Page 2 - PERIODIC Magazine Issue 7

H
From the ead

of Department

Periodic magazine, Our current undergraduates are happily settled into the new
now in its seventh teaching labs, which have now been up and running for a full
year. The independent Complete University Guide placed
edition, has become Oxford Chemistry first in its rankings for 2019 and I congratulate
all my colleagues who have contributed to this success.
a fixture in the
Oxford Chemistry One group of colleagues who are rarely in the spotlight are
those whose technical skills and expertise support and facilitate
calendar. our research and teaching. We highlight some of their work
in this issue as the Department participates in the Technician
I hope you will enjoy Commitment, a Science Council-led initiative which aims
reading the following to ensure that the contributions made by technical staff are
pages, which bring news fully recognised. We have an outstanding team at Oxford
of some outstanding achievements and exciting new Chemistry,without whom much of our work would not be
developments. I was delighted that several of my possible.
colleagues won prestigious RSC prizes and awards
this year, and to see Professor Veronique Gouverneur We also owe a huge debt of gratitude to those whose vision
elected Fellow of the Royal Society in recognition of her and generosity support our work. I am delighted to announce
pioneering work in fluorine chemistry. I am also pleased that the Department has received a gift to endow the Dr Lee’s
to welcome Professor Volker Deringer, who joins us in Professorship of Chemistry, the post held by Professor Dame
Michaelmas Term as Associate Professor of Theoretical Carol Robinson, who is also the current President of the Royal
and Computational Inorganic Chemistry. Society of Chemistry. The donor has also chosen to remember
the Department with a major bequest in her will to support the
As we celebrate the International Year of the Periodic endowment of academic positions. I am enormously grateful
Table, we are delighted to establish a new multi- for the donor’s generosity and her commitment to Oxford
disciplinary doctoral training programme in inorganic Chemistry, which will be transformational for the Department in
chemical synthesis that will offer cutting-edge research the future.
projects across the entire breadth of the periodic
table. The Oxford Inorganic Chemistry for Future This year has also brought some sad news as we mourn the
Manufacturing Centre for Doctoral Training (OxICFM passing of two former colleagues. Dr Francis Rossotti, a
CDT) is a new EPSRC-funded centre which will train a University Lecturer in Inorganic Chemistry and a Fellow and
new generation of graduate chemists and equip them to Tutor at St Edmund Hall from 1961 to 1994, passed away in July
help solve some of the pressing challenges of our age. at the age of 92. He is survived by his wife Hazel, who was also
a Tutor and Fellow in Chemistry at St Anne’s.
Graduate research at Oxford Chemistry began over 100
years ago, with the first DPhils completed during 1919- Professor Sir Rex Richards, who died peacefully at home in
20. As we celebrate a century of graduate research we July at the age of 96, was Dr Lee’s Professor of Chemistry from
can look back with pride at the significant contributions 1964 to 1969 and went on to become Vice-Chancellor of the
our research students have made to both chemistry and University. One of the leading chemists of his generation,
the wider world, and look forward with excitement to Sir Rex pioneered the early use of NMR and its application
enabling innovative student-led research for the future. to the determination of unknown molecular structures. His
Earlier this year, I travelled across the United States and contributions stimulated research across a huge range of
had the pleasure of meeting with many former students scientific disciplines and were recognised with numerous
now based there – we are always delighted to see and awards and distinctions. The Rex Richards Building in the
hear from all our alumni. University Science Area is named in his honour.

On the Cover : Research in the McCullagh Group used mass spectrometry imaging to
map the distribution of lipids and other metabolites in human cerebellum tissues. A laser
forms ions on the surface of the tissue from which a mass spectrum is created at discrete
positions (100µM resolution on front cover images). Statistical methods, such as probabilistic
latent semantic analysis (pLSA) are then used to pick out molecules associated with specific
tissue morphologies. ‘MALDI imaging’ performed by Jaynisha Mistry (Part II) and Elisabete
Pires (Research Associate).

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Periodic The Magazine of the Department of Chemistry