News
Nov 2021.
A LOT has happened since April 2020. please check out @DrBarryChem on Twitter for group updates and other things. I will update this space some quiet winter evening.
April 2020:
The COVID-19 restrictions still persist, and so finals have been successfully delivered remotely. students did vey well given the circumstances.
NSERC also announced their research awards and Jordan, Nick and Madeleine have all been awarded CGS-M from my group. Very well done! We have also been awarded a USRA student fro summer 2020 if the labs open up! Welcome to the group, Parker!
Braeden will also be back as she has registered as a coop student and received a SEED award for this summer! Well done all!! We also will have Allison stay on to complete her Accelerated MSc as noted in March.
In other developments, Jordan and Nick have both been accepted to Medical School at Dalhousie Halifax and Dalhousie New Brunswick, respectively. Though we will miss their energy in the group, this is a fantastic and well deserved recognition of their work ethic and abilities. Well done both! The public will be very lucky to have you join the ranks of our extraordinary healthcare teams.
March 2020:
Sadly, shortly into March the government of NB announced closures and isolation measures to project the public due to the COVID-19 crisis. This meant that our group was unable to continue doing laboratory research for the foreseeable future. Even more sadly was the fact that our undergraduate researchers were unable to complete the final experiments for their honours projects.
In the face of this new reality, they elevated their commitment to their work and were able to successfully defend their work to earn their credit. Each performed phenomenally and continued to demonstrate very high quality work being completed in our labs. I am grateful for your commitment, effort, and energy of the last 8 months and I'm excited to see how your future unfolds.
This closure also meant that our graduate students were forced to stay home and complete 'busy' work and begin writing the introductions to their thesis documents and other chapters as well. You have all made great use of your time given the circumstances and I am very proud of you. Well done.
February 2020:
Madeleine presented her first departmental seminar and continued to maintain the highest quality of delivery from our group. Well done!
Jordan, Allison and Nicholas were all accepted in to graduate studies at UNB under our Accelerated MSc program which allows the continuation of their 4th year honours research into one more year of graduate studies to earn an MSc. This is a very exciting and timely program.
January 2020:
We had 6 papers published on line in late December/January. A very exciting surge of output from he group. Many thanks to all our collaborators from UK, China and USA!
We also submitted a mammoth $16M research grant to CFI to revolutionize research in New Brunswick. Fingers crossed. This was Joint with UNB, Université de Moncton, Research and Productivity Council, and several industrial partners. Well done everyone, funded or not.
We were also funded for a small grant from NBIF! Thank you for your continued support of our group and our work.
November and December 2019:
Barbora successfully defended her PhD from the group making her 5th graduate student to complete her work in our group. Congrats Barbora! Prof Steve Loeb from U Windsor was her external examiner. It was very well done.
Marta Presented her second and final departmental seminar. As always the quality of delivery is always very high from our group. Very proud. Well done Marta!
Finally, in early December, Barry and Chris both presented work at MASC 2019 which was hosted by Barry's former colleagues at the University of Kent in Canterbury UK.
October 2019:
October was a busy month but very exciting. We submitted 2 more papers for publication, making it 5 since August.
Jordan and Nick got their MCAT results and they did excellent, resulting in med-school interviews for both of them.
Marta also successfully passed her PhD candidacy exam. Well done Marta! A critical step of the journey complete!
September 2019:
A new academic year begins. We had 4 undergraduate research students join the group this year. Braeden and Allison came back for more, while Jordan and Nick joined us from other research groups. We also had Madeleine join us to start her MSc degree, jointly supervised by Prof Bruce Balcom of physics and the director of UNB's MRI Research Institute. Welcome all!
We had a really fun time Axe Throwing as part of our group outing the everyone arrived.
Barbora also submitted her PhD thesis for examination. Her defence date has been set for the end of November.
August 2019:
August was productive. Most noteworthy was the workshop that I co-coordinated with Prof Amy Parachnowitsch. It focussed on helping the newest tenure-track academics develop strategies and debuting myths on starting a new research group of their own. It was super rewarding to do, and I think quite well-received.
July 2019:
This July, Sydney was accepted to Dentistry School at McGill. This is something that sh'd been working towards for several years. Very grateful for your hard work in the group and very proud of your accomplishments. Best of Luck!
We also finished three manuscripts, and are awaiting the results of those submissions. Two were posted to ChemRxiv.
We also had a group outing to Fredericton Bouldering Cooperative and were joined by Sara Eisler's group too! It was great fun and
May/June2019:
May was excellent. We had Braeden join our group for the summer and Ben stayed on to carry on his honours work with a NSERC USRA.
In June, Barry traveled to Italy for the ISMSC2019, while in parallel, Tom Chris and Barbora traveled to Quebec City for the CCCE2019. Barbora won a best oral presentation prize for her session! well done! While Chris had some amazing engagement with his beautiful poster which has inspired some new ideas!
