 Davy Medal Presentation at The Royal Society
Professor Fraser Armstrong FRS was awarded the Davy Medal in 2012 for his pioneering protein film electrochemistry allowing exquisite thermodynamic and kinetic control of redox enzymes, exemplified by hydrogenases, key in energy technology. The Davy Medal is awarded annually "for an outstandingly important recent discovery in any branch of chemistry". The medal is named after Humphry Davy FRS and was first awarded in 1877.
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 Qian Li (Compton group) wins prize for best talk at the RSC Electroanalytical Group Student Meeting
The annual Postgraduate Meeting of the Electroanalytical Group of the Royal Society of Chemistry was held at Birkbeck College in London on December 6th. Ms Qian Li, 3rd year D.Phil. student in the Compton Group, shared the prize for the best talk for her lecture on the electrochemistry of quinones
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 Prize for Paul Kaufman
Paul Kaufman (Merton) receiving the Salters graduate prize. Pictured on Paul's left is Professor Sir John Holman, Master of the Salters' Company and on the right is HRH Princess Sumaya bint El Hassan
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 Highlighted in Nature Chemical Biology
The discovery of ribosomal oxygenases by Wei Ge et al. from Chris Schofield's group was recently highlighted in Nature Chemical Biology. Their work defines new roles of oxygen in translational regulation and opens new therapeutic possibilities via oxygenase inhibition and by targeting modified over unmodified ribosomes.
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 Lilly Prizes for Excellence in Organic Chemistry Research
The Lilly Prizes for Excellence in Organic Chemistry Research are awarded by Eli Lilly and Company Ltd. They are awarded for excellence in the first year of postgraduate study and are assessed on the quality of experimental work, written submission and viva voce at the point of examination for PRS transfer of status to DPhil. Dr Magnus Walter and Dr Peter Gallagher from Lilly's came to award the prizes on Thursday 29 November.
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 On the Cover of Nature Chemistry
Sarandis Marinakis (from Brian Howard group) and co-workers presented the first joint experimental and theoretical study of differential
cross-sections for inelastic scattering of fully state-specified OH with He and Ar using velocity-map imaging in a crossed-molecular-beam arrangement. Hydroxyl radicals (OH) are important in many chemical systems, including combustion and atmospheric reactions, however experimentally measuring their velocities in specific internal quantum states has proved difficult.
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 2012 Haagen-Smit Prize
Richard Wayne and a team of co-authors, including two colleagues from the PTCL, have been awarded the 2012 Haagen-Smit Prize. The award recognizes a paper published in 1991 as an outstanding contribution to Atmospheric Environment. The Prize is named named in honour of Professor. Arie Jan Haagen-Smit, a pioneer in the field of air pollution and one of the first editors of the International Journal of Air Pollution, a predecessor to Atmospheric Environment. The Haagen-Smit Prize is given annually to papers previously published in Atmospheric Environment. The 203-page article entitled The Nitrate Radical - Physics, Chemistry and the Atmosphere, was written to meet the needs of researchers in atmospheric chemistry. It was published simultaneously by the European Commission, who had supported some of the research as well as the costs of coordination and review meetings, and by Atmospheric Environment. The nitrate radical, NO3, is one of the most important free-radical oxidizing agents in the Earth's atmosphere, especially in polluted urban environments and at night. The review paper was an exhaustive and thorough compendium of knowledge existing at the time and covered all aspects of the physics and chemistry of the nitrate radical, including laboratory methods, spectroscopy, structure, photochemistry, chemical reactions, sources and sinks, and field measurements.
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 Blaise Pascal Research Chair for Professor Veronique Gouverneur
Professor Veronique Gouverneur is one of the recipients of the prestigious "Blaise Pascal Research Chairs". The other recipients for 2012 are Professor E. Blackburn (American, Biologist, Nobel Prize in Medicine 2009), Professor S. J Russel (British, Berkeley, Computer Sciences) and Professor A. Mazarakis-Ainian (Greek, Archeology); these chairs were established in 1996 by the State and the Ile-de-France region. Each chair allows highly qualified, internationally acclaimed, foreign research scientists in all disciplines, accompanied if they wish by other research workers, to continue their work on a scientific project for a 12 months period that could be spread over two years in a higher learning institution or research institution in Paris/Ile-de-France. The management of these chairs is undertaken by the " Fondation de l'Ecole Normale Supérieure ". Previous winners for chemistry include Professor A. Zewail (Nobel Prize 1999), Professor A. Moore or Professor D. Curran to name just a few. Veronique will be hosted by the CEA in Saclay (Paris, South West).
