2019 #RSCPoster Twitter Conference

10 Dec 2018

#RSCPoster

Thank you to all who participated – check out the winning posters: here!

The #RSCPoster Twitter Conference is an online event held entirely over Twitter to bring members of the scientific research community together to share their research, network and engage in scientific debate.

We are excited to announce that the 2019 event will be held: Tuesday 5 March 2019, 09:00 GMT – Wednesday 6 March 2019, 09:00 GMT.

Read more about #RSCPoster 2019 and take a look at the winning posters:

Announcing the 2019 #RSCPoster Twitter Conference winners

Registration now closed.

Get involved:

Share a poster of your research
Network with researchers by following #RSCPoster
Engage in scientific debate by commenting on posters

With subject hashtags spanning the core chemical sciences and related fields, whatever your field, connect and showcase your research:

Analytical	#RSCPoster #RSCAnalytical
Chemical and Biology Interface	#RSCPoster #RSCChemBio
Catalysis *	#RSCPoster #RSCCat
Education	#RSCPoster #RSCEdu
Energy & Sustainability *	#RSCPoster #RSCEnergy
Environmental	#RSCPoster #RSCEnv
Inorganic	#RSCPoster #RSCInorg
Materials	#RSCPoster #RSCMat
Nanoscience	#RSCPoster #RSCNano
Organic	#RSCPoster #RSCOrg
Physical	#RSCPoster #RSCPhys
Engineering	#RSCPoster #RSCEng

* New for 2019

Submit a poster:

Register to submit a poster in advance – click here and register via the RSC Events page now
Tweet your poster image with a title, #RSCPoster and relevant subject hashtag(s) – during the 24h conference beginning 5 March 2019, 09:00 GMT
Discuss and engage – throughout the 24h conference make sure to answer the questions from the community, committee and comment on other #RSCPosters

Check out this video tutorial from Edward Randviir (Manchester Metropolitan University, @EdwardRandviir) explaining how to search for hashtags in Twitter and how to take part!

and here: https://twitter.com/EdwardRandviir/status/1102956739887054850

Top tips for making a poster specifically for Twitter are available on the BetterPosters blog, written by Zen Faulkes (@DoctorZen).

Win a prize:

Win cash prizes if your #RSCPoster and presentation is deemed best by the 2019 subject chairs.
Audience participation prize will be awarded to the poster that receives the most retweets. The lucky winner will receive a chemistry-themed board game: Compounded. Compounded is a game where players take on the roles of lab managers, hastily competing to make compounds before they are completed by others or destroyed in an explosion… With thanks to Dr Sam Illingworth (Manchester Metrapolitan University) for supporting this prize.

Thanks to our wonderful sponsors this year who are supporting cash prizes:

Analytical Science Network, Analytical Methods Committee, Chemical Biology and Bioorganic Group, Applied Catalysis Group, Education in Chemistry, Chemistry Education Research and Practice, Alvatek, Environmental Chemistry Group, Applied Materials Chemistry Group, Chemical Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Group, Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry, Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, Chemical Science, Process Chemistry and Technology Group.

2019 #RSCPoster Subject Chairs:

#RSCAnalytical	Roy Goodacre, University of Liverpool Martín Resano, University of Zarragoza	@RoyGoodacre @MartinResano
#RSCChemBio	Marloes Peeters, Manchester Metropolitan University Sara Rouhanifard, NorthEastern University	@Peeters_Marloes @SRouhanifard
#RSCCat	Paul Collier, Johnson Matthey James Paterson, BP Jennifer Garden, University of Edinburgh	@RSC_ACG @garden_jenni
#RSCEdu	Emily Seeber, Bedales School and University of Oxford Claire McDonnell, Dublin Institute of Technology Kristy Turner, University of Manchester	@emily_seeber @clairemcdonndit @doc_kristy
#RSCEnergy	Saiful Islam, University of Bath Doug Macfarlane, Monash University	@SaifulChemistry @DRMacFarlane
#RSCEnv	Nadine Borduas, ETH Zurich Helen Casey, University of Huddersfield Peter Vikesland, Virginia Tech	@nadineborduas @helen_casey @petervikesland
#RSCInorg	Charlie O’Hara, University of Strathclyde Marcel Swart, University of Girona Cathleen Crudden, Queen’s University	@oharalab @marcel_swart @cathleencrudden
#RSCMat	Athina Anastasaki, ETH Zurich Chris Foster, Manchester Metropolitan University Mark Olson, Tianjin University	@AthinaAnastasa1 @CWFoster90 @MARK_A_OLSON
#RSCNano	Gemma-Louise Davies, University College London Karen Faulds, University of Strathclyde Sara Skrabalak, Indiana University	@GemmaLouDavies @FauldsKaren @SaraSkrabalak
#RSCOrg	Armando Carlone, Università degli Studi dell’Aquila Ryan Mewis, Manchester Metropolitan University David Nelson, University of Strathclyde	@armando_carlone @RyanMewis @TheNelsonGroup
#RSCPhys	Lars Goerigk, University of Melbourne Laura McKemmish, University of New South Wales Brian Wagner, University of Prince Edward Island	@lgoer_compchem @laura_mckemmish @DrummerBoy2112
#RSCEng	Jason Hein, The University of British Columbia Tanja Junkers, Monash University Tim Noël, Eindhoven University of Technology	@procrastiprof @polymerreaction @NoelGroupTUE

2019 #RSCPoster General Committee:

Damien Arrigan, Curtin University	@arri_aus
Zoe Ayres, Hach	@zjayres
James Batteas, Texas A&M University	@jamesbatteas
Gonçalo Bernardes, University of Cambridge	@gbernardes_chem
Holly Butler, University of Strathclyde	@HollehButler
Malika Jeffries-El, Boston University	@Chem_Diva
Neil Keddie, University of St Andrews	@theyakman
Simon Lancaster University of East Anglia	@S_J_Lancaster
Simon Lewis, Curtin University	@SimonWLewis
Jennifer Love, The University of British Columbia	@JenniferLoveUBC
Nicholas Marshall, USC Aiken	@ChemImprov
Jean-Francois Masson, University of Montreal	@Masson_chem
Claire Murray, Diamond Light Source	@drclairemurray
Warren Piers, University of Calgary	@Wpiers1
Dino Spagnoli, University of Western Australia	@dino_spagnoli
Fraser Stoddart, Northwestern University	@sirfrasersays
Nick Stone, Univeristy of Exeter	@profnickstone
M. Eugenio Vázquez, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela	@ChemBioUSC
Renee Webster, Monash University	@reneewebs
Jason Woolford, Royal Society of Chemistry	@RealTimeChem

See information from previous events here or see the previous events on Twitter via the subject hashtag links above or here.