April 2019:
April was a crazy month. Tom and Ben both presented their BSc Honours thesis project at our student symposium and Tom was awarded 'Peoples Choice' for best presentation. Ben's Presentation was also excellent. Well done guys. It also concluded their time in our lab and at UNB. Sad.
Chris, Barbora, and Tom all had their abstracts accepted for the CCCE2019 in Quebec City! Great news. The group was also award studentship funding to add another team member in the fall 2019.
March 2019:
March was a super month for our group. Barbora presented her Departmental Seminar of her research which was her final degree requirement before thesis submission.
Chris was awarded travel funding to attend the #CCCE2019 from the RSC travel fund. Well done Chris.
Barbora also competed in the 3-minute thesis competition (3MT) and was awarded 1st place at UNB! She'll be travelling to the Canadian Eastern Regionals at McGill in Montreal for compete for a place in the National Competition. Good Luck!
February 2019:
Marta presented her first Graduate seminar on interesting Pd tetramers that are catalytically active for aryl-aryl hetero-coupling. Fantastic job! Our group really set the bar high fro quality of seminars.
Barbora, Chris and Tom all submitted abstracts to #CCCE2019 as well! @ChemistryUNB and #blightgroup will be well represented.
January 2019:
Fantastic start to 2019! Yarry successfully defended his PhD at Kent Uni. Sam submitted his MSc Thesis. Towseef was given Minor revisions on his MSc thesis submission. Great work everyone!
Also! Weihao presented his first Graduate Seminar to the department, talking about how fluorescent carbon quantum dots can be used to detect the dye Sudan1. Great Job!!
December 2018:
The group was awarded an NBIF Emerging Projects Grant. Fantastic news! We will likely be advertising for a post-grad position in the new year. Stay Tuned!!!
November 2018:
Chris and Barbora both presented their second Graduate Seminars.
Chris spoke about Akamptisomerism and Barbora introduces Mechanochemistry to the department. Well done both! Beautiful slides and fantastic narratives.
October 2018:
Barry travelled to Dalhousie University to give the Chemistry departmental seminar, hosted by Professor Mita Dasog. Fantastic visit and great discussions with their faculty.
Congrats to Chris for passing Comprehensive candidacy exam! Well done Chris. You represented to group well and showed great acumen for your work.
September 2018:
Happy to announce that Yarry and Alex from the University of Kent submitted their PhD dissertations this month. An amazing four year of work in collaboration with Dr Simon Holder and DSTL at Porton Down. Well done, guys.
With a new academic year brings new group members. We welcome Marta (PhD candidate) and Weihao (MSc candidate) from Barcelona Spain and Nanjing China, respectively. Welcome to Canada and UNB! Our group now consists of members from the UK, Slovakia, Spain, China and Canada!
We also welcome our newest final year UG project students, Tom and Ben. Welcome! We have a busy Year ahead.
Congrats to Livia who join RPC Science and Engineering as a research scientist. Well done Liv.
July 2018:
July was supposed to be a quiet month! Instead, Barry presented some of our defence science work at CEMWOQ5 in Montreal, CA. An absolutely brilliant meeting, reminiscent of the RSC MASC meetings in the UK!
We also filed our first patent based on Barbora's work.
Finally, we submitted our first ever NSERC ENGAGE grant with local heavyweights LuminUltra Technologies Ltd. Fingers crossed.
May 2018:
An absolutely brilliant month for our group. Barbora and Liv both won awards at #CSC2018 and #ChemCon2018, respectively. Barbora, a runner-up prize for her oral presentation in the Molecular Materials by Design session and Liv for her poster in the Inorganic poster session. Congrats!
Barry was on a big trip and gave 3 lectures in 10 days. Wuhan, China at a symposium on Optoelectronic materials and Devices, University of Calgary Departmental Seminar, and as an invited speaker at #CSC2018 in Edmonton, Alberta. There was superb science and it was super inspiring.
Congrats to Liv! She graduated with her BSc with Honour from UNB last week.
April 2018:
Great news this month. Barbora had her abstract to the #CSC2018 in Edmonton accepted for a talk in the Tuesday session! Going to be great! Barry will be there too to plug her talk during his invited lecture on Monday.
Barry also received word that his NSERC Discovery Grant (Canada's flagship blue-sky funding scheme) was FUNDED! a fantastic start here @ChemistryUNB.
March 2018:
Barry was the seminar speaker at is alma mater, Mount Allison University, Department of Chemistry. A fantastic day with great science and loads of reminiscing. A superb homecoming.
We also got word that Chris Jennings will be funded by the NBIF Research Assistant Initiative for the remainder of his studies. Well done Chris!