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 On the Cover of Chemical Physics Letters
A research paper by Claire Vallance has been featured on the cover of Chemical Physics Letters. The article - Cavity-enhanced optical methods for online microfluidic analysis - reviews a variety of strategies for increasing the pathlength and thereby improving the detection sensitivity of absorption measurements, covering extended-pathlength single-pass methods, multi-pass measurements, and finally a range of cavity-enhanced methods. The work concludes that cavity-enhanced approaches show considerable promise for applications in which a high detection sensitivity is required within a small probed volume.
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 The enzymes of beta-lactam biosynthesis is one of the most read articles in Natural Product Reports
A comprehensive review by Dr. Refaat Hamed, Dr. Michael McDonough, et al. (Schofield group) covering the mechanisms, structures and biocatalytic applications/biotechnological potential of the enzymes involved in beta-lactam biosynthesis
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 Dixon Group's Enantioselective synthesis of tetrahydropyridines is one of the Most Read Articles in Organic Letters
A recent paper from the Dixon group on the 'One-Pot Catalytic Enantioselective Synthesis of Tetrahydropyridines via a Nitro-Mannich/Hydroamination Cascade' is currently one of the most read papers in Organic Letters. The paper describes the one-pot synthesis of usefully protected tetrahydropyridine motifs via a cascade sequence using a combination of organo- and gold catalysis. The products are afforded in good yields and excellent enantioselectivities.
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 Dixon group paper on the total synthesis of Manzamine A is top of Most Read Articles in JACS
A recent paper from the Dixon group on the 'Total Synthesis of Manzamine A and Related Alkaloids' is currently the number 1 most read paper in JACS. The paper describes the development of an inventive and innovative route to this biologically important family of alkaloids - a natural product class with a rich history in Oxford. A stereoselective Michael addition, two different types of nitro-Mannich cyclization cascades, a Z-selective ring closing metathesis and a Stille coupling to a key late stage enol triflate intermediate, all featured to compact the route to 18 steps, the shortest to date
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 JACS Select
A paper from the BGD group has been featured in the latest JACS Select issue; 'The Chemistry-Glycobiology Frontier'. The paper describes a new biocatalytic method for attaching pure glycans to intact antibodies. This is the such first method and it has the potential to allow the development of finely-tuned mAb-based drugs.
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 Science Communication Prize
Martin Munzel, postdoctoral research fellow working with Chris Schofield has won the Klaus Tschira Preis, a German award for science communication. The prize is awarded annually for postdoctoral scientists who write a short article which explains their own resesearch to the wide public. The texts are judged both for their scientific quality and their writing style. The winning articles are published in the popular science magazine Bild der Wissenschaft. - photo: Ronald Frommann, copyright Klaus Tschira Stiftung
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 St Anne's Chemistry Fresher wins 2012 Royal Society of Chemistry Bill Bryson Prize
Jessica Ham, one of four new Chemistry students at St Anne's, has been awarded the 2012 Bill Bryson Prize of the Royal Society of Chemistry. The prize is designed to encourage and recognise clear science communication in schools and colleges. Open to students aged 5-18, the competition attracts hundreds of entries annually from around the UK - in formats ranging from power point presentations to puzzles. Jessica's winning contribution - a comic strip entitled 'Flask in a Mask' - is to be recognised formally at a gala dinner in London later this term. Congratulations Jess!
