Program & Invited Speakers

PROGRAM (download here)

RAMS 2019 – Sunday 8^th

From 7 pm – Welcome reception (drinks and nibbles @The fly in the loaf)

RAMS 2019 – Monday 9^th

Time	Event		Location
8:30-8:55	Registration, coffee and vendor exhibitions		MIF Atrium
8:55-9:00	Welcome by Prof A Hollander, The University of Liverpool		LT Gossage
9:00-9:30	Prof Rachel Williams (Invited), The University of Liverpool: ‘Peptide hydrogels in ophthalmic applications’
9:30-9:45	SOFT MATTER	Dr Alex P. S. Brogan, King’s College London: ‘Expanding the design space of gel materials through ionic liquid mediated mechanical and structural tuneability’	LT Gossage
9:45-10:00	ADV.CHARAC. TECHNIQUES	Dr Brant Walkley, The University of Sheffield: ‘Understanding the nanostructure of innovative, sustainable cements’	LT Gossage
10:00-10:15		Dr Rémi Castaing, The University of Bath: ‘Self-healing concrete reveals its secrets: Combining characterisation techniques as the key to answering research questions’
10:15-10:30		Dr Marcus A. Johns, Bristol Composites Institute (ACCIS), University of Bristol: ‘Characterisation of cellulose nanomaterial interactions in composites and gels’
10:30-11:00	Coffee break, posters, & vendors		MIF Atrium
11:30-11:45	ADV.CHARAC. TECHNIQUES	Dr Adrien Chauvet, The University of Sheffield: ‘Ultrafast Spectroscopy: Watching electrons dynamics “live”’	LT Gossage
11:45-12:00		Dr Zhe Li, School of Engineering and Materials Science, Queen Mary University of London, Queen Mary University of London: ‘Stability of Solution Processed Organic Solar Cells’
12:00-12:15	Postnova Analytics UK Ltd (Sponsor): ‘Anisotropic polymer nanoparticles – confirmation of solvent and temperature dependent shape and size’		LT Gossage
12:15-12:30	COMPLEX STRUCTURES AND COMPOSITES	Dr Yi-Lin Wu, Cardiff University: ‘Self-ordering Molecular Materials for Energy Storage and Transformation’	LT Gossage
12:30-12:45		Dr Florian Bouville, Imperial College London: ‘Using ceramic processing to produce bioinspired materials’
12:45-13:00		Dr Victoria G. Rocha, Cardiff University: ‘Spark Plasma Sintering: Challenges and Opportunities for graphene/ceramic composites’
13:00-14:00	Lunch, posters, & vendors		MIF Atrium
14:00-14:30	Prof Eduardo Saiz (invited), Imperial College London: ‘Additive Manufacturing and Structural Control of Ceramics’		LT Gossage
14:30-14:45	FUNCTIONAL MATERIALS	Dr Robert Menzel, School of Chemistry, University of Leeds: ‘Nanocarbon Aerogels as Electrically-Heatable Supports for Functional Nanoparticles’	LT Gossage
14:45-15:00		Dr Hamideh Khanbareh, The University of Bath: ‘Ferroelectrics: from materials design to realisation in a range of energy harvesting applications’
15:00-15:15		Dr Qilei Song, Imperial College London: ‘Advanced Porous Membrane Materials’
15:15-15:30	Michelle Ledward, Royce (sponsor) – TBC		LT Gossage
15:30-16:00	Coffee break, posters, & vendors		MIF Atrium
16:00-16:30	Dr Samantha Thomas (invited), Johnson Matthey: ‘From Trains to Planes and Automobiles; a career story’		LT Gossage
16:30-17:30	Panel Discussion I – Career paths & Fostering Academia/Industry Collaborations
17:30 onwards	Break
19:00	Drinks @rooftop bar		OhMeOhMy
20:00	Dinner (ground floor)

