Page 2 - Periodic Issue 02

A Letter H ead of Department

from the Professor Tim Softley

the field, and Roman Abramovich investing £5M in Oxford
Catalysts, which has also taken on a $500M contract
to convert London waste to aviation fuel at London
City Airport. It is also a year of celebration as we mark
the International Year of Crystallography 2014 and the
anniversary of Dorothy Hodgkin’s Nobel Prize (p.5).

The department currently holds circa £96M in research
grants, including support to establish two Centres for
Doctoral Training (p.9). In 2013 we focused on our
I am delighted to introduce the submission for the Research Excellence Framework (REF),
second edition of our magazine, the exercise by which the quality of research conducted
Periodic, which communicates by all university departments is assessed. A new element
news and views from Oxford introduced in 2013 judged the ‘impact’ of our research
Chemistry to our alumni, to outside academia. In addition to some of the stories
students future and present, to above, we were able to describe examples such as Phase
our partners - or potential partners III trials for cancer drugs, the commercial production of
- in government and industry, and a ‘chilli meter’ that precisely measures the heat in spicy
to the general public in Oxford food, and our public engagement, especially a recent link
and beyond. with the Oxford Botanic Garden (p.3). Of course, ‘impact’
is only one measure of success. There have also been
This edition highlights some of numerous fundamental research advancements including
the ways that Chemistry as a the discovery by Andrew Goodwin that an unusual new
discipline and Oxford Chemistry in particular shapes the substance, Zinc dicyanoaurate, expands under pressure in
world we live in. From healthcare to renewable energy, a manner far beyond the properties exhibited by ordinary
from food and water security to advances in technology, engineering materials. This is an exciting example of blue
research in fundamental chemistry can make a major sky research - while the end uses of a technology may not
contribution to global challenges and to strengthening be known, curiosity, creativity and a love of chemistry leave
the economy that underpins our standard of living. the door open to endless possibilities.
Almost every item we use daily has had the influence
of chemists in its evolution - the screen of our mobile Finally, to all of our alumni, we welcome very much your
phone, the medicines that keep us in good health (p.13), engagement with the Department. Our alumni programme
the constituents of the food we consume (p.14), the has been running for nearly two years now, with a very
fragrances that brighten our day (p.10), the fuel additives positive response from the community (p.14). The quality
that make driving cleaner and more efficient (and the tyres of any Chemistry department should properly be judged
and lubricants that help to propel our bicycles!). Chemists by the characteristics of the people that we send out into
make their contribution by creating new compounds, the world, and it has been a delight to hear the stories
building instrumentation to determine the structure and of how successful so many of you have been in diverse
properties of substances, and developing techniques to walks of life (p.15). You are also a part of the future of this
understand how chemical transformations take place, Department, and we are keen to work with you as we
whether in a human cell or a battery, so that we can continue to deliver exceptional research for global benefit
control those processes to our advantage. and strive to be the best chemistry department in the world.

The last year has been an exciting one for Oxford
Chemistry, with many individual successes including On the Cover
the election of two Fellows of the Royal Society (Chris Using sophisticated mass spectrometry, Professor Dame
Schofield and Harry Anderson) and the conferment of Carol Robinson’s group studies complex protein assemblies,
a DBE to Carol Robinson (cover). New spinouts were naturally found embedded within the membranes of cells.
launched by Luet Wong (p.10) and Hagan Bayley (p.4), Using detergents or discoidal arrangements of artificial
while some of our existing spinouts also made major membranes, these assemblies can be liberated from small
progress with Oxford Nanopore technology releasing its water droplets and transported into the mass spectrometer,
allowing access to new structural information.
data stick-sized genome sequencing device for testing in

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Periodic The Magazine of the Department of Chemistry