uk.

You can view the flyer for the event here:

http://www.greenchemistrynetwork.org/pdf/

starbons_day_flyer.pdf

Page 6

Nobel Scientist Delivers Major Public Lecture at York

Dr Venki Ramakrishnan, a structural biologist, who was awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize for

Chemistry (with Thomas Steitz and Ada Yonath), will deliver this year’s Cantor Nanoscience

Lecture.

Dr Ramakrishnan was awarded the Nobel Prize for his

work on the structure and function of ribosomes, the

large molecular machines present in all cells that

translate information encoded on DNA and turn it into

various proteins. Because they are crucial to life, and

ribosomes from bacteria are slightly different from

human ones, they are also a major target for many

antibiotics that kill bacteria by blocking their ribosomes.

During his public lecture on 25 May, Dr Ramakrishnan

will discuss “How antibiotics illuminate ribosome

function and vice versa”.

A scientist at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, Dr Ramakrishnan grew up

in India and moved to the United States in 1971. After initially being trained as a physicist at Ohio

University, he switched to biology in 1976 at the University of California, San Diego.

His interest in ribosomes dates back to 1978 when he joined Peter Moore’s laboratory as a

postdoctoral fellow at Yale University. He began his independent career at Brookhaven National

Laboratory in 1983. In 1995 he moved to the University of Utah to become a professor of

biochemistry.

In 1999, Dr Ramakrishnan moved to his current position as a scientist at the MRC Laboratory of

Molecular Biology, where he focuses entirely on ribosome structure and function. He is Fellow of

the Royal Society and a Member of the US National Academy of Sciences.

His work has led to insights into how the ribosome ‘reads’ the genetic code, as well as into

various aspects of antibiotic function. The Nobel Prize was awarded for determining the

molecular structure of the ribosome using X-ray crystallography and the resulting understanding

of how it works.

Page 7

Dr Ramakrishnan said: "The ribosome is the large macromolecular machine that translates the

genetic code into protein in all life forms. Since its discovery in the 1950s, it has been the subject

of intensive study in many laboratories world-wide. In the last decade, the structures of the

atomic subunits and subsequently of the whole ribosome trapped in different stages of translation

have revolutionised our understanding of the process.”

Admission to the Cantor Nanoscience Lecture in the Department of Physics, Room P/X001, on

Friday, 25 May at 5.30pm is by free ticket only, available from www.york.ac.uk/tickets, email

publiclectures@york.ac.uk or phone 01904 324466.

Year 1 Undergraduate Photo

A recent photograph of the current Year 1 Undergraduates to join the display in A block.

Page 8

New Candidates for Anti-malaria and Anti-leishmaniasis

Drugs

York scientists have taken a library screening approach in the hunt for new drugs against tropical

diseases. Disease caused by protozoan parasites, such as malaria, leishmaniasis and African

sleeping sickness, remain entrenched in large parts of the world. For many patients safe

treatments are not available and there is a pressing need for new therapeutics to be developed.

The covalent attachment of a C14-fatty acid to the N-terminus is an important step in the

activation of many proteins, directing them to their sites of action in membranes. This reaction is

catalysed by the enzyme N-myristoyltransferase, NMT. Inhibition of this enzyme has been

validated pre-clinically as a target for the treatment of other diseases, and here it has been

identified as a drug target in malaria and leishmaniasis by a consortium of Parasitologists in York

(Debbie Smith), Nottingham and NIMR London, Medicinal Chemists at Imperial College London,

and Structural Biologists at York (Jim Brannigan and Tony Wilkinson). In work funded by the

Medical Research Council and the Wellcome Trust, high throughput screens of compound

libraries were carried out initially at MRC-Technology and susbsequently at Pfizer with the aim of

identifying inhibitors of NMT. This has led to the discovery of ‘hits’ which are described in two

recent publications [1,2].

In the more recent work with Pfizer, about 150,000 compounds from the Pfizer Global Diverse

Representative Set were screened against Plasmodium falciparum and Leishmania donovani.

Primary hits were counter-screened for selectivity against human NMT isoforms and eight series

of protozoan NMT inhibitors were identified, of which six showed good selectivity for either

Plasmodium or Leishmania NMTs. These series may form the basis of medicinal chemistry

programmes to develop drug candidates, and the structures of the most promising compounds

have been published, to stimulate additional work in this area [2].

