Page 22 - PERIODIC Magazine Issue 7

S olutions for U sing virtual

our Future reality to

explain
Working with Industry
chemistry

Students from The EPSRC Theory and Modelling in
Chemical Sciences (TMCS) Centre for Doctoral Training
demonstrated the Virtual Reality (VR) technology they
have been developing at the University open day as well
as at the Royal Society of Chemistry.

The students from cohort five have used VR to help
explain the application of theoretical and computational
chemistry to antibiotic resistance. They have developed
VR applications which allow the user to directly build and
The Department of Chemistry collaborated with ITN manipulate structures at a molecular level.
Productions to produce a short film that highlights
some of the ways in which academia and industry are
working together for mutual benefit. Journalist Sue
Saville talks with members of the Department to discover
how innovative research in chemistry has positive
and sustainable impacts in the real world. Graham
Richards, Hagan Bayley, Dermot O’Hare, Martin Smith
and students from the EPSRC-supported SBM CDT
discuss spin-out companies, industrial partnerships and a
ground-breaking Centre for Doctoral Training.

Professor Graham Richards, Oxford’s first Chairman of
Chemistry, discusses the Department’s exceptional track
record in setting up spin-out companies, many of which
have achieved exceptional success. Oxford Nanopore
has raised over £450 million and employs some 400
people, and founder Professor Hagan Bayley explains
how Nanopore’s MinION device has made portable
DNA sequencing a reality. Professor Martin Smith and
students Xinlan Cook and Rob Quinlan talk about the
unique open-access model of the CDT and how open
communication and close involvement with industry
bring benefits to both parties. Professor Dermot O’Hare
explains how his collaboration with SCG, one of Asia’s
leading petrochemicals companies, is bringing scientific
innovation into the real world.

The film forms part of a programme created by ITN
Productions for the Chemical Industries Association.
You can watch it at
http://www.chem.ox.ac.uk/
solutions-for-our-future.aspx

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Periodic The Magazine of the Department of Chemistry