In the spirit of the recent partnership between the Royal Society of Chemistry and the Royal Australian Chemical Institute we are delighted to announce the RACI will be supporting #RSCPoster by awarding prizes to the best posters presented by Aussie chemists.

Just add the hashtag #ozchem to be in with a chance of winning a year’s free RACI membership and a copy of A Century of Bonds!

A local scientific committee will independently judge the best #ozchem poster and presentation

Associate Professor Jack Clegg, University of Queensland (@JackKClegg)
Professor Dianne Jolley, (@DrDianneJolley), together with Dr Darren Koppel, (@DarrenKoppel), both University of Technology Sydney
Dr Lidia Matesic, (@DrLidiaM)
Professor Anthony O’Mullane, Queensland University of Technology (@AOMullane_EChem)

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need to check the copyright and permissions needed for figures or any other parts of my poster which have already been published?
Yes. Copyright owners have the exclusive right to copy their work and to issue copies of their work to the public, and it is an infringement for anyone else to do so without the copyright owner’s permission. If you are reproducing material contained in a Royal Society of Chemistry publication (journal articles, book or book chapters) you may do so providing that you fully acknowledge the original Royal Society of Chemistry publication and include a link back to it. If you wish to include material that has been published by another publisher, you will need to check how the publisher/copyright owner of the third party material wishes to receive permission requests. Information on this can be found on our Permission Requests page at http://www.rsc.org/Publishing/copyright/permission-requests.asp under “Use of third party material in our publications”.

If I include unpublished work in my poster, will I still be able to publish this in a peer-reviewed journal afterwards?
Subject to the usual conditions outlined in the License to Publish, being a part of the Twitter conference will not prevent you using some of the information included in your poster as part of an article in a Royal Society of Chemistry journal. Please note this policy varies by publisher and if you intend to submit your research for publication elsewhere after the event, you should check the individual policy for that journal and publisher.

What size/format should my poster be?
You can choose any dimensions for your poster, the important thing is that the text and figures are clear for people to read and understand. Using Microsoft PowerPoint, we found a text size of between 12-16 were clear to read when saving an A4 slide as a JPEG and uploading to Twitter. Using an A0 template, the text needed to be between 50 and 60 to be legible. You can use any software you like to create your poster, as long as the image you upload is clear for others to read. We recommend testing your poster on Twitter before the conference to make sure you are happy with your image. Check out this blog post by Zen Faulkes for some top tips for making posters with Twitter in mind: http://betterposters.blogspot.com/2019/02/top-tips-for-twitter-posters.html

Please don’t get carried away and use Twitter-bots. We want everyone to actively participate and engage in discussions to get the most out of the event.

Contact us

RSCPoster@rsc.org

Event Organizers

Matthew Baker, University of Strathclyde, @ChemistryBaker

Edward Randviir, Manchester Metropolitan University, @EdwardRandviir

Hannah Kerr, Royal Society of Chemistry, @hk_chemistryy

Kathryn Gempf, Royal Society of Chemistry, @KGempf

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Contributors to the 2018 New Frontiers in Indian Research collection

22 Nov 2018

By Garima Sharma, Deputy Editor.

This profile offers a short introduction to the researchers who have contributed to this themed collection on the talent emerging from India and the excellent work that is being done by them. We would like to congratulate them and their teams on their achievements to date and hope they have continued success in the future as they continue their careers.

Read the collection now!

Dr Masashi Arakawa received Ph.D degree in chemistry from The University of Tokyo, Japan, in 2011 under supervision of Prof. H. Kagi and Dr. H. Fukazawa. His Ph.D work was hydrogen ordering in ice under low temperature and high pressure observed from neutron diffraction, which was carried out under the support of JSPS research fellowship. Subsequently, he moved to Kyushu University, Japan, to join Prof. A. Terasaki’s group as an Assistant Professor, working on reaction and spectroscopy of gas-phase free metal clusters. One of the primary research interests is reaction of small mineral clusters related to chemistry in the universe, especially, molecular evolution.

Anindya Datta was born obtained his B. Sc. (Hons). and M. Sc. from Calcutta University, studying in Presidency College and University College of Science and Technology, respectively. He was a CSIR research fellow with Prof. Kankan Bhattacharyya in Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science and obtained his Ph. D. from Jadavpur University After his postdoctoral research with Prof. Jacob W. Petrich in Iowa State University and After a brief stint in Raja Ramanna Centre of Advanced Technology, Indore, he joined Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, where he is presently a Professor of Chemistry. He is a recipient of Bronze Medal of Chemical Research Society of India and Fellow of National Academy of Science, India. His research interest is in ultrafast processes in Chemistry and Materials Science.

Ankona received her B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in chemistry from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur in 2000. She did her graduate research work on chiral water soluble porphyrins for catalysis and recognition with Prof. John T. Groves at Princeton University (Ph.D., 2006). After graduating from Princeton she joined as a postdoctoral scholar in the laboratory of Prof. Ken Raymond at the University of California, Berkeley, where she worked on macromolecular MRI contrast agents. Since 2010 she is a faculty in the Department of Chemical Sciences at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, India. Ankona and her team of vibrant students use molecular interaction insights from coordination chemistry and molecular recognition to develop chemical probes for tracking cell signal mediating molecules and metal ions in living systems.

