Department of Chemistry course timetable
May 2016
| Thu 12 |
CP6 Writing an Effective Grant Application (1L) |
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Stuart Cantrill (Chief Editor, Nature Chemistry) will discuss the publishing process and what goes on in the editorial office, as well as providing some guidance on how to write a paper, how to write an abstract and some DOs and DON'Ts when it comes to titles and graphical abstracts. There will also be broader consideration of peer review in general, the wider chemistry publishing landscape and also other aspects such as metrics (impact factor, altmetrics, etc) and the use of social media. |
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| Fri 13 |
Dr Helen Potter Session Summary: Many chemists will have already been involved with scientific publishers through submitting journal articles, using databases or reading textbooks. In this session, Helen will give an introduction to the diverse careers in scientific publishing that are available to chemistry graduates and discuss what life is like on the other side of the computer screen. Speaker Biography: Helen Potter is the Data Content Editor for MarinLit and Natural Product Updates at the Royal Society of Chemistry, creating content for both databases, overseeing their technical development and managing their editorial processes. She studied natural sciences at Cambridge, followed by a PhD investigating intermediates in polyketide biosynthesis with Joe Spencer and Finian Leeper. Helen joined the Royal Society of Chemistry as a graduate publishing editor in 2010, working on a range of journals, from Green Chemistry to Natural Product Reports. In 2014 she moved to become the Data Content Editor for MarinLit as part of the acquisition of that database, and took on responsibility for Natural Product Updates later that year. |
| Mon 16 |
Drs Freija Glansdorp (Greaves Brewster LLP, Cheshire) & Jonathan Wills (Mewburn Ellis LLP) Session Summary: In this session, Jonathan and Freija will give an introduction to patents and the patent application process. They will discuss the role patents have in protecting chemical inventions and hindering the exploitation of certain products, and they will introduce some of the concepts that are of particular importance to those working with patents, including novelty and inventiveness. Jonathan and Freija will also discuss the career options that are available to chemists wishing to work in patent law. Speaker Biographies: Freija Glansdorp is a chartered UK patent attorney and a European patent attorney who works at Greaves Brewster LLP in Cheddar. She studied natural sciences at Cambridge and stayed on for a PhD in organic chemistry with David Spring, with her research focusing on novel modes of action of antibacterial agents. Following her PhD she started training as a patent attorney with one of the large London-based patent firms, and after about three and a half years there she moved on to Greaves Brewster LLP. Being based in Cheddar, this has allowed her to continue to do high level patent work while also enjoying the beauty of Somerset, preferably from the back of one of her four Icelandic horses. Jonathan Wills is also a chartered UK patent attorney and a European patent attorney, and he is partner with the firm Mewburn Ellis LLP. Jonathan came to Cambridge for his PhD after obtaining his chemistry degree at the University of Edinburgh. Jonathan worked for Shankar Balasubramanian on solid phase synthesis and small molecule G quadruplex binders. After finishing his research in the chemistry department Jonathan joined Mewburn Ellis, where he has worked for ten years, and he is now based in their Cambridge office. Jonathan handles much of the chemistry patent work from the University, most recently for Oren Scherman and Tuomas Knowles. Jonathan lives in Barton where he grows cucumbers and courgettes. |
| Tue 17 |
(FS8) Dignity@Study (1L)
Finished
The University of Cambridge is committed to protecting the dignity of staff, students, visitors to the University, and all members of the University community in their work and their interactions with others. The University expects all members of the University community to treat each other with respect, courtesy and consideration at all times. All members of the University community have the right to expect professional behaviour from others, and a corresponding responsibility to behave professionally towards others. Nick will explore what this means for graduate students in this Department and the session will conclude with tea/coffee and biscuits, in order to provide an opportunity to ask questions more informally. |
| Wed 18 |
Drs Zoe Hollowood, Joan van den Brink and Julian Lomas Session Summary: This session will illustrate how it is possible to develop careers that are very different from the traditional routes followed by science and technology graduates and why it is important that some science and technology graduates pursue these careers. Speaker Biographies: Joan van den Brink is the owner of Araba Consulting, a boutique consultancy that works with organisations to enable their people to be more effective. Joan has had a varied career that enables her to understand how organisations work and what people need to do so that they and their organisations are successful. After graduating with a PhD in Organic Chemistry from Cambridge University, Joan decided to enter the commercial world in a marketing capacity. She soon realised that she relished the challenge of being creative and handling multiple projects simultaneously and moved into operations management whilst