The NMR discussion group – Christmas meetings past and present
175 minutes for chemistry
Stephen Byard, NMR discussion group secretary, reports on the annual NMR Discussion Group Christmas Meeting
The established annual NMR Discussion Group Christmas Meeting continues to provide an opportunity for celebrating achievements, in addition to attracting delegates and speakers involved in a wide range of NMR related disciplines. At the end of 2015, we celebrated 50 years of Progress in NMR Spectroscopy, in conjunction with the 50th Anniversary of the NMR Discussion Group.
It was a great pleasure to invite Jim Feeney, Les Sutcliffe and Jim Emsley (pictured left to right), who edited the first edition of Progress in NMR Spectroscopy and authored the two-volume text High Resolution NMR Spectroscopy in 1965, to share their experiences and reflections on the advances in NMR spectroscopy over the last 50 years.
Presentations of their recent work were given by Prof Steve Matthews (Imperial College, London), Dr Melanie Britton (Birmingham University), Prof Angela Gronenborn (Pittsburgh University, USA), Prof Gordon Roberts (Leicester University), Prof Geoffrey Luckhurst (Southampton University) and Dr Denis Merlet (Université Paris-Sud), all of whom continue an active involvement in NMR based research following early career supervision from either Jim Feeney, Les Sutcliffe or Jim Emsley.
Impactful speaking
At the 2016 Christmas meeting we were pleased to invite two speakers from overseas, Prof Lucio Frydman (Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel) and Prof Tina Thiele (Technische Universität Darmstadt, Germany), in addition to Dr Alan Kenwright (Durham University), Prof Andrew Baldwin (Oxford University) and Dr John Griffin (University of Lancaster).
To acknowledge the highly successful work being performed by UK based early career research workers, the two prize-winners from the 9th annual NMR Discussion Group Postgraduate meeting were invited to give presentations alongside the established researchers; Susana Ramalhete (University of East Anglia), prize-winner for best oral presentation, gave a detailed overview of her work towards understanding nanoscale organisation of tailored supramolecular gels using NMR spectroscopy. Claire Dickson (University of Bristol), prize-winner for best poster presentation, provided an update on her work associated with improving NMR methods for solving three-dimensional molecular structures in solution. The NMR Discussion Group Chairperson, Prof Sharon Ashbrook, presented Susana and Claire with certificates in recognition of their achievements.
Further information
The NMR Discussion Group plans to host a series of events in 2017, including the 10th NMR Discussion Group Postgraduate Meeting at the University of Strathclyde on June 22nd and the Christmas meeting in London on December 14th. Details of all NMR DG events are made available on our website: nmrdg.org.uk
175 minutes for chemistry
As the oldest chemical society in the world, we celebrated our 175th anniversary in 2016. We wanted to mark this milestone by recognising the important contributions our community makes to the chemical sciences. We asked our members and supporters to dedicate 175 minutes to chemistry in 2016 and share their stories with us. We featured these stories throughout the year on our website, in print in RSC News, and on social media using #time4chem.