Chandan K. Jana completed his graduation in Chemistry from Calcutta University in 2002 and in 2005, he received his M.S. in Chemical Science (with Prof. N. Jayaraman) from the Indian Institute of Science Bangalore. In that year, he joined the group of Prof. A. Studer at the University of Muenster, Germany, as a member of the International Graduate School of Chemistry for his doctoral studies and he received his Ph.D. degree in 2008. He then moved to the group of Prof. K. Gademann, first at EPFL and then the University of Basel, Switzerland, for his postdoctoral research (2009–2011). In 2011, he returned to India and started his independent research career as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, where he became an Associate Professor in 2015. His research and teaching interest center on organic chemistry.

Sabuj Kundu obtained his PhD in 2009 from Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, USA under the supervision of Professor Alan S. Goldman. He worked as a postdoctoral fellow with Professor William D. Jones at University of Rochester, NY (2009-11) and Professor Maurice Brookhart at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (2011-13). Subsequently, in 2013 he returned to India to join as an Assistant Professor at the Department of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, where he is presently an Associate Professor. He received the DST-INSPIRE Faculty fellowship, India. His group is focused on various aspects of homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis for sustainable chemical transformations.

Dr. Bani Kanta Sarma received his BSc and MSc in chemistry from Cotton College, Gauhati University and IIT Guwahati, respectively. Subsequently, he joined Prof. G. Mugesh’s research group at the Department of Inorganic & Physical Chemistry, Indian Institute of Science Bangalore to carry out his doctoral studies. During his PhD, he worked on the antioxidant activity of organoselenium compounds, especially ebselen and its analogues. He was awarded “Prof. S. Soundararajan Medal” for the year 2008-2009 for the best PhD thesis of the year in the area of Inorganic Chemistry at Indian Institute of Science Bangalore. Upon finishing his PhD, he pursued his postdoctoral studies with Prof. Thomas Kodadek in the area of peptoid chemistry and chemical biology at the UT Southwestern Medical Centre and The Scripps Research Institute Florida. He joined the Department of Chemistry at Shiv Nadar University as Assistant Professor in 2014. His current research interest is to understand the various aspects of carbonyl-carbonyl noncovalent interactions and their role in the stabilization of small molecules and various protein secondary structures.

Ravi Venkatramani is an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemical Sciences, at Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai. Ravi obtained his Ph.D. in Physics in 2005 from the University of Rochester, NY, USA. Subsequently, he was a post-doctoral fellow, first in the Department of Bioengineering, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA (2005-2007) and then in the Department of Chemistry at Duke University, Durham, NC, USA (2007-2012). At TIFR, Ravi`s research group extracts effective reaction coordinates and pathways governing biomolecular function and electronic charge flow through molecules using rigorous statistical and dynamical descriptions. Notable contributions of the group over the last few years include: 1) the concept of a molecular breadboard circuit, wherein single molecules with multiple lead contact points offer dozens of possible current flow channels and as many as four conductance states, and 2) the discovery of a new optical (UV-Visible) charge transfer spectral band to probe biomolecular dynamics. Ravi is a fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and serves as the secretary to the RSC-West India Section

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Congratulations to the EuChemS Poster Prizewinners

17 Sep 2018

By Garima Sharma, Deputy Editor.

On the 26^th August approximately 1,500 delegates from 60 different countries came to Liverpool for the 7^th EuChemS Chemistry Congress. The theme was Molecular frontiers and global challenges, a topic addressed over 5 days by over 100 speakers and in over 500 poster presentations.

To celebrate the diverse range and oustanding quality of the posters a number of Royal Society of Chemistry journals awarded poster prizes. All prizewinners received an official certificate and a £50 voucher for use in the RSC bookstore.

And if you missed the action, don’t worry! You can watch some of the Poster highlights on Youtube now – featuring Immo Klose, winner of a Chemical Science poster prize and Anjali Das, winner of the Polymer Chemistry prize.

Congratulations to all of the winners in the list below!

James Rushworth (Imperial College London	Biomaterials Science
G.T. Kasun Kalhara Gunasooriya (Ghent University)	Catalysis Science and Technology
Daniel Payne (National Institute for Materials Science)	Chemical Communications
Lorenzo D’Amore (Universitat de Girona)	Chemical Communications
Mohammad Bodiuzzaman (IIT Madras)	Chemical Communications
Roser Morales-Martínez (Universitat Rovira i Virgili)	Chemical Communications
Alex Grigoropoulos (University of Liverpool)	Chemical Science
Ema Horak (Ruđer Bošković Institute	Chemical Science
Eike Dornsiepen (Philipps-Universität Marburg)	Chemical Science
Leana Travaglini (University of Strasbourg)	Chemical Science
Immo Klose (University of Vienna)	Chemical Science
Mauricio Morais (King’s College London)	Chemical Science
Dowine de Bruijn (University of Groningen)	Chemical Society Reviews
Nils Schmickler (Universität Bonn)	Chemical Society Reviews
Peter McNeice (Queen’s University Belfast)	Chemical Society Reviews
Natalie Dehnhardt (Philipps-Universität Marburg)	Dalton Transactions
David Williamson (University of Bath)	Energy & Environmental Science
Alessandro Manfrin (ETH Zürich)	Environmental Science: Processes & Impacts
Robert Woodward (Imperial College London)	Green Chemistry
Michael Gärtner (Universität Frankfurt)	Journal of Materials Chemistry and Material Horizons
Anna-Bea Bornhof (Université de Génève)	MSDE
Marcus Richter (Dresden University of Technology)	Nanoscale
Philip Lane (Sheffield Hallam University)	Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry
Gabriella Kervefors (Stockholm University)	Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry
Jonathan Davidson (University of Cambridge)	PCCP
Anjali Devi Das (Università degli Studi di Parma)	Polymer Chemistry
Christian Goldhahn (ETH Zürich)	Reaction Chemistry & Engineering
Cathryn Shepherd (Heriot-Watt University)	RSC Advances
Marco Chino (Università degli studi di Napoli “Federico II”)	RSC Advances
Sabina Alexandra Nicolae (Queen Mary University of London)	Sustainable Energy & Fuels

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Announcing a themed collection – Celebrating Excellence in Research: 100 Women of Chemistry

24 Aug 2018

By Dr Mike Andrews.