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 New superconductor described in Nature Materials
Collaboration between Simon Clarke's group and Stephen Blundell's group in Oxford Physics and involving colleagues at Durham and the ISIS neutron and muon facility has resulted in the characterisation of a new high temperature superconductor in which lithium and ammonia have been intercalated into iron selenide. The layered form of iron selenide had already been shown to lose all electrical resistance, but only when cooled below about 8 degrees above absolute zero. The Letter in Nature Materials reports that the new intercalate retains superconductivity at temperatures five times higher. The use of the neutron and muon facilities at ISIS was key to characterising the structure by enabling the light atoms to be located and for measurement of some of the fundamental superconducting properties such as the penetration depth. "Since the discovery of these layered iron-based superconductors in 2008, we have been engaged in an intensive search to optimize the superconducting properties by changing the chemical composition of the spacer layer between the iron-containing layers", explained Simon Clarke. "Our new results are the first characterisation of an example in which a molecular species has been incorporated into the structure of such a material. Excitingly, we have discovered that in this case this leads to superconductivity up to 43 kelvin, higher than in any iron selenide-derived compound reported so far." "We have studied the superconducting properties using a variety of techniques," added Stephen Blundell. "In particular, results using radioactive particles called muons have shown that our new material is a very well-behaved superconductor. Most significantly, the new synthetic route which has now been developed opens up the possibility of further exploitation of related molecular species in this and other systems in order to greatly optimize the superconducting properties in this family."
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 Professor David Logan Foreign Fellowship
Professor David Logan has been elected as a Foreign Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences of India. The National Academy of Sciences, India was founded in the year 1930, with the objectives to provide a national forum for the publication of research work carried out by Indian scientists and to provide opportunities for exchange of views among them. Today it has about 1571 Members and 1579 Fellows including 29 Honorary Fellows and 88 Foreign Fellows.
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 Eisai Part 1 A Prizes
Our top second year students were honoured at the annual Eisai prize ceremony on Wednesday, 10 October. The prizes were awarded by Dr. Luis Castro, Head of Chemistry of the UK Discover NeuroScience Product Creation Unit, for outstanding performance in the Part IA exams. The winning students are Jonathan Mannouch (STC), Katrina Mennie (CCH), Rafal Wiewiora (PBK), Sarah Morrow (JES) and Alexander Bajjon (MER). Congratulations for a truly outstanding performance. The Department is very grateful to Eisai for funding and supporting these prizes.
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 MPLS Vacation Bursary Poster Prize
Sarah Morrow who did a vacation bursary project with Roel Dullens won joint first prize at the MPLS Vacation Bursary Poster competition. Sarah is a 3rd year undergraduate from Jesus College.
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 IRPC Collaborative Research Programme
After finalising an agreement earlier in the year, the £1M collaborative Research and Development Project on High Performance Polymers between the IRPC Public Company Ltd of Thailand and the groups of Prof.’s Foord and Moloney in Oxford is now underway. Three new research workers have joined the Department, with a main aim of the research focussing on the fabrication of functional polymer nanocomposites.
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 40 Years of Service
Congratulations and thanks go to Neville Baker who last week completed 40 years of service to the Department of Chemistry, working in the electronics workshop in the Physical and Theoretical chemistry Laboratory.
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 The GlaxoSmithKline 3rd Year Undergraduate Prizes
The Department of Chemistry was very pleased to welcome Dr Pan Procopiou to present the GlaxoSmithKline Prizes to the award winners: "The GlaxoSmithKline 3rd Year Undergraduate Prizes in Practical Organic Chemistry": Gareth Langley ( Part II supervisor, Professor Chris Schofield) ;Charlie McTernan (Part II supervisor, Professor Tim Donohoe); Jessica Thien (Part II supervisor, Dr Jeremy Robertson)
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The GlaxoSmithKline Awards in Organic Chemistry Part II
The Department of Chemistry was very pleased to welcome Dr Pan Procopiou to present the GlaxoSmithKline Prizes to the award winners: "The GlaxoSmithKline Awards in Organic Chemistry Part II": 1st prize David Shepherd (Part II supervisor, Dr Rob Paton); 2nd prize Philip Gerken (Part II supervisor, Dr Angela Russell)
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 Presentation of Athena SWAN Bronze Award
Athena SWAN Working Group receives Bronze award, pictured are members of the working group; Stephen Faulkner, Tim Softley, Nick Green, Rhiannon Evans, Charlotte Dodson, Grant Ritchie, Emily Flashman, Mark Brouard, Jenni Collins Asel Sartbaeva, Jessica Gilbert and Kylie Vincent.
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 Lecture Prize
Catherine Ball, a 3rd year student from the Willis group, has won a prize for one of the two best lectures at the Lilly Organic Chemistry Postgraduate Symposium 2012. Her talk described her work on a new copper-catalysed route to cinnolines.
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