retaining her focus on commerciality. After >13 years working for manufacturing companies, Joan switched careers again, going into management consultancy. She worked with senior leaders and their teams in a wide range of organisations and fields of expertise include strategic HR, talent strategy, leadership, organisational development, performance management, change leadership and client relationship development. After 12 years as a consultant, Joan joined a speciality chemicals company as EVP HR & Communications where she led the development of both functions. In 2014 Joan established Araba Consulting. Julian Lomas is the owner of Almond Tree Strategic Consulting, a specialist consultancy for the not-for-profit sector specialising in strategy and planning, fundraising, governance and change management (together with a growing international development practice). After graduating with a PhD in physical and theoretical chemistry from Cambridge, Julian had a varied 11-year career in the public sector, starting in the research councils and finishing as a local government director. During this time Julian developed a passion for the not-for-profit sector and became a Trustee of a number of charities. In 2007, seeking a change of direction from public service, it was a natural progression for Julian to follow his passion and start a business supporting charities, social enterprises, universities and public sector bodies to be more effective and make a bigger difference for the communities they serve. He works with organisations ranging in size from zero employees and a few thousand pounds annual income to hundreds of employees and tens of millions of annual income, helping them to be more sustainable, to grow and to operate more effectively, legally and efficiently. |
| Thu 19 |
This session introduces Research Data Management (RDM) to Chemistry PhD students. It is highly interactive and utilises practical activities throughout. Key topics covered are:
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| Fri 20 |
Drs Simon Turner (Alacrita Consulting) & Tim Guilliams Speaker Biographies: Simon Turner is a Partner of specialist life-science consulting company Alacrita, focusing on strategic and technology commercialisation issues in pharmaceuticals and life science technologies for institutional IP owners, biotechs and pharmaceutical companies. Simon has an MA in Natural Sciences and a PhD in organic chemistry from the University of Cambridge. After an early career as a bench scientist at Eli Lilly and ICI Agrochemicals, Simon joined 3i plc, where he was responsible for a number of venture capital investments across a range of sectors. Moving into strategic management consulting, first at Arthur D Little and latterly Andersen Consulting, over 10 years Simon advised blue chip life science companies on issues related to business strategy, technology management & product commercialization. In 2000, Simon became Chief Executive of Cambridge spin-out, Biotica Technology, an early stage venture-capital backed drug-discovery company based on microbial genetic engineering, which he led for five years. He has since 2005 been involved as investor and advisor to research-based life science companies and IP owners. |
| Mon 23 |
John Redshaw (BP) |
| Tue 24 |
(FS4) Integrity and Ethics in Research
CANCELLED
Drs Emily Skinner (Publishing Ethics Specialist, RSC) and Rhys Morgan (Cambridge University Research Strategy Office) A thorough awareness of issues relating to research ethics and research integrity are essential to producing excellent research. The first part of this session will provide an introduction to the ethical responsibilities of researchers at the University, the second will focus on publication ethics and both will be interactive, using case studies to better understand key ethical issues and challenges in all areas. |
| Wed 25 |
Dr Anna Nicolas-Kopec (International Tanker Owners Pollution Federation, London) Session Summary: ITOPF is a not-for-profit marine ship pollution response advisers providing impartial advice worldwide on effective response to spills of oil & chemicals. Annabelle is sent across the world to advise people on how to clean any oil or chemical spill occurring at sea. Speaker Biography: Dr Annabelle Nicolas-Kopec is a Chartered Chemist and Technical Adviser at ITOPF (the International Tanker Owners Pollution Federation) where she provides clean-up advice, assesses pollution damage, assists in spill response planning and provides training/information to the shipping industry. She has attended many ship-source incidents worldwide and has also provided risk assessments on numerous types of oil and hazardous substances. She has been coordinating the ITOPF R&D Award since its creation in 2011, and since then has supported the development of four winning research projects. She is also the ITOPF Representative at the IMO Pollution, Prevention, and Response subcommittee meetings and is a leading member of the ITOPF HNS (Hazardous and Noxious Substances) Working Group. Annabelle joined ITOPF in January 2011 after earning her doctorate in organic chemistry in 2010 in Cambridge with Matthew Gaunt. |
| Fri 27 |
Dr Julian Huppert Speaker Biography: Julian Huppert is the former Member of Parliament for Cambridge from 2010-15. He has a PhD in Biological Chemistry from CUCL and specialised in the structure of DNA. Before entering Westminster politics, he was also CEO of a small biotech company, which was awarded a DTI ‘Smart’ award for innovation. As the only former practising research scientist in the Commons, Julian is a passionate advocate of evidence informed policy and has emphasised the need for expertise and understanding of science in Parliament. He was awarded the IPSA ‘Internet Hero of the Year’ in 2012. He is now back in the University as a Lecturer, working on public policy. He is also a trustee of DrugScience, campaigning for a more sensible drugs policy. |
