All posts by Amber L. Thompson

Meeting Details, News, Red Kite Meetings

Red Kite VII – June 17th 2015

The seventh meeting of the Red Kite Network will be held on Wednesday 17th June, 2015 at ISIS.

Attendance will be free of charge and there will be a transport from Oxford and a drinks reception thanks to generous sponsorship from ISIS.  There will also be a tour of the ISIS facility, however we need to know how many people are coming for safety as well as the nicer things, like making sure we don’t run out of tea, coffee, and nibbles.

The tour will be followed by a microsymposium, comprising a number of short talks by local speakers, focused on the use of neutrons.

Programme

12.15 pm Coach Leaves South Parks Road
1.00 pm Arrival at R80 (ISIS Target Station 2)
1:15 pm Tours of ISIS start
2:15 pm Tea, Coffee and Posters in R80 foyer
2.40 pm Transit to CR12/13 R68 Ground floor
2.55 pm Stephen Hull (ISIS) Introduction and Welcome
3.05 pm Craig Bull (ISIS) “Materials at Extreme Conditions – The Role of Neutrons”
3.25 pm Nicola Steinke (Oxford) “TBC”
3.40 pm Joe Kelleher (ISIS) “Deformation and Stress Measurement on the Engin-X Instrument”
4.05 pm Samual Duyker (Oxford/ANSTO) “Structural Transformations in Torsionally Flexible Cyanide Frameworks”
4.15 pm Stuart Bartlett (RCaH/Bath) “Dynamic Structural Changes by in-situ X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy”
4.30 pm Dominic Fortes (ISIS/UCL) “The Structure of Water in Salt Hydrates”
4.50 pm Return to R80 foyer
5.00 pm Wine reception and Posters
6.00 pm Coach departs for Oxford.

 

There will be a general structural science poster session and as before, the best will be rewarded.

In order to ensure there is enough tea/coffee/cake/poster prizes/seats on the bus, please let Amber L. Thompson (amber.tho[email protected]) or Marek Jura ([email protected]) know.

If you need transport from Oxford, we need to know BY THURSDAY 11TH JUNE, otherwise we need a complete list of names by 10AM MONDAY 15TH JUNE to arrange security clearance for the tours of ISIS. So, please fill in and email the form below:

=============================================
Name:
Institution:
I will be presenting a poster (Yes/No)
I will require a place on the coach (Yes/No)
Special Dietary Requirements:
=============================================

Meeting Details, News, Red Kite Meetings

Red Kite VI

The sixth meeting of the Red Kite Network will be held on Thursday 8th January, 2015 in the Main Lecture Theatre in the Physical and Theoretical Chemistry Laboratory, Oxford.

Attendance will be courtesy of the John Fell Oxford University Research Fund. The meeting will consist of three sessions, each commencing with a half hour Plenary delivered by a leading academic, followed by shorter talks by younger researchers.

Provisional Programme

9:00 Set up Posters etc.
9:50 Introduction
10:00 Dr. Jin-Chong Tan
(Oxford)		 “Connecting Terahertz Vibrations in Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs) to Elastic Structural Dynamics”
10:30 Will Fletcher
(Oxford)		 “Conformation Bias: A Bayesian Approach to Protein Structure”
10:50 Dr. Jesus Campos- Manzano
(Oxford)		 “Molecular Distortion Effects of Weak Interactions in Crystal Lattices. A Joint Crystallographic-Computational Study”
11:10 Tea Break
11:30 Dr. Matt Tucker
(ISIS)		 “Is the future of Crystallography Disordered?”
12:00 Dr. Mark Chadwick
(Oxford)		 “Organometallic Chemistry in the Solid State: A Route to Stabilisation of Sigma-Alkane Complexes”
12:20 Dr. Mark Senn
(Oxford)		 “Large Negative Thermal Expansion in the Ruddlesden-Popper Perovskites and the role of Soft Mode “Trapping” Mechanisms”
12:40 Dr. Pascal Parois
(Oxford)		 “Resolution of Metal Site Occupancies using Multiple Wavelengths”
1:00 Lunch & Posters
(JR Seminar Room)
2:30 Dr. Sylvia McLain
(Oxford)		 “The structure of Biological Association in Solution”
3:00 Dr. Daniel Woodruff
(Oxford)		 “Control of superconductivity in layered lithium iron selenide hydroxides Li1–xFex(OH)Fe1–ySe”
3:20 Sean Robinson
(Oxford)		 “Halogen-bonding Anion Receptors: Investigating Halogen Bond Covalency”
3:40 Dr. Silvia Capelli
(ISIS)		 “Correlating Structural Features with Physical Properties”
4:00 Drinks Reception & Posters (JR Seminar Room)

 

Those not speaking are encouraged to bring posters and the best will be rewarded.

