09 August 2017
The 24th Joint Annual Conference of the SCI Chinese UK Group and The Chinese Society of Chemical Science and Technology in the UK (CSCST-UK), was held at Northumbria University from 23 to 24 June 2017. The conference was supported by SCI, the Education Section of Chinese Embassy in London, the UK Fluids Network (UKFN) and Northumbria University.
The theme of the conference was Novel Materials and Surfaces for Future Engineering. Materials, surfaces and fluids are extremely important elements and building blocks for chemistry and chemical engineering. In modern industry, novel materials and novel surfaces play key roles in the chemical industry, and bring added value to everyday life and society. Without them, new technologies that are changing the world such as electrical vehicles, solar panels, biomedical and healthcare devices, would not be possible or affordable.
The 2017 conference brought people together to discuss the most up-to-date and emergent research opportunities and challenges in materials and surfaces. It covered a wide range of important topics in the chemical industry, such as microfluidics, surface and interfaces, novel processes, heat and mass transfer, photochemistry, electrochemistry and so on. Topics of novel materials, such as Precision Synthetic Macromolecules, Phase Change Materials, BioCatalysis, Supramolecules, Hydrogels, nano materials and biomaterials, attracted a lot of interest and discussion. Approximately 130 researchers registered for the event, including researchers and industry experts from the UK, Ireland and mainland China.
Dr Jiawei Wang, CSCST President, gave a talk on the CSCST-UK and sent the greetings from Mr Yongli Wang the Minister Counsellor for Education at the Chinese Embassy in London. Dr Weiping Wu, SCI Chinese UK Group Chair, introduced SCI. He explained how SCI can support researchers, industry communities and young students, as well as how to join SCI as a member. Professor Glen McHale the FPVC of Northumbria University and UKFN SIG Chair gave everyone a very warm welcome and introduced the research of the team he leads.
The two-day conference was a great success; there were 40 high quality talks together with 19 posters. On the first day, the plenary talk of the conference was given by Professor Xiongwei Ni, of Heriot-Watt University, titled ‘What is the fuss about continuous crystallisation?’. Professor Ni is a world expert in the science and technological applications of oscillatory baffled reactors (OBR). Following this, the conference continued in two themes, run in parallel;
- Theme 1 was SCI-CSCST and chaired by Dr Tao Chen (University of Surrey), Dr Ben Xu (Northumbria University) and Dr Ji Liu (University of Cambridge) for 11 talks, in three sessions.
- Theme 2 was the UKFN SIG symposium, chaired by Dr Yifan Li (Northumbria University), Dr Jining Sun (Heriot Watt University) for another 11 talks.
Poster sessions were held during coffee breaks and inspired a lot of discussion, new ideas and networking. On the day, SCI had an exhibition desk and attracted many researchers and students interested in joining.
Awards for best Oral Presentation and Posters were announced based on the recommendation by the referee panels. All prize winners were awarded SCI membership and certificates from SCI. The SCI-CSCST-UNFN prize winners are listed here:
The Best SCI-CSCST Oral Presentation
- First Prize: Dr Ziyu Yu (University of Cambridge) - Droplet-based microfluidics for supramolecular encapsulations
- Second Prize: Sharon Gregg (Queens University of Belfast) - Functionalised Porous Organic Polymers for Bioactive Nitric Oxide Delivery
- Third Prize: Dr Ruijiao Dong (Imperial College London) - Synthesis and Applications of Precision Synthetic Macromolecules
The Best UKFN SIG oral presentation
- Robson Kalata Nazareth (University of Edinburgh) - Counter-current thermocapillary migration of bubbles in self-rewetting liquids
- Ding Wang (Northumbria University) - Formation of harmonic wrinkling patterns and multi-scale surface evolution guided by structural confinements
- Jack Panter (Durham University) - Paths to failure: designing surfaces to resist the breakdown of super liquid repellency
The Best Poster Presentations
- He Su (Queens University of Belfast) - Ultraviolet light sensitive porous N-nitroso polymers controlling delivery of antimicrobial nitric oxide for topical therapy
- Xiaoxia Ou (The University of Manchester) - Incorporation of iron in hierarchical ZSM-5 zeolite on open-cell foams for developing high-throughput catalytic wastewater treatment
- Fangzhou Wang (University of Surrey) - Fluid-solid interaction simulation for convex polygon particles with coupled LBM and DEM method
- Elfego Ruiz (Northumbria University) - Energy invariance in capillary systems
- Junqiu Guo (University of Southampton) - Facile Fabrication of Zn-Doped BiOBr Hiearchical Architectures with Unusual Photocatalytic Performance
Finally, the conference committee showed the delegates around the campus, the department and the labs at Northumbria University. To view photographs from this event, please see the link below.
Dr Weiping Wu
Chair, SCI Chinese UK Group
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