Department of Chemistry course timetable

This course is made up of 10 sessions which will be based around the topics below: unlike other courses in the Graduate Lecture Series, it is essential to attend all 10 sessions to benefit from this training. Places are limited so please be absolutely certain upon booking that you will commit to the entire course.

‘Effective Researchers in Chemistry’ is for first year PhD students starting to engage with their projects. This workshop provides a highly interactive opportunity for PhD students to share issues and come to terms with what is actually required from them. Exercises cover project planning and management and working effectively with others (including supervisors). The lead tutor is a Chartered Chemist with extensive R&D management experience in industry, including the supervision of PhD students working on collaborative projects.

This course is made up of 10 sessions which will be based around the topics below: unlike other courses in the Graduate Lecture Series, it is essential to attend all 10 sessions to benefit from this training. Places are limited so please be absolutely certain upon booking that you will commit to the entire course.

This course is made up of 10 sessions which will be based around the topics below: unlike other courses in the Graduate Lecture Series, it is essential to attend all 10 sessions to benefit from this training. Places are limited so please be absolutely certain upon booking that you will commit to the entire course.

Much of scientific knowledge and information is communicated in written form, be it via journal publications, theses or in other media. However, scientific writing differs from other styles of writing quite significantly, with regard to structure, grammar and word choice. This lecture will outline the basics of what to consider when 'writing science', in order to smoothen the path to your first peer-reviewed publication, as well as your later thesis.

The main aim of giving a presentation to the public or a science venue is to present information in a way that the audience will remember at a later time. There are several ways in which we can improve this type of impact with an audience. This interactive lecture explores some of those mechanisms.

This hands-on course teaches the basics of Latex including syntax, lists, maths equations, basic chemical equations, tables, graphical figures and internal and external referencing. We also learn how to link documents to help manage large projects. The course manual is presented in the style of a thesis and since you also receive the source code you also receive a template for a thesis.

Alkaloids are nitrogen-containing natural products produced primarily by plants but also by all other types of organism. They have a wide range of biological and medicinal properties, e.g. stimulants, toxins, hallucinogens, anti-cancer, anti-malaria, etc. In this lecture we will look at ways in which we can discover how an organism makes a particular natural product and then look at the biosynthetic pathways to one or two of the huge number of known alkaloids. Finally we will look at ways in which people have exploited existing biosynthetic pathways to make altered natural products or to transfer production to more amenable organisms.

Terpenes (isoprenoids) are the largest class of natural product. They all share a common biosynthetic pathway in which a linear hydrocarbon diphosphate undergoes cationic cyclisation followed by a seies of rearrangements, oxidations, cleavages etc. to generate the vast array of known structures. In this lecture we will look at the biosynthetic pathways to some of the more well-known terpenes, at engineering readily grown organisms to make medicinal terpenes or biofuels, and at organic synthetic reactions inspired by the terpene biosynthetic pathway.

Polyketides, made by polyketide synthases (PKS), and non-ribosomal peptides, made by non-ribosomal peptide synthases (NRPS) are futher large classes of natural products containing very important medicinal compounds, including antibiotics erthyromycin (PKS), penicillins and vancomycin (NRPS). Unlike the alkaloids and terpenes, which are made by a succession of steps catalysed by monofunctional enzymes, polyketides and non-ribosomal peptides are generally made by huge multifunctional proteins, to which the starting material is tethered at the start of the process and then extended and modified by a series of domains in the protein, before finally being released at the end of the chain. This lecture will look at the mechanisms involved and the organisation of these "molecular production lines".

The relationship between a PhD student and their supervisor can be one of the most important relationships in a scientist’s career. This session will discuss what makes a successful relationship and how to manage any difficulties that might arise.

Naturally produced polyketides and non-ribosomal peptides possess a broad range of important biological activities and have the potential to be developed into potent pharmacological drugs. The assembly of these natural products has been the subject of intensive protein engineering efforts to produce tailored and improved analogues that perform desired biological activities. In this lecture a researcher from Isomerase Therapeutics Ltd will discuss strategies to modify the production lines of modular biosynthetic systems introduced in the previous lecture, and will present the concepts used to create 'designer' natural products that act as pharmacological agents, using real-life examples from Isomerase's portfolio.

Enzymes, which essentially catalyse all the reactions that occur in nature, generally show exquisite enantioselectivity. This has made them very useful in synthetic processes where the target molecule is a single enantiomer (as is often the case for pharmaceuticals). In this lecture we will look at some of the advantages and issues involved in using enzymes in synthesis. Some enzymes carry out reactions with other types of selectivity that is hard to achieve synthetically, and elucidating biosynthetic pathways provides a vast resource of potential enzymes for synthesis. Some examples of this will be described.

This 1 hour lecture will take a tour through the pitfalls of plotting and point the path towards better figures! We will cover the common mistakes and general principles of plotting various types of data including time-series, statistical and geospatial. We will conclude with pointers towards making better graphics and review graphic producing software.