Lunch is included, as is a small drinks reception after the meeting in the John Rowlinson Seminar Room. These will only be available to registered attendees.

Parking is notoriously difficult in Oxford, so please keep that in mind if travelling and we would recommend the train or Park & Ride.

In order to ensure there is enough tea/coffee/cake/sandwiches/poster boards etc., please let us know you are coming and whether you are going to bring a poster by emailing the registration form below to amber.thompson@chem.ox.ac.uk.

The registration deadline is 5pm on Friday 2nd January and we will confirm receipt by email.

=============================================
Name:
Institution:
I will be presenting a poster (Yes/No)
Special Dietary Requirements:
=============================================

Meeting Details, News, Red Kite Meetings

Advanced Notice – January 8th 2015

OxfordRed Kite VI will be held on 8th January 2015 in the Physical and Theoretical Chemistry Laboratory, Oxford.

The full programme will be announced nearer the time, but it will be in a similar one day format to the fifth meeting, comprising short talks and poster sessions. Following the support from John Fell Oxford University Research Fund, we hope to be able to provide lunch and a wine reception at the end.

The plenary speakers are confirmed as Drs. Sylvia McLain (Biochemistry, Oxford), Jin-Chong Tan (Engineering, Oxford) and Matt Tucker (ISIS).

Please make a note in your diary, I hope it will be an excellent event and we look forward to seeing you there.

Meeting Reports, Red Kite Meetings

Red Kite V – Update

Once again, the weather contrived to cause problems, this time with flooding causing closures to both the Botley and the Abingdon Roads.  Despite this, the speakers and organisers and, more importantly cake and lunch (!) all arrived in time even though some of the delegates were unable come (for those who missed it, the program for Red Kite V is available to download).

People who only had a short bus, cycle or walk arrived in good time for the first of the mini-plenary sessions which was presented by Prof. Andrew Weller from Oxford who discussed the preparation of an alkane complex by solid-state hydrogenation.  The session was continued by Jerome Wicker (also Oxford) (who eventually managed to remember his title) and was talking about predicting whether or not materials will crystalise.  This was followed by two more speakers from Oxford, Markus Gerstel talking about radiation damage in protein samples and Joshua Hill discussing framework materials.

After mid morning cake with coffee for those who were quickest and tea for those who weren’t (sorry about that – we will make sure there is more next time!), we started the second session.  This began with our second mini-plenary speaker, Dr. Arwen Pearson from the Research Complex and the Astbury Centre, Leeds, who gave a nice presentation that demonstrated how reactions can be followed in the solid state in proteins.  This was followed by three more speakers from Oxford:  Andrew Jupp talking about novel organophosphorus species, Rémi Tirfoin explaining how important single crystal X-ray diffraction is to organometallic chemists and Andrew Johnston telling us about benzoylmethylecgonine – a simple compound whose structure is more complex that you would think.

Lunch was accompanied by posters and the room was a constant buzz as people mixed munching with science, before the final session began.  The mini-plenary was presented by Prof. Mike Glazer (Oxford) who demonstrated how important it can be to get space groups right and what effect it can have on a phase diagram.  This was followed Dr. Mark Warren (Diamond) explaining how the facilities on the small-molecule beamline I19 can help you follow a reaction.  Next was Dr. Lynne Thomas from the Research Complex and Bath, who showed how you can use a range of techniques to understand the structure of materials as complex as Sitka Spruce (aka aircraft wood).  The final speaker of the day was Dr. Tristan Youngs (ISIS) who explained how complex amorphous systems could be studied using neutrons.  The meeting was brought to a close with the awarding of the obligatory tweeting poster prizes which were given to the nicely alliterating Joe, Jerome and Jamie (Paddison, Wicker and Lawler, respectively);  congratulations to them.

The day finished with a drinks reception giving people who had missed the best posters a chance to talk to the winners.  Once again, everyone seemed to enjoy the day and there are a few photos below to remind you of the event.  We are looking forward to seeing everyone again at the next meeting which will be held on the Harwell site over the summer.

Finally, the organisers would like to thank all the excellent speakers, delightful attendees, esteemed poster judges, kind souls who helped set up the rooms, and especially the John Fell Fund who provided sustenance:  together you made this another fantastic meeting.

