January Newsletter Issue 8

Hendrik and Simon Attend

Hendrik and Simon, and board member David Prest had the pleasure of attending the annual Cardiff Catalysis Institute Conference, 14-15 January 25.? The meeting was very well organized and well attended by academics and industry and we were treated with excellent talks from both long served academics and PhD students.? One of the highlights of the meeting was an inspiring presentation by Prof Robert Schlogl.? It was also a good opportunity to catch up with two of Drochaid's major customers of the last 5 years.?

Simon was asked to help judge the poster competition at the conference. He and fellow judges had difficulty selecting the winners due to the number of excellent posters on display, which highlighted the quality research that is being carried out by PhD students at the CCI.

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Our MD, Cathy Dwyer, had the privilege of attending the launch of the National Materials Innovation Strategy at the Houses of Parliament in Westminster, London, on January 9th. Key speakers included Lord Patrick Vallance, Minister of State for Science, Research and Innovation, and Professor Henry Knowles, CEO of the Henry Royce Institute.

The launch was the culmination of an intensive exercise involving industry leaders, key academics, and government experts. It included a detailed mapping of current materials-related activities across the country and extensive stakeholder engagement to pool considerable expertise and knowledge in this area. This ultimately led to the development of six key opportunity themes, which further unpack into several innovation priorities that will drive sustainable economic growth in the UK.

Congratulations to the Henry Royce Institute, supported by ScotChem, for initiating and driving the development of the strategy to its current point. Drochaid is proud to have been an industry participant in this process! However, a strategy is only meaningful if it is acted upon, and we look forward to seeing the outputs of the opportunity workstreams that will develop and execute more detailed plans. The full strategy can be accessed via the QR code above.

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I recently passed my PhD in Chemistry under the supervision of Profs Paul Wright and Matt Clarke at the University of St Andrews.? My thesis focused on the functionalization of metal organic frameworks (MOF’s) for use as catalysts for fine chemical synthesis.

I am currently working at Drochaid Research Services as a Lab Assistant on a 3 month contract while I weigh my options on my next steps in my career.

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Jake Backhouse was thrilled to attend his university graduation ceremony on January 10th, where he received his PhD in Chemistry from Durham University.

The ceremony, held on a cold but sunny winter morning in the stunning Durham Cathedral, marked the culmination of over seven years of study at Durham, during which Jake completed both his MChem and PhD.

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To complement our existing extensive GC, GC-MS and LC capabilities that we have established at Drochaid Research Services, we recently expanded our analytical capabilities for specialised testing of fuels and other samples. Select examples of these new additions are summarised below.

If you are interested to find out more or to see a full list of our technical and/or analytical capabilities, please request this from: [email protected]

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We are always pleased to hear from our customers, business enquiries, and new friends.

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