Neave Taylor was awarded a Brian Vincent Travel Bursary to attend Australasian Colloid and Interface Symposium (ACIS) at Glenelg, South Australia in February 2026. Here she tells us about her highlights from the conference.
I’m a third year DPhil (PhD) student in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Oxford under the supervision of Professor Susan Perkin. I am working on understanding electrode-electrolyte interfaces relevant to battery applications on the nanoscale. I completed my Bachelor of Science (Advanced) and Bachelor of Advanced Studies (Honours Class I) at the University of Sydney and hope to move back to Australia for postdoctoral work after completing my DPhil. I was especially thrilled to receive the Brian Vincent Award as a chance to connect with the colloids and interfaces world back home and be a point of contact for UK collaborations.
Thanks to the support of the award, I was able to attend the Australasian Colloid and Interface Symposium (ACIS) at Glenelg on the land of the Kaurna people. At the conference I presented a talk entitled ‘using the electrochemical surface force balance to understand electrode-electrolyte interfaces’ for which I received a lot of encouraging and thoughtful feedback. Much of research at the conference was focussed on understanding fundamentals in systems relevant to applications. This is the type of research I find most exciting so it was great to see so many groups approaching many of different problems from this angle. My work is focussed at the solid-liquid interface in battery systems, but interfaces of all kinds (primarily liquid-solid and liquid-gas) were well-represented at the conference.
The conference was fantastically well-organised in every respect, but I must give special thanks to Professor Marta Krasowska and Associate Professor Saffron Bryant for corresponding about my award and travel in the lead-up to the conference and being so welcoming once I arrived.
When not in talks it was delightful to spend time with new friends sampling the Gelateria on Jetty Rd and eating hot chips on Glenelg beach watching the sunset over the beautiful Holdfast Bay.
I also attended the Scattering Workshop which gave great insight into the national facilities available in Australia as well as generally enhancing my understanding of scattering techniques. I also had the opportunity to speak at the 2nd National AFM workshop and as part of the School Seminar Programme at the School of Chemistry, University of Sydney, during my trip.
It was a wonderful and career changing trip which could not have happened without the support of the RSC and SCI for the award. Thanks also to my college, Trinity College Oxford, for additional financial support.
Neave Taylor
PhD Student
University of Oxford
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