Red Kite V in Oxford
Red Kite V in Oxford
Nothing gets in the way of attending a Red Kite Meeting!
Markus Gerstel answers questions
Markus Gerstel answers questions
What does it do Josh?
What does it do Josh?
Andrew Goodwin looks uncertain as Arwen Pearson explains.
Andrew Goodwin looks uncertain as Arwen Pearson explains.
Andrew Jupp points out the features in his NMR spectra.
Andrew Jupp points out the features in his NMR spectra.
Rémi Tirfoin explains why a crystal structure is worth the effort.
Rémi Tirfoin explains why a crystal structure is worth the effort.
Discussion over lunch...
Discussion over lunch…
...and posters!
…and posters!
Wise monkeys?
Wise monkeys?
More spectators.
More spectators.
Mike Glazer struggles to understand the symmetry.
Mike Glazer struggles to understand the symmetry.
It was *THIS* big!
It was *THIS* big!
Tidying up.
Tidying up.
Meeting Details, News, Red Kite Meetings

Red Kite V

The fifth meeting of the Red Kite Network will be held on Wednesday 8th January, 2014 in the Main Lecture Theatre in the Physical and Theoretical Chemistry Laboratory, Oxford.

Attendance will be courtesy of the John Fell Oxford University Research Fund. The meeting will consist of three sessions, each commencing with a half hour Plenary delivered by a leading academic, followed by three shorter talks by younger researchers.

Programme

9:00 Set up Posters etc.
9:50 Introduction
10:00 Prof. Andrew S. Weller (Oxford) “Organometallic reactivity and catalysis in the solid state”
10:30 Jerome G. P. Wicker (Oxford/ISIS) “Predicting crystallisation propensity of small molecules”
10:45 Markus Gerstel (Oxford) “‘Quantifying radiation damage in MX”
11:00 Joshua A. Hill (Oxford) “Structural trends in transition-metal dicyanometallate framework materials’”
11:15 Tea Break
11:45 Dr. Arwen R. Pearson (RCaH/Leeds) “A new approach to time-resolved crystallography”
12:15 Andrew R. Jupp (Oxford) “The heptaphosphide cage as a novel source of organophosphorus compounds”
12:30 Rémi A. Tirfoin (Oxford) “Single-crystal X-ray characterization: a versatile diagnostic tool in organometallic chemistry”
12:45 Andrew Johnston (Oxford) “Cracking the structure of cocaine”
1:00 Lunch & Posters (JR Seminar Room)
2:30 Prof. A. Michael Glazer (Oxford) “The continuing saga of lead zirconate titanate”
3:00 Dr. Mark R. Warren (Diamond) “Using crystallography to watch your reaction”
3:20 Dr. Lynne H. Thomas (Bath/RCaH) “Seeing the wood through the trees: unravelling the nanostructure of cellulose microfibrils”
3:40 Dr. Tristan Youngs (ISIS) “Studies of mixed length scale heterogeneous systems at ISIS”
4:00 Drinks Reception & Posters (JR Seminar Room)

 

Those not speaking are encouraged to bring posters and the best will be rewarded.

Lunch is included, as is a small drinks reception after the meeting in the John Rowlinson Seminar Room. These will only be available to registered attendees.

Parking is notoriously difficult in Oxford, so please keep that in mind if travelling and we would recommend the train or Park & Ride.

In order to ensure there is enough tea/coffee/cake/sandwiches/poster boards etc., please let us know you are coming and whether you are going to bring a poster; the registration form is below. The registration deadline is Noon on Monday 6th January and we will confirm receipt by email.

 

 

Meeting Details, News, Red Kite Meetings

Advanced Notice – January 8th 2014

OxfordRed Kite V will be held on 8th January 2014 in the Physical and Theoretical Chemistry Laboratory, Oxford.

The full programme will be announced nearer the time, but it will be in a similar one day format to the third meeting, comprising short talks and poster sessions. Following the support from John Fell Oxford University Research Fund, we hope to be able to provide lunch and a wine reception at the end.

The plenary speakers are confirmed as Prof. Andrew S. Weller (Oxford), Dr. Arwen Pearson (RCaH/Leeds) and Prof. Mike Glazer (Oxford).

Please make a note in your diary, I hope it will be an excellent event and we look forward to seeing you there.

Meeting Reports, Red Kite Meetings

Red Kite IV – Update

Thank-you very much to all the speakers, attendees and especially the tour guides and helpers from Diamond who made this a fantastic event.  For those who missed it, the program for Red Kite IV is available to download.  The weather was awful but the bus stopped right outside Diamond house, so only the posters that were dropped in a puddle in Oxford got wet.