June 2016
| Wed 1 |
Dr Alan Gundle FIchemE and Dr Victoria Jones Session Summary: RSSL is a contract analytical sciences company serving the food, pharmaceutical and healthcare industries. Having Mondelēz International as a parent company means that a portion of the work involves fascinating products such as Cadburys chocolate and Philadelphia cream cheese. In this session the presenters will explain the work of a contract analytical company through the lens of RSSL and explain how analytical chemistry adds intellectual and financial value to organisations. Speaker Biography: Victoria Jones joined the RSSL contract laboratories directly after completing a degree in Chemistry and a D.Phil. in Inorganic Chemistry from Jesus College, Oxford. She started out in the Pharmaceutical Laboratory running and designing tablet dissolution studies and managing the stability storage facilities before moving to the Physical Sciences laboratory with a greater exposure to food analysis. Becoming Laboratory Manager of that department, and also the Metals Department preceded a move to work for the parent company, Mondelēz. Having recently completed an MA in Applied Business Management, Vicki is now a Senior Group Leader in the Ingredients Research group. Alan Gundle completed his MEng degree in Chemical Engineering studying at Peterhouse, Cambridge. He started his career with Kraft R&D in Munich, Germany, and has since lived in much of Europe whilst conducting research in a number of food categories before joining RSSL in 2012. He is now the Managing Director at RSSL and the Global Analytical Sciences lead for Mondelēz International. |
| Thu 2 |
Drs Jo Haywood (Parkside Federation), Alexandra Cardwell (St Mary’s School, Cambridge) and Robert Snell (Charterhouse) Speaker Biographies: Alexandra Cardwell grew up in Switzerland and obtained her Bachelor's and Master's degrees from the University of Geneva, followed by her PhD in Organic Chemistry at UCLA with Mike Jung. In 2004, she moved to Cambridge to post-doc for Steven Ley, during which time she supervised undergraduates, was a Teaching Bye-Fellow at Fitzwilliam College, taught one of the graduate lecture courses in Organometallic Chemistry and managed Steven Ley's lab. Having enjoyed teaching and youth work, in 2007 she joined the PGCE course at Homerton, then taught for 1 year in St Neots followed by four years at The Netherhall School. Since September 2013, she has been teaching at St Mary's School, an all girls Catholic independent school, in Cambridge. Jo Haywood is a Chemistry and Science Teacher at Parkside Federation, who trained by doing her PGCE in 2011-12 at Homerton. Before that, she did a PhD with Andrew Wheatley, which followed on from studying Natural Sciences at Peterhouse. Throughout her PhD, Jo did a large number of supervisions and examples classes, which was what persuaded her that teaching was for her. Having completed his undergraduate studies at the Universities of Exeter and Bath, Robert Snell worked for a year in Singapore on alkaloid synthesis with Rod Bates. He went on to complete a D.Phil at the University of Oxford with Michael Willis in the application of desymmetrization on the synthesis of natural products. Robert then moved to Cambridge as a postdoctoral researcher working with Matthew Gaunt on the application of sequential C-H activation in natural product synthesis. In 2013, he took a post as a teacher of chemistry at Charterhouse School in Godalming, Surrey. |
| Fri 3 |
Dr Deborah Longbottom Session Summary: In this session, Deborah will outline the opportunities that exist in both the US and the UK respectively for university jobs that are teaching-focused. She will highlight the differences which exist between the countries and explain how to prepare and apply for these positions. Speaker Biography: Deborah Longbottom has been a Teaching Fellow in the Department of Chemistry for several years and has recently taken on the post of Head of Graduate Education. She was previously a Senior Research Associate in the group of Steven V. Ley, which followed post-doctoral studies with K. C. Nicolaou at The Scripps Research Institute, San Diego, California and experience in the pharmaceutical industry. Deborah currently lectures courses in the Department to first and final year students ('Reactions and Mechanisms in Organic Chemistry’ and 'Medicinal Chemistry' respectively) and is involved in many aspects of outreach work. Her research interests have encompassed both natural product synthesis and method development and most recently, a fruitful research collaboration with the O'Reilly group at Warwick University has led to interesting investigations on the synthesis and utility of polymers functionalized with organocatalytic species. |
| Mon 6 |