In York, high resolution crystal structures of hit compounds complexed with NMT (Figure 1) are

being determined. This will allow the mode of binding to be understood leading to the design and

testing of a set of analogues to explore the features of the inhibitor necessary for activity and

selectivity. This information will facilitate the next step of testing compounds, against parasites.

Page 9

Publications:

[1] Goncalves V, Brannigan JA, Whalley D, Ansell KH, Saxty B, Holder AA, Wilkinson AJ, Tate EW,

Leatherbarrow RJ. Discovery of Plasmodium vivax N-Myristoyltransferase Inhibitors: Screening,

Synthesis, and Structural Characterization of their Binding Mode. J. Med. Chem. 55, 3578-3582 (2012).

[2] Bell AS, Mills JE, Williams GP, Brannigan JA, Wilkinson AJ, Parkinson T, Leatherbarrow RJ, Tate EW,

Holder AA, Smith DF. Selective Inhibitors of Protozoan Protein N-myristoyltransferases as Starting Points

for Tropical Disease Medicinal Chemistry Programs. PLoS Negl Trop Dis. Apr;6(4):e1625 (2012).

Responding to Graduate Student Feedback

Graduate students can feed back to the Department at any time by contacting the Chemistry

Graduate Office (chemgrad@york.ac.uk) or the student reps (http://www.york.ac.uk/chemistry/)

Feedback source

Feedback Response

Postgraduate Research Experience Survey

Some students were unclear about thesis requirements

Chemistry will now run training on 31 May 2012

Postgraduate Research Experience Survey

Some students did not feel integrated into the Department

Chemistry student research seminars will now take place on 20 June 2012

PRES student focus group Graduate School Board minutes are too long

A summary of the minutes are now sent by email with a link to the full minutes

Postgraduate Research Experience Survey

Some students wanted more careers advice

A series of chemistry careers now run starting with Careers in Sustainable Chemistry on 27 July

Page 10

Statistics Workshops

WORKSHOP 1 : DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS (15/06/12)

This workshop looks at different ways of describing of data with statistics, and some associated

pitfalls. The workshop looks at different types of data, averages of data, measures of data

spread, and how to compute these statistics using computer packages.

The workshop is for postgraduate students who have not studied any statistics before (or want a

complete refresher), and need to use descriptive statistics in their research. Assuming no prior

knowledge of statistics, it is a slow-paced introduction to the subject.

WORKSHOP 2 : USING GRAPHS TO REPORT STATISTICS (22/06/12)

This workshop looks at the choices an author has when representing data with graphs. Assuming

no prior knowledge of statistics, the workshop examines appropriate use of graphs in the media

and in research papers, and provides advice when creating graphs in computer packages.

The workshop is for postgraduate students who have not studied any statistics before (or want a

complete refresher), and need to use graphs to report data in their research. Assuming no prior

knowledge of statistics, it is a slow-paced introduction to the subject.

WORKSHOP 3 : AN INTRODUCTION TO HYPOTHESIS TESTING (29/06/12)

Hypothesis testing uses random sampling to infer results about a wider population. This work-

shop looks at the role hypothesis testing plays in research, and looks at the assumptions a re-

searcher must make when taking this approach, and looks at the technical language and nu-

ances involved.

The workshop s for postgraduate students who have not studied any statistics before (or want a

complete refresher), and are considering using hypothesis testing in their research. Assuming no

prior knowledge of statistics, it is a slow-paced introduction to the subject.

To book your place please visit:

http://www.york.ac.uk/univ/org/vle/vle/training/trainingmathsall.html

Page 11

EPSRC Call for Proposals

Scoping Workshop: Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Challenges in

Geological Storage for CCS

Expression of interest: EPSRC invites expressions of interest from eligible individuals to attend a

workshop in the research challenges around geological storage for carbon capture and storage.

Closing Date: 07-06-2012

http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/funding/calls/open/Pages/geologicalstorageforccs.aspx

More with less: Engineering solutions for resource efficiency

Expression of interest: EPSRC invites expressions of interest from eligible individuals to attend

an IDEAS Factory Sandpit on engineering solutions for resource efficiency.