As soon as people had registered, the first session started with a quick introduction given by our hostess, Harriott Nowell (DLS), followed by the talks chaired by Sarah Barnett (DLS).  The first talk was given by Steve Thompson (DLS) who discussed the powder beamline I11.  This is currently undergoing an upgrade to add an extra experimental hutch for use on Long Duration Experiments where samples need only short data collections (seconds/minutes), but at very large intervals (days-months).  Next was a presentation by Phil Chater (DLS), which was an introduction to a technique that was new to a lot of the audience, PDF analysis, and how data can be collected at Diamond and a the development of a new PDF beamline.

After the first session we had tea and home-made cakes (apparently this is a particularly popular part of the meeting), and those who had registered, went on a tour of the facility.  It was very quiet in Diamond House while people were shown round the experimental hall and introduced to some of the beamlines, but as people slowly came back, the enthusiasm was audible.  For those who had never seen Diamond before, the experience made a real impression – “Science is So Awesome” said one student on his return and the feeling seemed to be a general one.

With the tours over, we had the second session of talks.  The first was an exceptional talk by Anna Warren (DLS) showing how some people on the protein beamlines struggle to see their crystals (never-mind mount, centre and collect data on them), and how tomography can help.  This was followed by three shorter talks from students attendees.  Jon Treacy (Manchester & DLS) gave a lovely talk on the structure of materials at interfaces, something that we often don’t really think about.  Next was a Rich Knighton (Oxford) who presented his work on the challenging interlocked molecular structures before the session was finished by Karim Sutton (Oxford & DLS) who explained how tuning the wavelength on a single crystal diffraction beamline can give additional information.

After the final session, yhe usual tweeting poster prizes were awarded and there was the drinks reception with yet more posters before the coach arrived to take everyone back to Oxford.  An excellent time was had by all we would like to thank all the staff at Diamond for their assistance making the event a roaring success.  There are a few photos below to remind you of the day; we are looking forward to seeing everyone again at the next meeting in Oxford in January 2014.

Red Kite IV at Diamond
Red Kite IV at Diamond
Jon Treacey explains about the structure of materials at interfaces
Jon Treacey explains about the structure of materials at interfaces
Rick Knighton tells us about rotaxanes and catenanes
Rick Knighton tells us about rotaxanes and catenanes
Karim Sutton varies his wavelength
Karim Sutton varies his wavelength
A Kite chills out after the event
A Kite chills out after the event
Meeting Details, News, Red Kite Meetings

Red Kite IV – September 9th 2013

The fourth meeting of the Red Kite Network will be held on Monday 9th September, 2013 at Diamond House (Room G.59 and the Atrium).

Attendance will be free of charge and there will be a transport from Oxford and a drinks reception thanks to generous sponsorship from Diamond. There will also be a tour of Diamond Light Source, however we need to know how many people are coming for safety as well as the nicer things, like making sure we don’t run out of tea, coffee, and nibbles.

The tour will be associated with a microsymposium, comprising a number of short talks by local speakers, focussed on the use of synchrotron radiation as a structural probe.  The programme is below or can be downloaded in printable format.

Programme

12.15 pm Coach Leaves South Parks Road
12.50 pm Arrival Diamond  Register, collect badge & put up posters
1:15 pm Dr. Harriott Nowell (Diamond)  Introduction and Welcome
1:20 pm Dr. Steve Thompson (Diamond) “I11 Upgrade Project”
1.50 pm Dr. Philip Chater (Diamond) “Structural Chemistry Through the Length Scales”
2.20 pm Tours, Tea, Coffee and Posters in R22
3.50 pm Dr. Anna Warren (Diamond)  “X-ray Imaging as a Tool for Crystal Location”
4.10 pm Jon Treacy (Diamond/Manchester) “SXRD of Metal Oxides”
4.30 pm Rich Knighton (Oxford) “Towards Selective Anion Binding By Templated Interlocked Structures”
4.50 pm Karim Sutton (Oxford) “Big Methods for Small Molecules”
5.10 pm Drinks reception and Posters
6.00 pm Coach departs for Oxford.

 

There will be a general structural science poster session and as before, the best will be rewarded  (and yes, it will probably tweet).

In order to ensure there is enough tea/coffee/cake/poster prizes/seats on the bus, please let Amber L. Thompson (amber.thompson @ chem.ox.ac.uk) know if you would like to come. If you need transport from Oxford and/or would like to go on one of the tours, we need to know BY MONDAY 26TH August.  So, please let us know:

– Whether you need transport from Oxford
– If you would like to go on the tour of Diamond
– Whether you are going to bring a poster (it doesn’t have to be synchrotron radiation based)
– If you would prefer not to be added to the private announcement mailing list