The first half of this session will cover an overview of Raytracing versus 3D Modelling, an introduction to the free Raytracing programme Povray, running Povray (command line options). Making and manipulating simple shapes, camera tricks (depth of field, angle of view) and using other software to generate Povray input (e.g. Jmol)

The second half of the session is an introduction to 3D modelling and animation using the open source programme Blender. This will cover the installation and customisation of the Blender interface for use with chemical models, how to import chemical structures from Jmol and the protein data base (PDB), the basics of 3D modelling, and an introduction to Key-frame animation.

No previous experience with either 3D modelling or animation is required.

Professor Scherman will outline how to go about writing an effective fellowship proposal, in order that participants may have a realistic and practical idea of what this entails.

Speaker Biography: Oren Scherman graduated from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, with a BA in Chemistry in 1999. He was awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) graduate fellowship and moved to Pasadena, California, where he completed a PhD in 2004 in the area of olefin metathesis and controlled polymerisation, under the supervision of Professor Robert H. Grubbs at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). After finishing his PhD, Oren was awarded an NSF Mathematical and Physical Sciences Distinguished Research Fellow (MPS-DRF) International Postdoctoral Fellowship and moved to the Netherlands to work on supramolecular polymers with Professors E.W. Meijer and Rint P. Sijbesma at the Eindhoven University of Technology. In 2006, he moved to the University of Cambridge to take up an academic appointment as a University Lecturer and Next Generation Fellow in the Melville Laboratory for Polymer Synthesis in the Department of Chemistry. In 2012, he was promoted to Reader in Supramolecular and Polymer Chemistry and in March 2013, he was appointed as the Director of the Melville Laboratory and recently to Professor in 2015. During the 2013-2014 academic year, Oren was on sabbatical at Tsinghua University as the Xuetang Visiting Professor in Chemistry. His research group is interested in dynamic supramolecular self-assembly at interfaces. Oren’s current research projects include the application of macrocyclic host-guest chemistry using cucurbit[n]urils in the development of novel supramolecular hydrogels and microcapsules, drug-delivery systems based on dynamic hydrogels, the conservation and restoration of important historical artefacts through the exploitation of supramolecular polymer chemistry and sensing and catalysis using self-assembled nanophotonic systems.

PhDs in the physical science and technology disciplines have plenty of options once they graduate. In this interactive session we will look at the pros and cons of different career options. You will have a chance to think about what you want your work to do for you and what you can offer employers, and you will learn ways to find out more about jobs you are interested in.

Speaker Biography: Dr Madelaine Chapman graduated from the University of Edinburgh with a BSc in chemistry. She went on to complete a PhD at the same institution, focussing on the electrochemical and spectroscopic characterisation of a novel conducting polymer. She then joined the Royal Society of Chemistry, where she worked for five years in journal publishing before joining the University of Cambridge as a careers adviser, initially for research staff in the physical sciences and technology, and now also for students interested in a wide range of careers.

Professor Scherman will outline how to go about writing an effective grant application in order that participants may have a realistic idea of what this entails, should they be required to do so at any point.

Speaker Biography: Oren Scherman graduated from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, with a BA in Chemistry in 1999. He was awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) graduate fellowship and moved to Pasadena, California, where he completed a PhD in 2004 in the area of olefin metathesis and controlled polymerisation, under the supervision of Professor Robert H. Grubbs at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). After finishing his PhD, Oren was awarded an NSF Mathematical and Physical Sciences Distinguished Research Fellow (MPS-DRF) International Postdoctoral Fellowship and moved to the Netherlands to work on supramolecular polymers with Professors E.W. Meijer and Rint P. Sijbesma at the Eindhoven University of Technology. In 2006, he moved to the University of Cambridge to take up an academic appointment as a University Lecturer and Next Generation Fellow in the Melville Laboratory for Polymer Synthesis in the Department of Chemistry. In 2012, he was promoted to Reader in Supramolecular and Polymer Chemistry and in March 2013, he was appointed as the Director of the Melville Laboratory and recently to Professor in 2015. During the 2013-2014 academic year, Oren was on sabbatical at Tsinghua University as the Xuetang Visiting Professor in Chemistry. His research group is interested in dynamic supramolecular self-assembly at interfaces. Oren’s current research projects include the application of macrocyclic host-guest chemistry using cucurbit[n]urils in the development of novel supramolecular hydrogels and microcapsules, drug-delivery systems based on dynamic hydrogels, the conservation and restoration of important historical artefacts through the exploitation of supramolecular polymer chemistry and sensing and catalysis using self-assembled nanophotonic systems.

In this session you can learn more about how selection processes work including how to put together a CV and cover letter and how to prepare for job interviews.

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.

There are two sessions running, you need attend only one.

These sessions are held by Drs Emily Skinner (Publishing Ethics Specialist, RSC) and Rhys Morgan (Cambridge University Research Strategy Office)