Established under a Trust Deed made by the late Professor Sir Geoffrey Wilkinson
The periodic table of element scarcity has been updated largely to reflect problems with human over-use of Carbon, Nitrogen and Phosphorus, which are increasingly impacting the biogeochemical cycles of these elements. If you look closely you will spot a few of the other elements are under increased pressure through over use since the last itteration…
Find out more, and download a free copy of the element scarcity periodic table, from the EuChemS website using the link below:
The Wilkinson Foundation is pleased to sponsor a new series of lectures: The inaugural Sir Geoffrey Wilkinson Annual Lecture was presented by Join Professor John Hartwig (Henry Rapoport Chair in Organic Chemistry, University of California Berkeley) on 9th December 2022 at Imperial College London.
The lecture covered aspects of the development and use of catalysts in organic synthesis, from acetic acid to complex organic molecules like Vancomycin and Taxol.
For more details and the opportunity to view the lecture on YouTube , please visit the link below:
The 2022 Sir Geoffrey Wilkinson Dalton Poster Symposium was held in Burlington House on September 7th. This event, organised by our Dalton Community and supported by the Sir Geoffrey Wilkinson Foundation brought together 60 PhD and Postdoc researchers from across the UK to present their work to senior representatives from industry and academia. This year’s event was particularly special as it was the first time that the event was held in-person since 2019. The day was closed by presentations from two of the RSC Dalton Community Prize winners, Dr Ruth Webster and Professor James Wilton-Ely, who gave talks about their award winning research.
The poster symposium, which has been running since 2015, provides an opportunity for talented young inorganic chemists undertaking a PhD or postdoc to present their work to the wider community, practice their presentation skills, raise their visibility and make research connections for future collaborations. Posters are assessed by a panel of expert judges, and the winners receive bursaries to attend an international conference.
PhD Category
Winner: Niko Jenek
Runner-up: Viliyana G. Lewis
Runner-up: Yara van Ingen
Winner: Oliver Townrow
Runner-up: Darren Ould
The Trustees offer warmest congratulations to the winners and runners up in the video competition, Chemistry Rediscovered. Sir Geoffrey Wilkinson EYCN Video Competition run by the European Young Chemists’ Network.
There were 2 competitions; one for school pupils and the other for university students, the topic being Safety in Chemistry.
All of the videos were of a very high standard (see the link at the foot of the page to judge them yourself!), with the outstanding winners being:
Pupils:
1st Place: Hiskia Barthel, Jette Götz and Sophia Müller – Topic: The Story of a Glowing Destiny (YouTube)
2nd Place: Annalena Wallner, Paula Walz and Sophia Lieby – Topic: Safety in an Entertaining Way (YouTube)
3rd Place: Woolyn Cho – Topic: White Phosphorous (YouTube)
Students:
1st Place: Sophia Marie Castillo, Aira Dacasin, Jeff Howell Hernandez and Danielle May Lozanes – Topic: General Laboratory Safety (YouTube)
2nd Place: Wouter Van Hoey, Sander Bossier and Radu-George Ciocarlan – Topic: General Lab Safety Rules (YouTube)
3rd Place: Romel Paul B. Hilario, Alyssa Reina P. Moneda, Joanna C. Rivero and Joseph Michael G. Sioson – Topic: Often Overlooked Safety Aspects (YouTube)
Filip Aniés was awarded a Geoffrey Wilkinson Prize Studentship in 2018; to study silver nanoparticles and carborane compounds at Imperial College, London. He has written about his experiences as a PhD student, and working during the pandemic…
You can read more on the Imperial Natural Sciences blog:
Reflections on life as a PhD student and a Geoffrey Wilkinson Prize Scholar
See also: Synthetic processes for plasmonic materials (on this website).
Between 29 June to 1 July 2021, the Royal Society of Chemistry Sir Geoffrey Wilkinson Dalton Poster Competition took place online as part of the Dalton Joint Interest Group meeting. Whilst this event was on hold in 2020 because of the Covid-19 pandemic, we were delighted that the competition was able to resume, albeit in a virtual format.
The posters were distributed across four themes: Coordination and Organometallic Chemistry; Main Group Chemistry; Inorganic Reaction Mechanisms; Inorganic Biochemistry.
A judging committee reviewed the posters and selected winners across the four themes, as well as an overall winner up in the PhD and postdoc categories. The winners were announced by the Dalton Division President, Professor Robert Mulvey, during the conferences closing remarks and the winners all received a PDF certificate and bursary. 354 people attended the online event this year, with 61 posters being presented at the Symposium.