Closing Date: 11-06-2012

http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/funding/calls/open/Pages/engineeringsolutionsforresourceefficiency.aspx

Early Career Forum in Manufacturing Research

Expression of interest: EPSRC seeks expressions of interest for membership of a newly-

constituted forum of early career academic researchers in the scope of the Manufacturing the

Future challenge theme.

Closing Date: 14-06-2012

http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/funding/calls/open/Pages/ecforummfrres.aspx

Consortia for Exploratory Research in Security

Invitation for outlines: As part of their contribution to the RCUK Global Uncertainties Programme,

EPSRC and ESRC are jointly inviting proposals for research consortia to explore current and

future cyber security challenges.

Closing Date: 14-06-2012

http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/funding/calls/open/Pages/ceres.aspx

Nuclear Energy University Programs (NEUP) Integrated Research Project (IRP) - US/UK

Collaborative Funding Opportunity

Collaborative research: The RCUK Energy Programme, led by EPSRC, would like to encourage

the participation of UK researchers in the Nuclear Energy University Programs (NEUP), created

by the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Nuclear Energy.

Closing Date: 29-06-2012

http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/funding/calls/open/Pages/neup.aspx

Resource Allocation Panel (RAP): Class 1b access to HECToR (June 2012 call)

Invitation for proposals: EPSRC offers class 1b access to HECToR through calls for proposals to

the Resource Allocation Panel (RAP).

Closing Date: 29-06-2012 http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/funding/calls/open/Pages/hectorrap1bjun.aspx

October 2012 call

Closing Date: 26-10-2012 http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/funding/calls/open/Pages/hectorrap1boct.aspx

Resource Allocation Panel (RAP): Calls for access to the Edinburgh GPGPU Test Bed

(June 2012 call)

Invitation for proposals: This is a call for applications to access a new GP-GPU test bed hosted

by the University of Edinburgh.

Closing Date: 29-06-2012 http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/funding/calls/open/Pages/gpgpujun.aspx

October 2012 call

Closing Date: 26-10-2012 http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/funding/calls/open/Pages/gpgpuoct.aspx

Resource Allocation Panel (RAP): Technical "top up" applications from existing class 1a

grant holders (June 2012)

Invitation for proposals: This is a call for applications to the Resource Allocation Panel for "top

up" HECToR resource. This call is open only to current class 1a grant holders. Applications for

additional resource on technical grounds only will be considered.

Closing Date: 29-06-2012 http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/funding/calls/open/Pages/hectortopupjun.aspx

October 2012 call

Closing Date: 26-10-2012 http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/funding/calls/open/Pages/hectortopupoct.aspx

Call for Feasibility Study Proposals: EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in

Through-life Engineering Services

Invitation for proposals: The EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Through-life

Engineering Services is offering funding for feasibility studies in the field of through-life

engineering services.

Closing Date: 30-06-2012

http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/funding/calls/open/Pages/throughlifeengineeringservices.aspx

Working together in ICT

Invitation for proposals: EPSRC’s ICT Theme intends to commit around £5M of funding for

research projects which will directly address its Working Together priority.

Closing Date: 10-07-2012

http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/funding/calls/open/Pages/WorkingtogetherinICT.aspx

Future Conventional Power Research Consortium

Invitation for proposals: Proposals are invited for multi-disciplinary research consortia in

conventional power with the aim of reducing carbon emissions and increasing the flexibility,

efficiency and sustainability of electricity generation from fossil fuels.

Closing Date: 16-08-2012

http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/funding/calls/open/Pages/fcprc.aspx

Design for Wellbeing: Ageing and Mobility in the Built Environment

Expression of interest: EPSRC is leading a call with the ESRC and AHRC, which invites

proposals from interdisciplinary consortia for evidence led research into ageing and mobility in

the built environment.

Closing Date: 10-09-2012

http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/funding/calls/open/Pages/designforwellbeing.aspx

Page 13

Page 14

Fellowships

Fellowships are available in a number of priority areas

http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/funding/fellows/Pages/areas.aspx.

Applications can be submitted at any time and will be processed on a rolling basis - further

information on the application and peer review process:

http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/funding/fellows/Pages/peerreviewprocess.aspx.

If you experience any problems, please contact the EPSRC Webteam: webteam@epsrc.ac.uk

The Researcher Development Team and Blueberry Training are pleased to announce that

applications are now open for The Enterprising Researcher. This is a four-day event (25 – 28 July

2012) that is designed to enhance the entrepreneurial skills of researchers

This workshop will suit postgraduate research students and early career researchers with

little or no business experience looking to acquire new skills or intermediates looking to improve.