February 2018:
Great news! First funding results are in and we are ecstatic that New Brunswick Innovation Foundation and Richard Armstrong Family Foundation will be helping us fund $200K worth of equipment for the lab. We'll be upgrading the Edinburgh Instruments fluorimeter to have full lifetime and quantum yield capability, purchase a new Cary4000 UV-Vis, an Anton-Paar Microwave reactor, and six shiny new IKA hotplates with fancy thermocouples.
January 2018:
Barry was a guest on CBCRadioOneNB to comment on the new 'Beet Juice and Road Salt' fad and the science behind keeping the roads safe in winter! Link here: https://goo.gl/3GYhU2
December 2017:
Barbora delivered her first @ChemistryUNB departmental seminar speaking about Prof. Dave Leigh's Chemical Synthesizing Molecular Machine. Good Job Barbora! You set the bar very high.
November 2017:
Barry Travelled to Fukuoka and Miyazaki Japan for the 4th Joint Canada - Japan Symposium on Coordination Chemistry. He was invited to deliver a 30 min lecture on Barbora's research! Brilliantly organized event.
October 2017:
Yarry's latest paper on CWA break down and how to activate MOFs with microwaves is now out in Dalton Trans. Nice work Yarry!
September 2017:
Barbora and Chris have arrived in New Brunswick, the Lab is finished being renovated, and in the process of getting assembled...Exciting times!!
August 2017:
Great News today, Barbora and our newest PhD candidate Chris have both been granted 2017 NBIF STEM awards, resulting in a nice salary increase for this coming academic year! Congrats guys!
After much to and fro, the lab is now being 'decorated' to wash away decades of neglect! Though no renovations are planned yet, all components of the lab are full functioning and to code, so Barry can use most of the his funding on new equipment instead of updating. Expended completion end of August...pics to follow.
May 2017:
Two weeks after starting in his new position, Barry was off to Toronto to present Towseef's work at the 100th Anniversary CIC meeting (CSC 2017). Fantastic meeting with an amazing line-up. Nice to catchup with old friends/colleagues and new! Also attended a great @westernuchem alumni event.
Arrived in Fredericton NB with some of my lab kit in hand (or off the boat) to a warm welcome and a clean lab ready to go. First up, navigating the inner workings of a new university. Barbora and Chris (our new PhD candidate) arrive in late August.
April 2017:
A formal farewell has taken place, and I have now sadly, and officially moved on from the University of Kent. An absolutely stellar collegiate environment with exceptional people. I will definitely look back on this time with the fondest of memories. Now moving to my home province with my family to establish myself in the Canadian university system, with two young and brilliant researchers Barbora and Chris. With fond memories and career shaping experiences in the past, we now look forward to exciting opportunities ahead! Thank you to the UK chemistry community and of course to @UnikentSPS for the support and collaborations. Also thanks to my past UK funders: DSTL, Royal Society, EPSRC, RSC, Kent Biosciences, and Kent SPS. Very proud that we are also on track to have every postgraduate researcher (and some undergrads) to be published in internationally recognised peer-reviewed journals! A sign of success in our 4.5 years at Kent.
Our JACS submission in collaboration with the Forgan Group at the University of Glasgow was ACCEPTED today! A fantastic sharing of ideas, and an insane amount of work put forward by Ross Marshall (UoG) and Yarry (Kent). This was a beast of a submission. Well done to all
March 2017:
Had our Farewell Lunch with the group. A sad day, but loads of fun. My research group is amazing and we will all go on to fantastic endeavours!
Barbora was awarded a Dean of Science Scholarship for her admittance to UNB. Well done! now to get over there.
Yarry was admitted and attended the prestigious Durham Crystallography school this month. Great effort Yarry! Now get practicing!
February 2017:
After a long submission process, our collaboration with the Kostakis group at the University of Sussex resulted in a nice output in Crystal Growth and Design now available! Congrats to former group member Mike Shipman for his work on this!
In preparation for our move to Canada, Barbora and our new recruit Chris Jennings, were both accepted to the graduate programme at UNB. Nice work!
January 2017:
Towseef, completing his MSc work, presented to the entire FMG group (>50 people) at Kent. Great job!
December 2016:
The whole group travelled up to Edinburgh for the annual RSC-MASC meeting. Edinburgh walks, Arthur's Seat and whiskey tastings galore!
Barbora, Towseef, Chrissie and Yarry all present high quality posters...AND Barbora won a poster prize! It was presented to her by the newest #chemnobel Sir J. Fraser Stoddart. Pretty Sweet!
Great job everyone! You all represented Kent well.
October 2016:
Fantastic collaboration with the Shimizu group in Calgary has led to this great paper in Chemical Communications 2016: Alkaline-earth phosphonate MOFs with reversible hydration-dependent fluorescence. DOI: 10.1039/c6cc06490f
Congrats Zohreh and Yarry!
