Chair's Message
Welcome to the SCI Colloid and Surface Chemistry Technical Interest Group web pages.
The UK has contributed much to the heritage in colloid science. It was Thomas Graham in 1861 who coined the term colloids from his studies on dialysis; 'crystalloid solutions' would pass through membranes while 'colloid solutions' would not. Around a similar time (1857) Michael Faraday proposed the presence of 'exceedingly fine particles', which today we know as nanoparticles, as the cause of the ruby to blue colourations in gold sols, some of which still remain today to inspire the next generation of colloid scientists in the Royal Institution museum in London. In our modern world, colloid and surface chemistry impacts upon virtually every aspect of life today whereupon the fundamental features of colloid science will have been tackled and harnessed although often this important contribution goes unseen and unrecognised. Through this group we all have an opportunity to realise and promote the important role that colloid science plays today.
The function of this Technical Interest Group is to represent members' interests in this incredibly important and enabling discipline, to educate fellow practitioners, learned societies, policy makers and the lay person alike. Together with our sister organisation, the Colloid and Interface Science Group of the Royal Society of Chemistry, we form the Joint Colloid Group which supports an active colloid science community in the UK by running several meetings; UKcolloids2011 (July), Capturing Colloids (October, joint with RMS), Innovation in Colloid Formulation: Secrets of Formulation III (November, joint with FSTG) along with the McBain and Rideal award lectures. Please support these meetings whether you are in academia, industry, a student, retired scientist or new to this field, we run these meetings for you and their success and future existence relies on your participation.
To recognise achievements to Colloid Science in the UK the group has three awards starting with the McBain award for those in the earlier stages of their career, the Graham Lectureship newly introduced as a mid-career award and culminating in the Rideal award for more extensive contributions. (More details). Previous recipients are listed and we encourage you to actively participate in the selection process by nominating worthy candidates.
We hope these activities capture the majority of the expectations of our members, but if you have a particular request or suggestion, please feel free to communicate this to us. These web pages detail our conferences, awards and committee composition; we look forward to seeing you at one or more of our events.
Dr Malcolm Faers
Chairman
Colloid and Surface Chemistry Group