Chemistry Post-Doc Symposium a great success

The First Chemistry Post Doc Symposium was held on Thursday 4 February 2010.

The Department of Chemistry Post-Doc Working Group (Dr Nick Brooks, Dr Carla Hernandez Prata, Dr Ling Ge, Dr Will Heal and Dr Katherine Price) has recently organised the first one day symposium for post-docs. It combined high-quality scientific presentations by post-docs with talks from the Royal Society of Chemistry, the Imperial Postdoc Development Centre, Elsevier and BBSRC on career development and scientific publishing. The event was attended by post-docs, academics and PhD students and everyone found the day extremely interesting and enjoyable.

At the end of the symposium, the best scientific talk of the day was awarded to Dr Shane Bergin for his presentation entitled "Carbon nanotubes; Solvent abuse". The inaugural Departmental Early Career Researcher Award was presented to Dr Giuseppe Mallia - this new annual award, initiated by the Early Career Development Committee, recognises the vital role played by postdoctoral staff within the Department, above and beyond direct research activities. Giuseppe has made exceptional contributions to teaching and international promotion of the Department of Chemistry.

Siobhan Marsden and John Farkas Blake from Sigma Aldrich

The event was generously sponsored by the Department of Chemistry and the Postdoc Development Centre at Imperial College London and by Sigma Aldrich, Royal Society of Chemistry, BBSRC, Elsevier Publishing, and the Leverhulme Trust. 

The Post-Doc Symposium was initiated from the Accademic Opportunitites Committee and the Early Career Development Committee and contributions from Professor Tom Welton (Head of the Department) and Dr Ed Tate (Chair of the Early Career Development Committee) in supporting the whole initiative have been invaluable.