 RAMS 2019 – Tuesday 10^th

Time	Event		Location
8:30-9:00	Coffee and vendor exhibitions		MIF Atrium
9:00-9:30	Prof Serena Corr (invited), The University of Sheffield: ‘Designing materials for all solid-state batteries’		LT Gossage
9:30-9:45	FUNCTIONAL MATERIALS	Dr Eve J. Wildman, The University of Aberdeen: ‘Concomitant high oxide ion and proton conductivity in a disordered hexagonal perovskite’	LT Gossage
9:45-10:00		Dr Antonio Fernandez, Loughborough University: ‘Self-Assembly of Catalytically Active Supramolecular Coordination Compounds within Metal–Organic Frameworks’
10:00-10:15		Dr Sébastien Rochat, University of Bristol: ‘Nanoporous polymers and composites for energy applications’
10:15-10:30		Dr Robert T. Woodward, Imperial College London: ‘Engineering Porous Organic Polymers from Self-Condensing Compounds’
10:30-11:00	Coffee break, posters, & vendors		MIF Atrium
11:30-11:45		Dr Christopher D. Spicer: University of York: ‘Chemical tools to precisely control biomaterial activity’	LT Gossage
11:45-12:00	MATERIALS OF THE FUTURE	Dr Sanjit Nayak, University of Bradford: ‘A novel approach towards synthesis of porous graphitic carbon with high hydrogen uptake’	LT Gossage
12:00-12:15		Dr Suraj Gupta, University of Liverpool: ‘Experimental investigations to establish new families of low-cost catalysts for electrocatalytic and photocatalytic water-splitting’
12:15-12:30		Dr Adam J. Clancy, University College London: ‘Mild Solution Processing of Nanocarbons Using Redox Chemistries’
12:30-12:45		Dr Sivaprakash Sengodan, Imperial College London: ‘Cation-swapped homogeneous nanoparticles in perovskite oxides for Solid oxide fuel cell anodes’
12:45-13:00		Dr Punam Tiwary, NIT Durgapur, India: ‘Room temperature ethanol sensor with high sensitivity from Copper Oxide’
13:00-14:00	Lunch, posters, & vendors		MIF Atrium
14:00-14:10	Postnova Analytics UK Ltd (Sponsor): ‘Separation and Characterisation of ‘Difficult Stuff’’		LT Gossage
14:10-14:40	Dr Prateek Dongare, Nature Publishing Group (invited): ‘Publishing in Nature Research Journals’
14:40-14:55	MATERIALS OF THE FUTURE	Dr Alexey Y. Ganin, University of Glasgow: ‘Electrochemical activation of 2D chalcogenide for the hydrogen evolution reaction’	LT Gossage
14:55-15:10		Dr Matthew A. Addicoat, Nottingham Trent Universigty: ‘The challenge of accurate, universal high-throughput calculations’
15:10-15:25		Dr Andrea Vezzoli, University of Liverpool: ‘Single-Molecule Electrical Devices: Imparting Functionality through Chemical Design’
15:25-15:40		Dr Rebecca L. Greenaway, University of Liverpool: ‘Hybrid Discovery Workflow for Organic Materials and Supramolecular Self-Assemblies’
15:30-16:00	Coffee break, posters, & vendors		MIF Atrium
16:00-16:45	Panel Discussion II: Publishing, Public Engagement & Impact		LT Gossage
16:45-17:00	Closure

Invited speakers

Prof Rachel Williams (Institute of Ageing and Chronic Disease, University of Liverpool)

‘Peptide hydrogels in ophthalmic applications’

The loss of sight is very debilitating and is becoming an increasing problem as the population ages resulting in significant loss of independence for the people concerned.  Biomaterials have a role in various treatment options and developments in the properties of the materials have the potential to lead to improved clinical results. This presentation will discuss the development of a peptide hydrogel and the optimisation of its properties as an antimicrobial bandage contact lens and as a scaffold for use in regenerative medicine applications in the cornea and conjunctiva.

Dr Prateek Dongare (Team Manager (Energy Materials) & Associate Editor at Nature Communications)

Prateek has a background in homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis and other related subthemes of solar energy research. He received his PhD degree from Memorial University, Canada followed by post-doctoral positions at Uppsala University in Sweden and The University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. He is currently based in London as a Team Manager and Associate Editor at Nature Communications where he is leads a team of editors handling submissions in the broad area of energy materials.

Prof Eduardo Saiz (Imperial College London)

‘Additive Manufacturing and Structural Control of Ceramics’

Additive Manufacturing is attracting much interest as a way to fabricate on demand ceramic parts with complex geometries. It has been shown that the technology is very apt to manipulate the structure of the parts at the level of hundreds of microns and up. Much less attention has been placed on how to use additive manufacturing to manipulate microstructure. However, this is essential in order to optimize materials performance or to develop new composites and multimaterial devices. In this presentation, we will discuss how additive manufacturing technologies can be used to manipulate the structure of ceramic-based materials at multiple length scales. The focus will be on robotic assisted deposition (continuous extrusion). We will show examples of how microstructural control can be achieved and how it can be applied to the fabrication of ultrahigh temperature ceramics, devices, composites with unique structures inspired by nature or ceramics for health care. The goal is to outline the current challenges and possibilities in the field.

‘Designing materials for all solid-state batteries’

Prof Serena Corr (University of Sheffield)

All solid-state batteries present highly promising opportunities for safer energy storage. High ionic conducting solid electrolytes may overcome some of the limitations of organic polymer electrolytes, where safety concerns limit the electrochemical stability window, to provide a way to increase energy densities in a safe manner. However, resistance to ion mobility across the solid-solid electrode-electrolyte interface remains a bottle-neck to be overcome in realising this technology. The synthetic approach employed can potentially influence conductivities (and hence battery performance) exhibited by solid electrolytes and this talk will detail our efforts to maximise these properties through developments in our synthetic approaches. Recent synthetic results on systems such as the NASICONs, garnets and perovskites where electrodes and electrolytes with similar crystal structures are applied, will be discussed. Comprehensive characterisation across multiple length scales of these systems will be presented, as well as recent in operando muon spin relaxation measurements interrogating lithium-ion diffusion will be shown. These results will showcase how careful synthetic design can enable performance and a comprehensive analysis provides greater insight into materials properties.

‘From Trains to Planes and Automobiles; a career story’

Dr Samantha Thomas (Research Group Leader at Johnson Matthey)

I have always been clear on my career goals; I knew I wanted to be a materials scientist when I was 13, and that I wanted to do industrial research when I was 20. But even when you have a plan, career paths aren’t a straight line!  Since finishing my PhD in 2014 I’ve worked for 3 companies and had 5 different roles. I’ve been a chemist, an engineer and a materials scientist. The companies have ranged from a start-up with 17 employees, to a 200 yr old FSTE 100 company with over 13,000 employees. There is a world of variety in a science-based career and I’m only just getting started.