Diverse teams produce better research. There are demonstrable benefits to having a wide range of viewpoints and experiences, whether in academia or industry, and there’s a moral responsibility for us to make our community a place where anyone can reach their full potential.

In our report, the Diversity landscape of the chemical sciences, published earlier this year, we compiled some of the available evidence for the current state of diversity in the Chemical Sciences. This data gathering has given us a picture that allows us to identify areas of the most need, set intelligent targets for our future activities, and benchmark our future progress from a defined starting point. The report touched on issues of inclusivity in terms of ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, and socioeconomic background, and we are

However, retention of women emerged as the biggest single loss of talent from our community. At each stage of progression, women are leaving the sector, a massive loss of talent and economic potential. In academia, at undergraduate level, 44% of students are female. This drops to 39% of postgraduate students, and plummets to a mere 9% among chemistry professors.

This is a systemic failure – with a wide range of factors including conscious and unconscious bias in hiring and progression committees, and a working environment that is hostile to all but disproportionately affects women. There’s also a difference in remuneration. The difference in median pay between men and women is £13,000, an increase since 2015. The pay gap increases over the course of women’s careers, with older respondents reporting a greater gap than those at the beginning of their careers.

Scientific publishing, as an inherent part of academic life, also plays a huge role in this problem. As the publisher of a journals portfolio including 45 peer-reviewed journals the Royal Society of Chemistry is ideally situated not only to contribute data to the discussion but also to take action to tackle the issues that are identified. By harnessing the authorship and citation data associated with almost 70,000 published, peer-reviewed articles we showed that papers by female corresponding authors received significantly fewer citations than those authored by men. We also saw a negative correlation between the impact factor of a journal and the number of submissions by women, suggesting that female corresponding authors are discouraged from putting their work forward for consideration by top journals.

As part of our actions to address this imbalance we are carefully monitoring all new editorial board appointments as well as our ongoing commissioning efforts to identify and remove potential sources of bias. The goal of these efforts is not to employ positive discrimination, but instead to better enable ourselves and our community to recognise the many talented women already working in the Chemical Sciences and hence encourage further progress towards equity. It is with this in mind that we are proud to launch our new themed collection:

Celebrating Excellence in Research: 100 Women of Chemistry is a collection of high quality papers from across the RSC Publishing portfolio. As the name of the collection suggests, the excellence comes first – all papers included have previously been judged to be of outstanding quality by the reviewers, editors, or readers.

In light of the problems with women’s progression and retention, we decided to focus on female group leaders and corresponding authors – both to celebrate their own achievements in the field and to act as an inspiration for early career researchers and students within the community. An initial nomination stage by our journal editorial teams or editorial board members identified leaders in their respective fields. This resulted in a considerable number of excellent authors from whom 100 papers were then chosen as examples of exceptional research. We intend to represent the diversity of the publishing landscape, including researchers from 23 countries and at all stages of an independent career.

We have selected 100 papers but could have selected many more. The number 100 also has special significance here in the UK, where we are currently celebrating Vote 100 – the centenary of the first women in the UK to obtain the vote. The number proved restrictive, and as part of our ongoing commitment to equality and diversity, we will be following this up with subjects-specific collections in the months to come, but for now, we invite you to read this collection and Celebrate Excellence in Research with us.

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Congratulations to prizewinners at the 1st National Meeting of the Swedish Chemical Society

18 Jul 2018

By Garima Sharma, Deputy Editor.

The 1^st National Meeting of the Swedish Chemical Society took place in Lund on the 17^th to 20^th June. Roughly 500 participants attended to discuss a broad range of topics within chemistry and to celebrate the 150^th Anniversary of the Chemical Association in Lund.

Dalton Transactions, Molecular Systems Design & Engineering and Soft Matter were all delighted to award poster prizes at this event.

The winners were

Levgen Pylypchuk (Swe. Univ. of Agricultural Sciences) won a Dalton Transactions poster prize for their talk on ‘Enhanced performance and stability of enzymes immobilized on magnetic SiO2-DTPA nanocomposites’

Shaoqi Zhan (KTH Royal Institute of Technology) won a Dalton Transactions poster prize for their talk on ‘Artificial photosynthesis catalysts dancing on carbon nanotubes’

Masoumeh Dowlatshahi Pour (Chalmers University of Technology) won a MSDE poster prize for their talk on ‘Altered lipid composition of secretory cells following exposure to zinc can be correlated to changes in exocytosis’

Shira Joudan (University of Toronto) won a MSDE poster prize for their talk on ‘Biological cleavage of the C-P bond in perfluoroalkyl phosphinic acids in male Sprague Dawley rats and the formation of persistent and reactive metabolites’

Kristina Thomsson Hulthe (University of Gothenburg) won a Soft Matter poster prize for their talk on ‘Recombinant O-linked glycosylation mimic of an osteoarthritic biolubricating proteines’

Martin Ratsch (University of Gothenburg) won a Soft Matter poster prize for their talk on ‘Covalent organic framework films on surfaces’

Award winners receiving their certificates at the 1st National Meeting of the Swedish Chemical Society

Congratulations to all award winners!

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Celebrating our Outstanding Reviewers in 2017

12 Mar 2018

By Hannah Kerr, Deputy Editor.

We want to make sure that our journals deliver rigorous and fair peer review and we wouldn’t be able to achieve that commitment without the amazing contribution of our reviewers.

In 2017, nearly 50,000 individual reviewers provided a review for one or more of our journals. Every one of them is contributing to the efforts of our community to advance excellence in the chemical sciences. Our community is truly a global one, with reviewers coming from over 100 different countries.

We want to celebrate some of the individuals who’ve made significant contributions to our journals by reviewing for us over the last 12 months, by publishing a list of Outstanding Reviewers for each of our journals. The lists will be published on each journal blog in March 2018 and each journal will also publish a special Editorial in the coming weeks. Each Outstanding Reviewer will also receive a certificate to give recognition for their significant contribution.

While it’s not possible to list everyone, we would like to say a big thank you to all of the reviewers that have supported our journals. We would also like to thank all our journal Editorial and Advisory Boards and the chemical community for their continued support as authors, reviewers and readers.