The workshop will be conducted by Andrew Corcoran of Blueberry Training whose commercial

career covers 23 years and has delivered enterprise training to over 520 students across the UK

and will include input from academic entrepreneurs.

Please visit: https://www.york.ac.uk/admin/hr/researcher-development/students/Enterprising%

20Researcher/2012/index.htm for further details and to download an application form.

Applications should be returned by 4 July2012. Please read the application form and instructions

for submission carefully.

Please note that due to funding restrictions, priority will be given to EPSRC funded students.

Please contact Helen if you have any queries, Research Development Team Administrator

rdt@york.ac.uk / 01904 32 4836

The Enterprising Researcher 2012

Page 15

BBSCR Public Engagement Training

There is a BBSRC Public Engagement Training course that aims to support BBSRC-funded

researchers to carry out effective public engagement that reflects upon the social and ethical

perspectives of their work.

The course will cover what public engagement is and why it is important and help participants

develop an understanding of the skills required to carry out effective public engagement that is

well organised and properly evaluated. It will have an emphasis on two-way engagement, so

much of the day will be about building awareness of the social and ethical issues that might be

raised in the context of research and ways to engage with the public in relation to those issues.

The first course will take place in London on 10 July. Anyone supported by BBSRC, working on a

BBSRC grant or based at a BBSRC-funded institute can attend, free of charge.

If you, or anyone you know, would be interested in attending more information and details about

registration can be found at: www.bbsrc.ac.uk/petraining.

Emma can be contacted directly at emma.longridge@bbsrc.ac.uk .

Dr Emma Longridge | Public Dialogue and Accountability Officer | External Relations Unit |

BBSRC | Tel: 01793 413302

Workshops on Supervising Doctoral Students

Workshops on Supervising Doctoral Research are now available to those members of staff who

are new to supervising doctoral students and also for more experienced supervisors who wish to

re-engage with some of the central issues.

There are four sessions which deal with various aspects of the supervisory process:

Principles of Supervising Doctoral Research

Supervising International Students

Resolving Issues in Research Supervision

Managing Information and Records in Research Supervision

For further information and dates please see

https://www.york.ac.uk/admin/hr/courses/course.cfm?c=LT028

When you click on each individual workshop, this will give further information and dates

Page 16

Four Spectrometers for £200

The fire in Chemistry B block has inevitably led to an increased workload for many people across

the department, however here we want to highlight one area that few people are aware of.

The electronics workshop (consisting of Chris Rhodes and Owain Samuel), have provided a huge

level of support right from the start. In the days immediately after the fire the workshops were

able to quickly provide the basics to get people back up and running, providing everything from

computers, running network cabling and telephone wires and providing large numbers of

electrical extension leads.

After the initial few weeks, work turned to getting labs up and running as quickly as possible. This

inevitably meant huge numbers of electrical repairs to equipment and retesting every item to

verify its electrical safety (as a direct consequence of the fire the workshops have PAT tested

more than 1500 items so far).

One big issue was going to be the near-total loss of instrumentation and replacements would

have a significant lead time. Workshops offered to make us UV/Visible spectrometers on a

shoestring budget to enable teaching to resume and the results are rather impressive.

The compact spectrometers are based on the 1st year analysis course script ‘Build your own

spectrometer’, originally written by Stewart Tavener and developed by Ed Bergstrom. Chris

Rhodes took this script and in a very short space of time delivered a prototype, complete with a

computer attached!

Two versions were produced, one with a multi-colour LED offering selection of red, green or blue

wavelengths which was used in year 1 for the physical chemistry course, and a second with an

easily removable LED light source allowing change of wavelengths. The computer interface

enabled use of 4 compact spectrometers independently. In a kinetic run the absorbance values

can be recorded at predetermined time intervals and this data uploaded to a spreadsheet file on

a network drive. This allows students to easily access the data and is a feature not found on

commercial spectrometers.

The data obtained with these spectrometers gave almost identical results to the Shimadzu 1800

and Jenway spectrometers which survived, quite remarkable given the difference in cost!

