School of Chemistry Postgraduate Conference celebrates stars of 2025 

The 2025 School of Chemistry Postgraduate Conference has brought the academic year to an entertaining close with a two-day event featuring presentations, prizes, lectures, and the staff-student ball.

The conference (10-11 June) featured oral presentations from the third-year PhD students and posters by the second-year students, highlighting the broad scope and high quality of the research in the School. Discussions spanned the full range of chemistry, including flow reactors for chemical and enzymatic catalysis, as well as nanoparticle synthesis; the sustainability of liquid crystals; dyes for photocatalysis and medical applications; and “biomorphic” cone- and ribbon-shaped crystals of simple inorganic salts.

The event concluded with a plenary lecture by Professor Paul McGonigal from the University of York and the University of Oxford. Paul presented his work on manipulating aromaticity by steric strain and stereochemically non-rigid “shapeshifting” molecules. A staff-student ball followed the conference.

The students and staff voted for prizes for the best talks and poster presentations. The Kate Furneaux prize was also awarded, which is given to PhD students making a notable contribution to the non-academic life of the School. The prize winners (standing left to right in the image above) were Rachel Napier, Rose McCarthy, Oliver Ayre, Karandip Saini, Abigail McConnell, Thomas French, and Eve Loughlan.

The conference was organised by Ben Fenton and his colleagues on the Postgraduate Student Committee, as well as the Director of Postgraduate Studies, Malcolm Halcrow. We are very grateful to Fluorochem, the Royal Society of Chemistry, and the Leeds University Union for sponsoring the event, which included a book token and cash prizes donated by the RSC journals Reaction Chemistry and Engineering, Molecular Systems Design and Engineering, RSC Chemical Biology, and RSC Advances.