Congratulations to all the Outstanding Reviewers in 2017!

If you would like to become a reviewer for any of our journals, just contact the journal by email with details of your research interests and an up-to-date CV or résumé. You can find more details in our author and reviewer resource centre.

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#RSCPoster 2018: And the Winners are…

09 Mar 2018

By Maria Southall.

We are delighted to announce the winners of the 2018 #RSCPoster Twitter Conference.

For the past three years, the Royal Society of Chemistry has hosted a Twitter poster conference, inviting participants to submit posters on Twitter based on their research in the chemical sciences. These poster conferences, the first of their kind, allowed people all over the world and at all stages of their careers to present their work and network with other chemists without having to travel.

This year, people from all across the globe participated in the Twitter poster conference, achieving 1,912 contributors, 6,715 Tweets, an audience of 2,019,127 and 10,267,097 total impressions! This means that the conference was an even greater success than Last year, where there were 1,650 contributors and 6,473 tweets.

And the winners are…

We are delighted to announce the winners of the 2018 event, as selected by our fantastic committee chairs. A full list of all the subject chairs is available at rsc.li/rsc-poster-2018 and at the end of this post.

Analytical – #RSCAnalytical

1st Prize:

Maria Sánchez-Purrà

2nd Prize:

Darya Mozhayeva

Chemical Biology – #RSCChemBio

1st Prize:

Jeffrey Mak

2nd Prize:

Agnese Solari

Chemistry Education – #RSCEdu

Primary/Secondary:

David Paterson

Higher:

Katherine Haxton

Engineering – #RSCEng

1st Prize:

Nicole Neyt

2nd Prize:

Marcin Drop

Environmental – #RSCEnv

1st Prize:

Maxim Galkin

2nd Prize:

Aryeh Feinberg

Inorganic – #RSCInorg

1st Prize:

Timothy Barendt

2nd Prize:

Miguel Chacon

Materials – #RSCMat

1st Prize:

Luke Wilkinson

2nd Prize:

Marion Roullet

Nanoscience – #RSCNano

1st Prize:

Alexandra Gellé

2nd Prize:

Jennifer Gracie

Organic – #RSCOrg

1st Prize:

Jesús San José

2nd Prize:

Hannes P. L. Gemoets

Physical – #RSCPhys

1st Prize:

Mario González Jiménez

2nd Prize:

Elaine Kelly

All the winners of the first prizes and the two winners in the Chemistry Education category, received £100 and the winners of the second prizes were given a £50 Royal Society of Chemistry book voucher.

We also had a special audience participation prize for the poster that received the most re-tweets during the event. Congratulations to Jo-Han Ng, whose poster Creative and Playful Learning of Chemistry Through the Use of a Green Technology Escape Room received a massive 452 retweets! Jo-Han Ng won a copy of The Case of the Poisonous Socks by William H. Brock.

Well done to all of our winners! The competition was very fierce with more participants than ever before!

Thanks to everyone who took part and made the fourth #RSCPoster Conference such a huge success and a special thanks to our Scientific Committee and all our subject chairs for all their help and support.

Conference Organisers and Committee

Conference Organisers

Royal Society of Chemistry

Matt Baker, University of Strathclyde, UK @ChemistryBaker

Edward Randviir, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK @EdwardRandviir.

Subject Chairs

#RSCAnalytical	Roy Goodacre, University of Manchester	@RoyGoodacre
	Martín Resano, University of Zaragoza	@MartinResano
#RSCChemBio	Michael Johnson, University of Arizona	@blacksciblog
	Marloes Peeters, Manchester Metropolitan University	@peeters_marloes
#RSCEdu	Claire McDonnell, Dublin Institute of Technology	@clairemcdonndit
	Kristy Turner, University of Manchester	@doc_kristy
#RSCEnv	Peter Vikesland, Virginia Tech	@petervikesland
	Nadine Borduas, ETH Zürich	@nadineborduas
	David Megson, Manchester Metropolitan University
#RSCInorg	Rebecca Melen, Cardiff University	@rebecca_melen

	Charlie O’Hara, University of Strathclyde	@oharalab
#RSCMat	Athina Anastasaki, UC Santa Barbara	@AthinaAnastasa1
	Chris Foster, Manchester Metropolitan University	@cwfoster90
#RSCNano	Gemma-Louise Davies, University of Warwick	@GemmaLouDavies
	Karen Faulds, University of Strathclyde	@FauldsKaren
#RSCOrg	Ryan Mewis, Manchester Metropolitan University	@RyanMewis
	David Nelson, University of Strathclyde	@TheNelsonGroup
#RSCPhys	Brian Wagner, University of Prince Edward Island	@DrummerBoy2112
	Lars Goerigk, University of Melbourne	@lgoer_compchem
#RSCEng	Mark Olson, Tianjin University	@MARK_A_OLSON

Tim Noël, Eindhoven University of Technology

@NoelGroupTUE

Scientific Committee

Fraser Stoddart, Northwestern University	@sirfrasersays
Zoë Ayres, University of Warwick	@ZJAyres
Perdita Barran, University of Manchester	@PerditaB
James Batteas, Texas A&M University	@jamesbatteas
Gonçalo Bernardes, University of Cambridge	@gbernardes_chem
Margaret Brimble, University of Auckland	@BrimbleM
Holly Butler, University of Strathclyde	@HollehButler
Simon Lewis, Curtin University	@SimonWLewis
Jean-François Masson, University of Montreal	@Masson_chem
Warren Piers, University of Calgary	@wpiers1

Michael Seery, University of Edinburgh	@seerymk
Nick Stone, University of Exeter	@profnickstone
Marcel Swart, University of Girona	@Marcel_Swart
Renée Webster, Monash University	@reneewebs
Doug MacFarlane, Monash University	@DRMacFarlane
Damien Arrigan, Curtin University	@arri_aus
Neil Keddie, University of St Andrews	@theyakman
Yonatan Calahorra, University of Cambridge	@YonCalahorra

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RSC Twitter Poster Conference 2018

14 Dec 2017

By Michaela Mühlberg.