On another more serious note, we are please to announce that our research group will be moving to the University of New Brunswick (UNB) Department of Chemistry in July 2017. UNB is located in Fredericton Canada, on the east coast. Though it's going to be a big change, it will be a fantastic opportunity for Barry, and those group members who also decide to relocate. A new adventure.
September 2016:
Our group welcomes our newest PS740 Project Student Beccie Martin! Welcome to the group! Beccie will be viability of a specific biomarker sensor that we've developed in biological conditions. Welcome to the group Beccie!
We also have Sam Thomas join our group, working in collaboration with Prof. Martin Michaelis in the School of Biosciences. Sam will be asking our products for anticancer activity, and visualising bio-accumulation with fluorescent probes.
July 2016
Fruits of a nice collaboration with Prof Martin Michaelis in Kent Biosciences and the Löchmann group in German have been published in Oncotarget 2016. Exploring SNS-032 resistance in cancer cells. A key European partnership. Well done Barbora!!
DOI: 10.18632/oncotarget.11160
Katie and Adam both graduated their MSci degrees! congrats to you both!!
Kent Uni also graduated its first cohort of Undergraduate Chemistry Students since relaunching the programme in 2013. Congrats to you all!
June 2016:
Barry travelled to Halifax, Canada, for the Canadian national chemistry conference CSC2016, and presented Yarry's work on Organophosphate hydrolysis.
January 2016:
The group's first independent paper is out!
J. Mat. Chem. B. 2016, DOI:10.1039/c5tb02469b.
Congrats to Mike and Kumaree!
Our group welcomes our newest MSc research student Towseef Amhad, form Plymouth. Towseef is a joint appointment with Dr Jeremy Rossman's group in Kent Biosciences, and will be exploring some novel MOF chemistry.
A New Year and lots to look forward to!
October 2015:
The undergraduate researchers have arrived. Welcome Katie Ponsonby and Adam Lister! Results, Results, Results!!!
The group welcomes our newest PhD student, Barbora Balónova from Slovakia. Barbora will be exploring some new H-Bonded systems.
July 2015:
Mike Shipman graduated from UKent yesterday at the Canterbury Cathedral! Congrats Mike! He's headed to Glasgow for a PhD working with Dr Mark Symes on 'Small Molecule Activation'.
June 2015:
Barry has been awarded a University of Kent 2015 teaching prize!
A small write up can be found here.
School of Physical Sciences have been awarded funding to purchase a single crystal diffractometer. Great news for SPS.
May 2015:
Barry has been invited to talk at MASC 2015 (December) in Duraham!
May 2015:
The Blight Research Group is interviewing four strong candidates to fill a funded faculty of Science PhD studentship. Good luck to each candidate!
April 2015:
Barry is giving a lecture at SoutherDalton2015. He's going to be be speaking about Mike and Kumaree's work.
March 2015:
Exciting News! We have been awarded a Kent 50th Anniversary PhD Studentship to begin in September 2015. Advert to follow!
October 2014:
The Blight group welcomes two new member: Yaroslav (Yarry) Kalinovskyy as its newest PhD candidate funded by DSTL, and Mike Shipman as the latest 4th Year Undergraduate Project Student.
September 2014:
Research lecture on new OLED materials, and Post-Graduate Recruitment lecture for UKent SPS was a success! Hosted by Jianghai University Chemistry, in Wuhan, Hubei Province.
Research lecture on new H-Bonding materials, and Post-Graduate Recruitment lecture for UKent SPS was a success! Hosted by Central South University, in Changsha, Hunan Province.
Dr Blight travelled to Central China for a 21-day research exchange scheme hosted by Asc. Prof. Hongbo Wang at Central South University, in Changsha, Hunan Province.
July 2014:
A bid to DSTL submitted by Dr Simon Holder and Dr Blight was funded! Two PhD students will begin their studies in Autumn 2014.
March 2014:
University of Kent and the School of Physical Science have funded various small equipment including: precision temperature oven, diaphram pump, two schlenk lines
February 2014:
Royal Socitey of Chemistry has funded research on homochiral MOFs.
January 2014:
Dr Blight and Dr Gubala (Kent School of Pharmacy) have been invited to submit a full proposal to the Leverhulme Trust.
Dr Blight has been awarded an International Young Investigator Award from the NSF-China. An exchange will take place in Sept. 2014.
Chrissie Rogers joins the group as a EPSRC funded PhD Student.
Dr Blight Travelled to the University of Calgary to initate a funded collaboration with Prof. George Shimizu; Funded by the Foreign Commonwealth Office.
November 2013:
The group was awarded its first EPSRC funded PhD studentship.
September 2013:
The group was awarded funding from the Royal Society to procure a Fluorescence Emission Spectrometer.