Explore the many and varied career options in industry for chemical professionals. You'll not only learn about bench chemists, but also chemists who work in management, patent law, regulatory affairs, technology transfer, technical communications, and information science. You'll discover the best way to find jobs in industry, manage the recruitment process, Finally, this lecture offers some valuable tips for making your first year on the job in industry a great one. Mukund S. Chorghade, Ph.D: Biography Dr. Mukund Chorghade is President of Chorghade Enterprises and Chief Scientific Officer, THINQ Pharma/THINQ Discovery, AGN Biofuels and Empiriko. He is also an adjunct research professor at Northeastern University and has appointments at Harvard and MIT. He provides synthetic chemistry and development expertise to pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical companies. He also provides consultations on collaborations with academic, government and industrial laboratories. He advises technology based companies on process re-engineering and project management of technology transfer; establishes strategic partnerships and conducts cGLP/cGMP compliance training and implementation in chemical laboratories. He oversees projects in medicinal chemistry, chemical route selection, manufacturing and formulation of bulk actives to finished dosage forms. Dr. Chorghade earned his B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees from the University of Poona, and a Ph.D. in organic chemistry at Georgetown University. He completed postdoctoral appointments at the University of Virginia and Harvard University, visiting scientist appointments at University of British Columbia, College de France/Universite' Louis Pasteur, Cambridge and Caltech and directed research groups at Dow Chemicals, Abbott Laboratories, CytoMed and Genzyme. A recipient of three "Scientist of the Year Awards", he is an elected Fellow of the ACS, AAAS and RSC and has been a featured speaker in several national and international symposia. He is active in ACS, AAAS, RSC, was NESACS and Brazosport Section Chair and serves on numerous professional Scientific Advisory Boards and Committees. |
| Tue 14 |
A one day course that explores the considerable research that has been done into leadership and the ways to develop individual leadership skills. The challenges of leadership will be discussed and participants will gain an appreciation of effective leadership behaviour, as well as being given the opportunity to discuss and develop their own approaches to being a leader. The Course Leader is Roger Sutherland, previously an HR Director for Mars Incorporated, and highly experienced in running courses for senior universities and companies. |
September 2016
| Tue 6 |
Mechanistic Enzymology Short Course
Finished
Enzymology provides a vital link between chemistry and biology and understanding the role of enzymes and how to modulate their activity remains a key focus for drug discovery. Fortunately, the language used to describe enzyme reactions is the chemical language of thermodynamics and kinetics, which facilitates the chemist’s ability to become fluent and so enriches the opportunity to design effective new medicines. This short course will provide a brief introduction to the kinetics and thermodynamics of ligand binding, an overview of different enzyme inhibition mechanisms, as well as an illustration of the analysis of time-dependent inhibition. Exploiting the information gained from such detailed mechanistic studies on enzymes with and without inhibitors allows the identification and evaluation of diverse compounds with favourable physicochemical properties, facilitates an understanding of detailed structure-activity relationships and provides the knowledge required to optimise leads towards differentiated candidate drugs. This course is provided by AZ Discovery Sciences. |
| Thu 29 |
Chemistry Networks Event
Finished
A special department networking with industry event. Places are very limited so please make sure that you attend if you book a place.
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October 2016
| Mon 3 |
SF1 Safety Induction
Finished
Part of Induction Week |
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SF1 Safety Induction
Finished
Part of Induction Week |
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| Mon 10 |
IS1 Chemistry Library Orientation
Finished
This is a compulsory session which introduces new graduate students to the Department of Chemistry Library and its place within the wider Cambridge University Library system. It provides general information on what is available, where it is, and how to get it. Print and online resources are included. You must choose one session out of the 9 sessions available. |
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This session is compulsory for all experimentalists to attend and will provide useful information regarding analytical facilities at this Department including NMR, mass spectrometry and X-ray crystallography. Short descriptions will be given of all available instruments, together with a tour to show participants where these instruments are located, as well as explain the procedures for preparing/submitting samples for the analysis will also be discussed. |
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| Tue 11 |
IS1 Chemistry Library Orientation
Finished
This is a compulsory session which introduces new graduate students to the Department of Chemistry Library and its place within the wider Cambridge University Library system. It provides general information on what is available, where it is, and how to get it. Print and online resources are included. You must choose one session out of the 9 sessions available. |
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IS1 Chemistry Library Orientation
Finished
This is a compulsory session which introduces new graduate students to the Department of Chemistry Library and its place within the wider Cambridge University Library system. It provides general information on what is available, where it is, and how to get it. Print and online resources are included. You must choose one session out of the 9 sessions available. |