Zoe Gidden, from the Horrocks group, has recently presented her work in a Pecha Kucha presentation for the #Explorathon21 Science in our Lives event. The format challenges presenters to provide a quick, dynamic overview of their research using 20 slides for just 20 seconds each.

Shona Richardson, a postgraduate student from the School of Chemistry Campopiano group, has published an article in the Journal of Materials Chemistry A, titled “Scientific writing and publishing for early-career researchers from the perspective of young chemists”.

On August 30^th and September 1^st 2021, we hosted our first ever Summer Student Conference where the achievements of the hard-working students conducting research in our department were celebrated.

Chemistry in Focus (Sofia Bariami, Iain Prentice, Kyle Acheson, Angie Mat’usová, and Dr. Antonia Mey) are excited to share their second video showcasing more of the exciting work being done by PhD students in the School of Chemistry. The video features Sofia Bariami’s work on developing force-fields for use in computational drug design in collaboration with the Cole Group at Newcastle, which was recently published in the Journal of Chemical Information and Modeling.

Congratulations to CRITICAT PhD students Silvia De Cesare and Catherine McKenna.

Their paper "Direct monitoring of biocatalytic deacetylation of amino acid substrates by 1H NMR reveals fine details of substrate specificity" is in the 2021 Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry HOT article collection.

The Dr Brian R. Phillips PhD Scholarships for Chemistry Research will fund UK students with the greatest academic potential. The programme commences in the 2021/22 academic year and will benefit a new student each year.

The first Dr Brian R. Phillips Scholarship recipient, Andrew Clark, a current final year undergraduate at Edinburgh, has been selected by the School of Chemistry Postgraduate Committee. He will join the Lusby group to research the development of novel radio-pharmaceuticals.

Congratulations to chemistry PhD student Ezra Kitson for being awarded a Student Experience Grant in the winter 2021 round of applications alongside Tasnim Hanafiah, a 2nd year undergraduate biology student.

Nikola Zotev is the winner of this year's Norma and Fraser Stoddart Prize. Nikola studied for his PhD in the research group of Dr Adam Kirrander.

Stoddart Prize winners are expected not only to have demonstrated superior research accomplishments throughout their time at Edinburgh but they should also have contributed to the life of students within the School of Chemistry and beyond.

Shona Richardson, a postgraduate student from the Campopiano group, has had an article published in Chemistry, A European Journal.

The paper, titled "The Role of Early‐Career Chemists in European Policy‐Making", was written with help from the European Young Chemistry Network and the European Chemical Society. Their aim is to create a platform for early‐career chemists in policy advice.

Shona's research project is funded by the Derek Stewart Trust.

Chemistry in Focus (Sofia Bariami, Iain Prentice, Kyle Acheson, Johanna Rademacher, Angie Mat’usová, and Dr. Antonia Mey) are delighted to share their first video showcasing some of the exciting work being done by PhD students in the School of Chemistry.