#RSCPoster – written by Hannah Aitchison, Development Editor

The RSC Twitter Poster Conference is back #RSCPoster! Click here for the 2019 edition

9:00 (GMT) Tuesday March 6th to 9:00 (GMT) Wednesday March 7th

The Royal Society of Chemistry Twitter Poster Conference is an online event held entirely over Twitter to bring members of the scientific research community together to share their research, network and engage in scientific debate.

Following on from the success of the previous events, we are excited to announce that the 4^th RSC Twitter Poster Conference will be held from Tuesday March 6th (9am GMT) to Wednesday March 7th (9 am GMT).

How do I take part?
During the event simply tweet an image (e.g. JPEG) which will be a digital poster summarising your research along with #RSCPoster, the most appropriate subject area hashtag and the title of your work.

The hashtags required are:

Analytical – #RSCPoster #RSCAnalytical

Chemical Biology – #RSCPoster #RSCChemBio

Chemistry Education – #RSCPoster #RSCEdu

Engineering – #RSCPoster #RSCEng

Environmental – #RSCPoster #RSCEnv

Inorganic – #RSCPoster #RSCInorg

Materials – #RSCPoster #RSCMat

Nanoscience – #RSCPoster #RSCNano

Organic – #RSCPoster #RSCOrg

Physical – #RSCPoster #RSCPhys

Image courtesy of Matthew Partridge

For instance, if you are presenting an analytical poster, Tweet “Poster Title” #RSCPoster #RSCAnalytical. Throughout the day you can then answer any questions posed to you by other people on Twitter and ask questions about other posters. Make sure you follow #RSCPoster as the conference progresses.

When is it?
Tweet your posters with #RSCPoster and the most relevant subject hashtag between 9am GMT March 6th and 9am GMT March 7^th. To be considered for a prize, make sure you register at any time before the beginning of the event. Be sure to ask and answer lots of questions to ensure your work is well understood!

How do I register?
Pre-registration is not necessary unless you would like to be eligible for a prize. To be considered for one of the poster prizes you will need to verify who you are and where you do your research. We strongly recommend you do this before the event by emailing us and letting us know:
•   Your name, address and contact details
•   The title or topic of your poster
•   Your twitter handle

Is my research area suitable?
The conference is open to anyone working in any area of science whose research topic falls within one of the subject hashtag categories. If you’re unsure if your poster is suitable for the conference, just get in touch and we can advise.

How are the winners selected?
The main aim of the event is to meet new scientists, share ideas and learn about the latest developments in different scientific areas. The scientific committee will select posters which stimulate wide interest and feature innovative, high quality, exciting research. Posters prizes will be awarded for content & accessibility, design and researcher interaction with the conference. There will also be an audience award for the most tweeted poster. For the #RSCEdu Chemistry Education category, two prizes will be awarded: one for the best submission in the area of primary/secondary/further education and one for the best submission in the area of higher education. For all other categories, a first prize and a runner up prize will be up for grabs!

What can I win?
In the Chemistry Education category, there will be a £100 prize available for the best submission in the area of primary/secondary/further education and a £100 prize for the best submission in the area of higher education. In each of the other 9 categories, we will be awarding a first prize of £100 and the second prize will be an RSC book voucher worth £50. We will also have a special prize for the poster that receives the most retweets. Make sure you register before the event to be in with the chance of winning!

Who is organising the event and how do I find them?
At different points throughout the day members of each scientific committee for each subject area will be logging in to Twitter and searching #RSCPoster to ask questions about some of the posters. Make sure you check back in at different times to see if you have any new questions and also make sure you ask questions about other posters. You can also follow the RSC journal twitter accounts relevant to your research category for updates.

Conference Organisers and Committee

Conference Organisers
Royal Society of Chemistry
Matt Baker, University of Strathclyde, UK @ChemistryBaker
Edward Randviir, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK @EdwardRandviir

Subject Chairs

#RSC Analytical	Roy Goodacre, University of Manchester Martín Resano, University of Zaragoza	@RoyGoodacre @MartinResano
#RSCChemBio	Michael Johnson, University of Arizona Marloes Peeters, Manchester Metropolitan University	@blacksciblog @peeters_marloes
#RSCEdu	Claire McDonnell, Dublin Institute of Technology Kristy Turner, University of Manchester	@clairemcdonndit @doc_kristy
#RSCEnv	Peter Vikesland, Virginia Tech Nadine Borduas, ETH Zürich David Megson, Manchester Metropolitan University	@petervikesland @nadineborduas
#RSCInorg	Rebecca Melen, Cardiff University Charlie O’Hara, University of Strathclyde	@rebecca_melen @oharalab
#RSCMat	Athina Anastasaki, UC Santa Barbara Chris Foster, Manchester Metropolitan University	@AthinaAnastasa1 @cwfoster90
#RSCNano	Gemma-Louise Davies, University College London Karen Faulds, University of Strathclyde	@GemmaLouDavies @FauldsKaren
#RSCOrg	Ryan Mewis, Manchester Metropolitan University David Nelson, University of Strathclyde	@RyanMewis @TheNelsonGroup
#RSCPhys	Brian Wagner, University of Prince Edward Island Lars Goerigk, University of Melbourne	@DrummerBoy2112 @lgoer_compchem
#RSCEng	Mark Olson, Tianjin University Tim Noël, Eindhoven University of Technology	@MARK_A_OLSON @NoelGroupTUE

Scientific Committee

Fraser Stoddart, Northwestern University
Zoë Ayres, University of Warwick
Perdita Barran, University of Manchester
James Batteas, Texas A&M University
Gonçalo Bernardes, University of Cambridge
Margaret Brimble, University of Auckland
Holly Butler, University of Strathclyde
Simon Lewis, Curtin University
Jean-François Masson, University of Montreal
Warren Piers, University of Calgary
Michael Seery, University of Edinburgh
Nick Stone, University of Exeter
Marcel Swart, University of Girona
Renée Webster, Monash University
Doug MacFarlane, Monash University
Damien Arrigan, Curtin University
Neil Keddie, University of St Andrews
Yonatan Calahorra, University of Cambridge
Malika Jeffries-El, Boston University

@sirfrasersays
@ZJAyres
@PerditaB
@jamesbatteas
@gbernardes_chem
@BrimbleM
@HollehButler
@SimonWLewis
@Masson_chem
@wpiers1
@seerymk
@profnickstone
@Marcel_Swart
@reneewebs
@DRMacFarlane
@arri_aus
@theyakman
@YonCalahorra
@Chem_Diva

Register for #RSCPoster

We look forward to seeing your research in March!

