Poster Prize for Jiří

On April 6, the McGonigal Group made the short trip north to Newcastle to attend the RSC's Organic Division North East Regional Meeting 2016. Jiří's poster 'Cycloheptatrienes – a New Class of Luminogenic Materials' was awarded a Poster Prize, sponsored by AstraZeneca. Congratulations Jiří!

As well as presenting posters, Paul, Aisha, and Jiří had the chance to hear about some exciting chemistry coming out of universities in the North East and to listen to plenary lectures from two RSC prize winners, Professors David O'Hagan and Michael Krische.

Realising Our Potential

We now have an EmStat3+ Potentiostat set up and running in the lab. The instrument will allow us to perform bulk electrolysis experiments and to analyse the electrochemical properties of the new compounds that we are synthesising.

For more photographs of our laboratory space, see the virtual Laboratory Tour.

Jiri Joins the Team

Jiří Šturala joined the group this week as our first Postdoctoral Researcher, supported by a prestigious Experientia Foundation Fellowship. During his PhD at UCT Prague, Jiří investigated heteroarenium salts, Tröger's base analogues, and graphite oxide reduction. In Durham, he'll use his synthetic organic and computational chemistry skills to probe the chemistry of dynamic cations.

MASC 2015

On December 21 and 22, the annual MASC meeting was in town, showcasing recent developments in supramolecular and macrocyclic chemistry. Aisha presented the first ever McGonigal Group poster to see the light of day at a conference.

As well as witnessing some exciting science, Paul, Aisha, and Gemma attended a very memorable conference dinner at Durham Castle and enjoyed a short-lived hot streak at the MASC 'Supramolecular Casino'.

Christmas Cheer

The McGonigal Group celebrated the end of term and the upcoming Christmas holidays with silly hats, Thai food, and our Walton Group colleagues. Bring on 2016!

Group Christmas Dinner 2015. From left to right: Archie, Paul, Gemma, Aisha, Alex, Chris, Jack, Jasmine, and James.

Automated Chromatography

We recently received delivery of a CombiFlash Rf+ purification system. The system will reduce time spent on compound purifications, minimising solvent waste and giving improved chromatographic resolution compared to manual flash chromatography.

For more photographs of our laboratory space, see the virtual Laboratory Tour.

Durham Calling

Over the next few months, Paul will move gradually out of the penumbra of Northwestern and on to the sunny North of England! The McGonigal Group will open for business on June 1, 2015.