Green Chemistry @ MUN

A paper on work conducted by Kata Devaine-Pressing (PhD candidate) and two former undergraduate research students (Josh Lehr and Michelle Pratt) is available as an accepted pre-proof manuscript. We are grateful to our excellent crystallographic collaborators, Amy Sarjeant (Northwestern U.) and Louise Dawe (Wilfrid Laurier U.) for their work on this paper. The manuscript can be accessed via this link: Dalton Transactions, 2015, DOI: 10.1039/C5DT00236B

As Fran is a member of the editorial board, she would like to promote this journal to visitors of our group website.  Please go and have a look.

There are several themed issues planned. Fran will be submitting an article to one on ‘Green Solvents’.  Others are planned including biorefineries, http://www.sustainablechemicalprocesses.com/about/update/biorefinerysustainableworld and magnetic nanomaterials.  If you want more information of the submission process or any themed issues, please contact Fran, and she will direct you to the right person or answer your query herself.

The journal is now being indexed in Chemical Abstracts and hopefully soon it will be indexed elsewhere too.  Below are the aims and scopes of the journal.

Fran provided the soapbox piece for January’s sea technology magazine. You can find it here: http://seatechnology.com/news/archives/2015/soapbox/soapbox0115.php

Yi Liu (PhD student, Kerton group) will soon see some of her work in press in RSC Advances – this work is in collaboration with Professor Ning Yan and his student Chen Xi at NUS. Dr. Kerton visited them last summer to discuss this research in person.

Research from Hart’s first year as a graduate student at MUN has been accepted for publication in Dalton Transactions and is available as an accepted manuscript (pre-proof) via the following link: Dalton Transactions, 2015, DOI: 10.1039/C5DT00220F

Congratulations to Immanuel too. He contributed to this work during his time here as a DAAD RISE Worldwide student/intern last summer.

Sometimes it can seem that chemistry graduate students find it difficult to find permanent positions in a chemistry-related field in industry….especially when you are in the process of applying for jobs.

We are delighted to say that Hassan Kalviri (PhD, 2011, Kerton Group) and Khaled Omari (PhD, 2012, Kerton Group) have obtained excellent jobs. Hassan is a senior chemist at a natural products company. Khaled will be finishing his NSERC visiting-fellowship with Agriculture and Agrifood Canada soon and will become a laboratory supervisor for an analytical chemistry company. Congratulations. We are proud of you!

Watch this behind the scenes video from the writer and actors on the TV show Republic of Doyle:

Jen (PhD candidate, Kerton group) has received a three-year $30k pa scholarship from RDC-NL for her research related to Ocean Industries

Jen is co-supervised by Prof. Kelly Hawboldt in the Department of Process Engineering, Faculty of Engineering & Applied Sciences.

Her industrial research collaborator is the Newfoundland Aquaculture Industry Association (NAIA).

Her research goal is to characterize, evaluate and find uses for the by-products of the growing Newfoundland Blue Mussel Aquaculture industry. At the moment, any waste material produced (e.g. damaged/dead mussels) is either dumped at sea or sent to landfill and we think that there are definitely better uses out there.  We aim to produce a technology that is environmentally and economically sustainable to diversify the options for rural employment in Newfoundland and elsewhere in the world.

Fran and Jen at the award celebration for RDC Ocean Industries Student Awards

A fun pizza lunch in the student office. Thank you to Jen for organizing.