Frequently Asked Questions

What size should my poster be?
You can choose any dimensions for your poster, the important thing is that the text and figures are clear for people to read and understand. Using Microsoft PowerPoint, we found a text size of between 12-16 were clear to read when saving an A4 slide as a JPEG and uploading to Twitter. Using an A0 template, the text needed to be between 50 and 60 to be legible. You can use any software you like to create your poster, as long as the image you upload is clear for others to read. We recommend testing your poster on Twitter before the conference to make sure you are happy with your image.

For 2019 #RSCPoster Twitter Conference click here: rsc.li/rsc-poster-2019

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‘Chemosensors and Molecular Logic’ themed collection

20 Oct 2017

By Michaela Mühlberg.

Celebrating Tony Czarnik’s and AP de Silva’s research

The Royal Society of Chemistry is celebrating the 60th birthday of Anthony Czarnik and the 65th birthday of AP de Silva with an online collection on ‘Chemosensors and Molecular Logic’, published across several of our journals. This themed web collection highlights the current state of the art and future directions in these two closely linked fields.

With the launch of this issue, we decided it’s time to get to know Professors Czarnik and de Silva better! Read our interviews below where we ask them about their research, hobbies and what drives them.

Tony Czarnik began his research career in 1983 at Ohio State University, where he worked for ten years. He then worked as Director of Chemistry at Parke-Davis Pharmaceutical Research, Sr. Director at IRORI Quantum Microchemistry, CSO at Illumina, and CSO at Senseonics. In 2003, he founded Protia, LLC – spin-offs include Deuteria Pharmaceuticals (sold in 2012), Deuteria Beverages, Deuteria Agrochemicals, and Deuteria Biomaterials. In 2012, Dr. Czarnik co-founded DeuteRx, LLC with Dr. Sheila DeWitt. Today, his sole executive position is that of Manager, Deuteria Beverages, LLC.

Dr. Czarnik’s research interests have included fluorescent chemosensors, combinatorial chemistry, RNA-targeted small molecule drugs, DNA sequencing using self-assembled microarrays, and improving chemical products using deuterium enrichment. The unifying focus of his work has been creating new ways in which chemists can be useful.

What do you enjoy about research and what do you dislike? My organic chemistry lab courses drew me into Chemistry. I loved the smells- even the nasty ones. I loved having squeaky clean glassware, and having just the right wrist action to put a solvent bottle’s cap on with one adept motion. I was transfixed by the notion that distillation and crystallization could be used to turn horrible black messes into colorless, pure liquids and solids. I still don’t understand why crystallization works on such wildly different classes of compounds.

What is the greatest challenge you face in your research? Waiting. For everything.

Many important discoveries are initially unexpected. Has it ever happened to you? Yes, in fact in the fluorescent chemosensors area. A student made a ZnCl2 complex of an anthracene diamine and prepared a solution of it for NMR. For no good reason, I shined a UV lamp on the NMR tube. It glowed bright blue. We then set upon a path to understand why.

What is the achievement you are most proud of in your academic career? Total synthesis of my daughter. (I put it in my lab notebook- “My best work to date.”)

What is your hobby? Is there any relationship between hobby and research life? I play piano. In 2010, I earned my Master of Music degree in Composition. At some point during my studies, it hit me that the piano keyboard was actually a periodic table… just with the rows laid end to end. It actually looks like the Periodic Table of the Elements when laid out as on an organ. That was a cool flash of insight.

How to balance the work and your life, and how is your family life? I never learned to do it well. My family has forgiven me time and time again, and so today I am still part of a family.

Who do you think is very important when you chose chemistry as your career? My seventh grade science teacher, Mrs. Anne Graham. She told me that I would become a chemist, and then went on to encourage my interest. She and her husband, a student in Paper Chemistry, gave my family a tour of what was the ‘Institute of Paper Chemistry’ in Appleton, Wisconsin where I grew up. Mrs. Graham set me on a course, and I never waivered from it. That was lucky for me. I still think of Mrs. Graham often.

Do you have any tips for doing successful scientific research? Donald Cram, 1987 Chemistry Nobelist, was also a surfer. He once told me that success in Chemistry was similar to success in surfing. ‘Look out in the distance and learn how to predict which wave will break at the right time for you to ride it.’ Having that skill greatly increases one’s chance to work on a topic deemed to be ‘important’.

If you were not a chemist, which career would you choose? With perfect hindsight, I would like to have been a documentary filmmaker in the ‘Ken Burns’ style.

Prof. de Silva was born and raised in Colombo, Sri Lanka where he completed his undergraduate studies at the university. He moved to Belfast to enjoy PhD and post-doctoral studies at Queen’s University. He then returned to the University of Colombo for family reasons, before continuing his teaching and research career at Queen’s University. AP de Silva has been a visiting professor at various universities, including the Universite Catholique de Louvain, Chulalongkorn University and East China University of Science & Technology. He received the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Sensor Award in 2008 and the Inaugural International Award for Molecular Sensors and Molecular Logic Gates in 2012. He has also written a book ‘Molecular Logic-based Computation’ published by the Royal Society of Chemistry in 2013.

Prof. de Silva’s research interests include supramolecular photochemistry, which led him and co-workers to connect supramolecular/coordination interactions, fluorescence and photoinduced electron transfer (PET) in the mid-1980s. With his co-workers, he generalized fluorescent PET sensor/switch behaviour into a predictive design tool for measuring target concentrations. AP de Silva consulted with Roche Diagnostics when the OPTI blood gas and electrolyte analyzer was designed and built, which is now sold by Optimedical (optimedical.com) and Idexx Laboratories (idexx.com). Extension of the ‘fluorophore-spacer-receptor’ system led him and co-workers to invent the experimental field of molecular logic-based computation. Now we understand that sensors are the simplest examples of molecular logic devices. Over 550 laboratories worldwide have contributed to this field so far, by showing that the concepts and processes of computer science can be transplanted into molecules and chemical interactions/reactions.

