Hosted at Imperial College London on Monday 21 September 2009

RSC Inorganic & Organic Award Symposium

Monday 21 September 2009, Imperial College London

The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) Inorganic and Organic Chemistry Award symposium (part of the Catalysis and Advanced Materials Section seminar programme) took place at Imperial College on the 21st September.  Professor Geoff Cloke (Sussex University) started proceedings with an excellent talk on the activation of carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide by organometallic uranium complexes.

This was followed by Professor Donna Blackmond (Department of Chemistry, Imperial College London), who accepted the RSC Physical Organic Chemistry award from the RSC Organic Division President, Professor Sue Gibson.  Professor Blackmond spoke about her ground-breaking research into the origins of homochirality in amino acids based on physical phase behaviour.

The afternoon concluded with the Sir Geoffrey Wilkinson Lecture given by Professor Bruno Chaudret (CNRS Toulouse) on the fascinating development of organometallic nanoparticles, ranging from their synthesis, surface chemistry, use in catalysis and also magnetic properties. As a former doctoral student of Sir Geoffrey at Imperial College, Professor Chaudret's demonstration of the application of organometallic synthetic approaches to materials science was particularly fitting.