The following chemists won prizes this year:
Winner: Natalia Baranska,University of York
Runner-up: Leah Webster, Imperial College London
Winner: Debanjana Biswal, University of Calcutta
Runner-up: Laurence Doyle, University of York
Winner: Patrick Morgan, University of Nottingham
Winner: Rebecca Salthouse, Durham University
Winner: Silvia Schoch, University of Pisa
Winner: Alexander Beaton Garcia, University of Edinburgh
Following the great success of the European Young Chemists’ Network (EYCN) Video competition in 2019 Chemistry Rediscovered – In your Element, which the foundation sponsored. The Wilkinson Charitable Foundation has agreed to become the permanent sponsor of the video competition, now to be called: Chemistry Rediscovered – The Sir Geoffrey Wikinson EYCN Video Competition.
This year the subject will be Safety in Chemistry. For all information and a submission form please visit:
EuChemS EYCN Contests – EuChemS
Videos submitted to the 2019 competition can be found on YouTube at: ‘Chemistry Rediscovered 2019 – In Your Element’
The RSC Sir Geoffrey Wilkinson Dalton Poster Symposium is an annual event, supported by the Wilkinson Charitable Foundation, and hosted by the Dalton Division of the Royal Society of Chemistry. In odd years, the conference takes place as a standalone event at the Royal Society of Chemistry’s London headquarters, Burlington House. In even years, the event is a part of the popular biennial Dalton Joint Interest Group meeting, and takes place at the University of Warwick.
Above: Gallery of winners from 2019, all photos © Royal Society of Chemistry.
The poster symposium, which has been running since 2015, provides an opportunity for talented young inorganic chemists undertaking a PhD or postdoc to present their work to the wider community, practice their presentation skills, raise their visibility and make research connections for future collaborations. Posters are assessed by a panel of expert judges, and the winners receive bursaries to attend an international conference.
Find out more about the 2019 event through the link below to the RSC:
RSC Dalton Poster Symposium 2019
Lucy Johnstone, Philanthropy Lead.
Royal Society of Chemistry
The Wilkinson Charitable Foundation funds a PhD studentship at Imperial College. The current student (since September 2019) is Filip Aniés, who is studying for his PhD under the direction of Profs Martin Heeney and John de Mello.
Originally from Sweden, Filip came to the UK in 2014 to study Chemistry at Imperial College London. He gained his first experience of academic research as a research intern at KAUST, Saudi Arabia, where he worked on organic photovoltaic devices (OPVs) with Prof Iain McCulloch and Prof Derya Baran. Having thoroughly enjoyed this experience, he continued to work in the area of organic semiconductors (OSCs) through his Master’s project, where he synthesised new OSCs with applications in organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) under supervision of Prof Martin Heeney. This experience fuelled his passion for the synthesis and design of functional materials.
Being awarded the Sir Geoffrey Wilkinson Studentship Prize in 2018, Filip was given the opportunity to enrol for PhD studies under joint supervision of Prof Martin Heeney and Prof John de Mello. Shifting his focus to inorganic functional materials, Filip is currently researching synthetic processes for plasmonic materials.
Surface plasmons are collective electron oscillations confined to a material surface, and they interact strongly with light waves of equal frequency. Because the optical properties of plasmonic nanoparticles are mainly dependent on particle size and shape – rather than on the intrinsic properties of the material – there is widespread interest in the control of such features. Plasmonic nanoparticles have several applications, including biosensing and surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS), and by tuning the optical properties of the particles they can be optimised for specific purposes.
The focus of Filip’s current research project is the synthesis of silver nanoprisms. By combining flow synthetic methods with in-line optical characterisation, Filip aims to automate the synthesis and facilitate the tunability of silver nanoprisms via live product monitoring and facile adjustment of reaction conditions. This approach could potentially be extended to a self-optimising system, or be applied to further plasmonic and optical materials.
Elemental Escapades is a short 2D platform game in which you play as Jan, a janitor inadvertently transported to a land where she must solve chemical puzzles to overcome obstacles and put the periodic table of the elements back together…
Elemental Escapades! A Periodic Table Adventure by Offensive Magenta Games, is available for free at GameJolt
The game is presented by EuChemS, the European Chemical Society, with funding from the Wilkinson Foundation. It is part of the celebration of 2019 as the International Year of the Periodic Table of Chemical Elements.
The International Year of the Periodic Table
Alexander Russell – game design, programming, Nick Cole-Hamilton – Audio design, narrative, Scott D’Arcy – artwork