This prestigious lecture is given annually by a younger chemist working in the area of macrocyclic and/or supramolecular chemistry. The award lecture is given in memory of Professor Bob Hay, one of the pioneers of macrocyclic chemistry in the UK.

The lecture was presented at the MASC annual meeting, held online in 2021. The cup was delivered by Prof. Ross Forgan, who won the cup last year.

Guillaume will keep the cup until the next MASC meeting when I'll pass it on to the next winner. 

The Young Researchers Medal is awarded to a by the Macro group to UK-based scientist whose contributions to polymer science show outstanding promise for the future. Guillaume will be awarded a bronze medal and will deliver a medal award lecture at the Macro Group UK meeting in Autumn 2022.

This award is a great recognition for the what the group has achieved over the past 6 years. 

We welcome James Ormson to the group who's joining us for a PhD. He will be working on the mechanochemistry of catenane. We also welcome Qianqian and Herman for their MChem final year research project this month. Welcome to all!

We were finally able to celebrate the completion of Rob's thesis (one year later!). It was great to meet again and Rob, sporting a decorated lab coat, masterly opened the traditional bubbles. 
Congratulations Dr Nixon!

Tom is now known as Dr Carr! He brilliantly defended his thesis today in front of Prof. Paul McGonigal and Prof. Simon Webb, after 3.5 years of hard work in the group. 
Many congratulations Dr Carr and best of luck in your future adventures!

Our recent paper on dynamic isotope effect in the activation of a mechanophore made it to the front cover of JACS with the great artwork of Ella Maru Studio. Read the paper here.

Danny and Antonia are joining us for a PhD funded by the Leverhulme Trust. Danny will work on mechanocatalysis and Antonia will explore the mechanochemistry of catenanes. Welcome both!

Our recent Nature Chemistry paper was highlighted in Chemistry World. Fernando Gomollón-Bel did a great job at summarising the project. With comments from Andrew Boydston.

It was a long journey but Rob's impressive work on the mechanical activation of NHC precursors is finally published in Nature Chemistry! In this paper we have found that our new mechanophore breaks at a C-C bond following 3 dissociation pathways... at the same time! In top of that, we've shown that it's possible to select the main pathway by altering the polarisation of the scissile bond. Congratulations Rob!

Read the paper here.

We said goodbye to Paramita today during our weekly Zoom meeting. Paramita managed to go back in Kolkata on time to reintegrate her position as Assistant Professor the University of Calcutta for the start of the academic year despite the lockdown.
It was a great pleasure to have Paramita in the group and we wish her all the best for the future!