Hi all

This week, the fantastic Jake Martin will dazzle us with a paper on a novel use for LED’s. Here is Jake’s LED paper

He’s even provided a video link so we don’t have to do too much reading! (here it ishttp://youtu.be/relqWT8Ol8o)

Andy

In group meeting this Friday (9/12/2011), Julie will be presenting a paper on realizing-artificial-photosynthesis

We will once again have the pleasure of meeting at 1pm in Room 411.

Hi

In the Friday group meetings held over the summer we will have literature presentations relevant to people’s projects. The content will be spectroscopy orientated but everyone is welcome!

This is the schedule for literature presentations in Friday group meetings:

Andy; Sarah; Julie; Jacob; Cather.

If, on a given Friday, someone didn’t get a chance to do a presentation, then they will do their presentation on the next available Friday group meeting.

Assuming there is a meeting every Friday, the schedule for the rest of the year will be:

Sarah              2^nd December

Julie                 9^th December

Jacob              16^th December

Cather             23^rd December

Dr Natalie Plank of Victoria University came to visit the Photon Factory on 30/09/11 to discuss her research and her work with MESA (The Macdiarmid Emerging Scientists Association). In particular, she mentioned the Macdiarmid Cutting Edge Student and PostDoc Symposium 2010, to be held on Nov 18 & 19 at Victoria University. The symposium will discuss the career opportunities made available by your degree and attendance is encouraged.

Simon Ashforth presented a poster at this year’s Faculty of Science Postgraduate Poster Competition for his work on the laser cutting of bone, for which he got awarded a Merit. Congratulations Simon!

Simon's Poster

Cather has been chosen as the University’s feature researcher for August. The Photon Factory recently had a film crew interview Cather and record some activity in the lab for the University’s Research Works Wonders feature on Youtube. This video and information about Cather’s research can be found at the University’s August feature researcher page.

The Photon Factory had a high presence in this year’s University of Auckland Chemistry Research Showcase with posters presented by Peter Hosking, Julie Kho, Fraser MacMillan, Emma Simpson, Sarah Thompson and Hayley Ware. Bringing her A-game was Sarah Thompson, who won both 3rd Prize in the ‘2011 Research Showcase 2nd Year PhD Student Poster Competition’ and ’Most Interesting Poster’.

Julie Kho also gave a presentation in the PhD student 2-minute talks, for which she was a runner-up.

Photon Factory system user Xinjie Song will be giving a seminar on the Design and Fabrication of Plastic Waveguides at 11am on Tuesday 10 May. All are welcome so come along!

Abstract: Polymer waveguide devices will play a key role in the area of integrated optics due to an easier fabrication process and integration over inorganic counterparts. My project is aiming at designing and characterizing an electro-optic polymer modulator operating at 1.55um by doping amorphous polycarbonate (APC) with non-linear chromophores provided by IRL. After an introduction to plastic optical waveguides, we will look at some simulation results which are used to determine the dimensions for the single mode operation of the straight waveguides. Different fabrication processes will be discussed together with some preliminary results. Some pictures of light coupled into waveguides will be presented as well.  Finally, future work will be described.

Dr Lloyd Davis

Professor Lloyd M. Davis from the Center for Laser Applications, University of Tennessee Space Institute, is presenting a School Seminar on Thursday 5 May. His talk is called “Femtosecond laser fabrication of devices for single-molecule spectroscopy and applications in biotechnology”. This will be held in Room 301-242 at 4 pm, followed by a sherry hour in the 5^th floor tea room.

From left to right: Dr. Charles Rohde, A demonstration of our microfluidic channels in paper, Joshua Bradfield

The Photon Factory recently gave an interview to Radio New Zealand for their ‘Our Changing World’ segment. The interview with  Dr. Cather Simpson, Dr. Charles Rohde and Joshua Bradfield can be found here.