Keith talked at the Dodd Walls Symposium, describing the activities of the Science Team (which he heads up as the Deputy Director of Science)
Topics discussed were funding for travel – the output awards for finishing students the development of an Early Career Group and how the Science Team could help them.
A lot of us are at the Dodd Walls Symposium this week. Some interesting talks including those by Peter Remoto, ElKhansa ElBashier and Jervee Punzalan.
Khansa talked about her work on solar cells
Jervee talked about using vibrational spectroscopy and chemometrics for analysis of protein meal from flaxseed.
Both great talks
Peter is on tomorrrow
Keith recently contributed to a discussion about a paper in Science about parrot feather colors. The Gordon group did some work in this area. We used resonance Raman spectroscopy to establish the frequency dispersion of the dyes, called psittacofulvins (R.Soc.Open Sci. 5 (2018) 172010 and Spectrochimica Acta Part A: Molecular and Biomolecular Spectroscopy 262 (2021) 120146) , being able to characterize their electronic structure. The Science paper (Roberto Arbore et al. A molecular mechanism for bright color variation in parrots.Science386,eadp7710(2024).DOI:10.1126/science.adp7710) goes beyond that in mapping out the genetics of the differing species and relating that back to the color. Very simple oxidative mechanisms are used to change pigment color.
Data from R.Soc.Open Sci. 5 (2018) 172010
Keith went to the fall PCCP Editorial Board meeting where the Associate Editors and the Publication Editors were able to share ideas about PCCP and how to improve the journal and experience for readers and authors.
Editorial Team at Burlington house
Burlington house is the home of the Royal Society of Chemistry of which Keith is a Fellow and has been a member of since 1986.
One of the Presidents was Professor Lesley Yellowlees who wrote an early paper with Paul Braterman and Graham Heath on spectroelectrochemistry (Heath, G. A.; Yellowlees, L. J.; Braterman, P. S., Spectro-electrochemical studies on tris-bipyridyl ruthenium complexes; ultra-violet, visible, and near-infrared spectra of the series [Ru(bipyridyl)3]2+/1+/0/1–. Journal of the Chemical Society, Chemical Communications 1981, (6), 287-289) which inspired the Gordon group to develop their own spectroelectrochemistry experiments. Her portrait hangs in the stairwell of Burlington house.
Portrait of Professor Yellowlees
Keith gave a talk about hydrogen and alternate energy sources to a group at Ombrellos as part of the Thirst for Knowledge talk series.
Keith’s talk was entitled “Is hydrogen the answer? Alternate fuel and energy needs in Aotearoa.” Some of the talk touched upon the recent Marsden-funded research by Keith and Professor James Crowley.
Khansa and Yasmin have prepared dye-sensitized solar cells for the upcoming MacDiarmid Institute discovery camp. Here they are showing the working cells out in the bright Dunedin sunshine.
Khansa recently was awarded “Sisters Camp Most Valuable Person” certificate.
The Sisters Camp organized by the Muslim University Students’ Association (MUSA) from 31st Aug to 2nd Sept 2024.
This August, our research group welcomed Yasmin, a bachelor’s student from Cardiff University, who joined us for a one-year exchange program. To help her settle in, the team (Elkhansa, Sam and Peter) organized a trip to Signal Hill Lookout, where we enjoyed a scenic drive and shared a lunch together. Yasmin is already showing great enthusiasm for the research, and we’re excited to have her contribute to our projects over the coming year.
Congratulations on the new publication in Materials. The work is with Makoto Yamaguchi who has visited Otago a couple of times. It describes low frequency Raman spectroscopy of amorphous Poly(Ether Ether Ketone) (PEEK)
Huge congrats to speakers from the group and graduates of the group.
This included, Karlis Berzins, Georgina Shillito, Clare Strachan, Sam Harris, Peter Remoto and Jervee Punzalan. Keith gave a keynote address.
Also to Jeremy Rooney and Amir Sohail for their posters.