Green Chemistry @ MUN

The traditional post-defense photo for Dr. Hart Plommer – thank you to the Chair and Examiners, and Dr. Katz for standing in for Dr. Kerton while she was travelling

Congratulations to Dr. Hart Plommer who successfully defended his thesis and convocated in absentia (alongside Dr. George Margoutidis). We were delighted to watch Dr. Kenson Ambrose and Dr. Jennifer Murphy cross the stage and receive their doctorate degrees earlier this week. Congrats again to them all.

Juliana (Ju) Vidal (PhD candidate, Kerton group) was elected to the exec of NESSE (Network of Early-Career Sustainable Scientists and Engineers). She contributed another fantastic blog post to the School of Graduate Studies blog in which she reflected on her first two years at MUN. She also had an editorial piece published in the ACCN (Chemical institute of Canada’s news magazine) on science communication. Finally, Ju is  volunteering with the wonderful organization Beyond Benign to help with their communications and social media activities.

Ju presenting her research

Courtney’s M.Sc. thesis was successfully examined and she received a Hebron Teaching Fellowship for her future studies in education. Her convocation was this past week. Congrats Courtney!

Kori Andrea (Vanier Scholar, Michael Smith Study Supplement Holder) was awarded a poster prize at the Dalton Younger Members Event in Cardiff. Kori is currently spending 6 months with the Weller Group at Oxford University.

Kori and Hart’s review was published and is free (open access) until October 26 (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S001430571931523X?dgcid=author)

Dr. Kerton’s photo has been added to the ‘dude wall’ in the department of chemistry and so she will keep Dr. Dawe company (Louise Dawe’s photo is mentioned in this C&EN article https://cen.acs.org/careers/diversity/Chemists-grapple-lack-diversity-displayed/97/i37?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=CEN). Thank you Dr. Rowley!

Dr.s Kerton and Kozak visited Khon Kaen University to participate in the Thailand International Symposium on Green Chemistry, Sustainable Materials and Fuels. Dr. Kerton gave a keynote lecture and Dr. Kozak an invited lecture. We also discussed future collaborations and student exchanges with the Faculty of Science and Faculty of Engineering….so watch this space.

They also gave four invited lectures at different Universities in Japan: Nagoya, http://www.itbm.nagoya-u.ac.jp/gtr/uploads/7511f8e803e0bf792bd993385d4044f259b7ca4e.pdf, Tokyo http://www.chembio.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/data/lec1910.pdf, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology https://t.co/RzZlc5913b?amp=1, and Kyoto, es.kuicr.kyoto-u.ac.jp/index_en.html. One particular outcome of this trip is the potential for collaborations and exchanges with the University of Kyoto (Institute for Chemical Research).

Dinner with colleagues from Nagoya University

Tour of a sake brewery with Prof. Masafumi Hirano (Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology)

Dr.s Kerton and Kozak with Prof. Kyoko Nozaki and their gift of a photo of the Newfoundland coast

At the Institute for Chemical Research (Uji Campus, Kyoto University), exploring Uji and dinner with Prof. Nakamura

Dinner with colleagues from the Institute for Chemical Research, Kyoto University

To group members, please let us know if we have forgotten anything! It has been a very busy couple of months.