Page 17

USB Interface and Power supply

LED 2.11

PD 4.66

Op Amp 0.76

Gain control 2.79

Resistors 0.10

Case 4.95

Socket 0.95

Total for each spectrometer

16.32

PC card for interfacing 4 units

99.00

LEDPhotodiode

AmplifierGain control

To interface

LED selector

Aperture foroptical cell

Off

RedGreenBlue

External View Internal View

variable

LED current

limiting resistor

Page 18

Linköping Staff Exchange Week 2012

Luiza Morrell from the Exams & Undergraduate office spent the first week of May on a staff

exchange week at Linköping University, to learn more about internationalisation. About 25

administrative staff from over 100 applicants were invited from all over the world to spend the

week in Sweden, sharing experiences and attending workshops, including ‘How to enhance

integration between native and international students’ and ‘Different ways to arrange Orientation

day/week and other welcome activities for exchange students’.

Page 19

Right: Linköping University has

s i x scu lp tu re s ‘h idden ’

throughout the campus, each

spelling a word from “I

MORGON KOMMER NÅGOT

UNDERBART ATT HÄNDA!”

meaning “Tomorrow something

wonderful will happen”

Left: A conference room

at Linköping University’s

Norrköping campus.

Page 20

From the Archive

With the move into the new E-Block imminent From the Archive looks back 7 years to 7 February

2005 - the opening of the Dorothy Hodgkin Building. The photos show the official opening by

Professor Julia Higgins and Professor Higgins being thanked by then Head of Department Paul

Walton.

Page 21

Baby Boy for Katie Read and Jim Hopkins

Katie Read and Jim Hopkins have become the proud parents of a baby

boy, Leighton on Friday 27th April.

Mum and baby are doing well, congratulations to you both!

Volunteers for Graduation Ceremonies 11—13 July

As graduation approaches we are looking to widen the pool of staff from

across the University who volunteer to support these events on the day.

Our ceremonies this summer take place on the 11th, 12th and 13th July

and volunteers are invited to help with any of the ceremonies on all of

those days, whether for just one ceremony or for more. These are joyous

occasions for our students and their families and the teams who work to

make them seamless and enjoyable get pleasure out of seeing our

students receive their awards.

We are looking for volunteers to act as stewards in Central Hall, distribute

guest tickets and answer questions on the information desk in the

Exhibition Centre. This is a fantastic opportunity to share in the achievements of our students. I

recognise that some staff will be preoccupied with events in departments when their own

students graduate but wonder whether they can support the graduation events for other

departments on days when their students are not graduating.

The programme of ceremonies can be found at

https://www.york.ac.uk/ students/studying/graduation/ day/ceremonies/2012-july/ .

Further information is available from the Graduation Office -

e-mail ceremonies@york.ac.uk or tel ext 4042.

David Duncan, Registrar and Secretary

Nature Chemistry Blog Post

Heather Powell, a second year Chemistry student, wrote a blog entry for Nature Chemistry about

her work experience at the journal’s London offices.. You can read it here:

http://blogs.nature.com/thescepticalchymist/2012/04/npg-is-it-for-me.html

Page 22

Alumni Weekend 2012

Friday 15 June 2012, 9.00am to 9.30pm

The 2012 alumni weekend (15-17 June 2012) features a wide range of activities, with plenty of

flexibility so that you can plan your own schedule in York.

Challenge yourself with new experiences; revisit familiar places; connect with fellow graduates,

current students, and leading international figures. The weekend is an opportunity to get involved

in what is still at the heart of life at York: stimulating academic engagement and an exciting

collegiate social scene.

Attendees can hear from international authors, unearth the history of York, debate topical issues,

experiment in the labs, and make new connections. Or, just relax with friends and enjoy good

food and conversation.

For more information see http://www.yorkspace.net/reunion

Admission: Booking is essential

Top 5 Position in the Guardian University Guide 2013

Chemistry@York achieved a highly impressive overall score of 86.1% and was ranked fifth for

Chemistry in the Guardian University Guide 2013. The league table highlighted the excellent

performance of The Department of Chemistry in various areas including satisfied with the course,

where we ranked second, student feedback where we ranked third, and teaching, where we

came joint fourth. The table also showed that we have a comparatively low student:staff ratio (of

13.4:1). An at-a-glance guide to the University of York includes information on fees, bursaries,

accommodation and facilities, including the opening of a £9 million Sports Village this summer.