What excites you most about the field of Molecular Logic? Excitement never lasts too long and is associated with the emotion-driven parts of our lives. While science is very enjoyable, it usually arises from our rational faculties, develops slowly and leaves lasting impressions. I find the field of molecular information-handling enjoyable because it is a natural progression from the human version, except on a far-smaller size-scale.

What is the greatest challenge you face in your research? The unknown. But then, isn’t that what draws some of us to research?

Many important discoveries are initially unexpected. Has it ever happened to you? The meaning of ‘initial’ and ‘expectation’ changes with time and person. I didn’t understand expectation at birth. I didn’t expect molecular logic until I had ruminated on what a physicist friend, Satish Namasivayam, had taught me about elements of digital electronics. The limits of computation experts at IBM didn’t expect molecular logic to be worthwhile even after its announcement and even though our brains are molecule-based. Thankfully, over 550 laboratories have contributed to the field since then upto now. Serendipity has never been too far from anything worthwhile that I’ve done.

How to balance the work and your life? I am grateful that the work required in research does not have to be mind-numbingly hard and continuous. Since research benefits greatly from reflective periods (including periods where the brain spools away on problem-solving unknown to us), considerable time is freed up for us to get on with our general lives.

What is your hobby? Is there any relationship between hobby and research life? I have been fortunate to play in an Irish traditional music band for nearly 20 years now. When musicians who read each other play in a circle, with the music bouncing around inside, there are moments of brilliant intensity which are truly exciting.

What are your suggestions to young generations to encourage them to consider a career in science? There are many aspects of life where truths have to be taken on trust, where truths depend on those in powerful positions or where truths have little meaning. All these situations are less than satisfactory. I like science because truths tend to get established by the cumulative critical efforts of many contributors. Even the subsequent modification of those truths occurs in a similarly considered way. There may be those in younger generations who wish for similarly dependable truths. Then they are scientists-in-the-making.

How do you define ‘a successful scientist’ and how to achieve it? For me, a successful person is someone who contributes to the success of others. Several old philosophies have discussed this view at length. Then, a scientist can be successful by contributing to how other scientists think, how other non-scientists think and how other people live (in that order).

Do you have any tips for doing successful scientific research? Learning bits about as many things as possible helped me to attempt bridging of disciplines.

Read the collection and stay up-to-date with new additions here.

The 6th International Conference on Molecular Sensors and Molecular Logic Gates (MSMLG 2018) will be held at Dalian University of Technology from 3-6 June 2018. At the meeting two of the Guest Editors of this themed issue, Engin Akkaya (Bilkent University) and Tony D. James (University of Bath), will receive MSMLG Czarnik Awards. In addition Youjun Yang (ECUST), Zhaochao Xu (Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics), Alexander Schiller (Friedrich Schiller University Jena) and David Margulies (Weizmann Institute) will receive MSMLG Czarnik Emerging Investigator Awards. For more details and registration details please see the conference web site (http://msmlg2018.dlut.edu.cn/).

*Reprinted with permission from Fluorescent Chemosensors for Ion and Molecule Recognition, Czarnik, A.W., Ed.; ACS Symposium Series 538; American Chemical Society: Washington, D.C., 1993; cover image. Copyright 1993 American Chemical Society.

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Win an APC voucher for RSC Advances in our Open Access Week competition

09 Oct 2017

By Michaela Mühlberg.

Written by Rebecca Church, Royal Society of Chemistry

To celebrate Open Access Week (23-27 October), we want to know why you think open access publishing is important to chemistry. To enter upload your thoughts to Twitter before 12 noon (UK time) on Friday 27 October for the chance to win an article processing charge (APC) voucher for RSC Advances.

How to enter

Simply tweet why you think that open access is important to chemistry and include the #RSCcomp hashtag.

You can tell us why in any way you choose, you could record a short video, draw or paint, write a song or poem or just write a short paragraph.

To be in with the chance of winning please upload your entry between Monday 23 October 2017 and 12 noon (UK time) on Friday 27 October 2017.

If you’re submitting a written entry, please write it on a PowerPoint slide or similar and then convert it to a JPEG before uploading it to Twitter. Please make sure the writing is legible in the image.

Selecting a winner

We’ll randomly select one winner, from all the entrants, on Friday 27 October 2017. We will contact them directly before announcing the result on our Twitter feed.

Getting you started

You can find out more about open access publishing on our website.

Here’s some questions to get you thinking about how open access is helping to advance the chemical sciences.

How do you benefit from having free and permanent unrestricted access to scholarly research?
If the licence allows users to download, copy, reuse, and distribute data provided in the original article what does this mean for future research?
Open access articles are made free to access online immediately and permanently in their final published form; what benefits does this offer?

If you have any questions about the competition please email publishing@rsc.org

Follow the competition

During Open Access Week you can follow the competition using the hashtag #RSCcomp.

More about RSC Advances

We deliberately push the boundaries with RSC Advances, always looking for new and unique ways to make the scientific developments we publish accessible to the widest possible audience.

Community-led, with an international team of associate editors, a dedicated reviewer panel and features such as article-based publishing, RSC Advances has been gold open access since 2017. This move has given researchers free access to a broader scope of high quality work and offered new, affordable open access publishing options to authors around the world.

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RSC Publishing Blog

2019 #RSCPoster Twitter Conference

Contributors to the 2018 New Frontiers in Indian Research collection

Congratulations to the EuChemS Poster Prizewinners

Announcing a themed collection – Celebrating Excellence in Research: 100 Women of Chemistry

Congratulations to prizewinners at the 1st National Meeting of the Swedish Chemical Society

Celebrating our Outstanding Reviewers in 2017

#RSCPoster 2018: And the Winners are…

And the winners are…

RSC Twitter Poster Conference 2018

‘Chemosensors and Molecular Logic’ themed collection

Win an APC voucher for RSC Advances in our Open Access Week competition

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