Chemistry Lab Dinner 2019

This year we are thrilled to announce the Thomas Graham Lecture will be given by Prof. Matthew Powner. Matt was born in Wensleydale, North Yorkshire in 1981. He obtained a first class master’s degree in chemistry at the University of Manchester (2005), where he was awarded the Royal Society of Chemistry prize, the Degussa award, the Sigma-Aldrich prize, the Glaxo prize, the Eric Braithwaite prize, the Swan prize and the Merck Sharp & Dohme award. He then completed a medicinal chemistry internship at AstraZeneca, Alderley Park, before returning to Manchester to complete his PhD (2009) and a short EPSRC Doctoral Prize post-doctoral fellowship with Prof. John Sutherland FRS. In 2009 he was awarded a Harvard Research Fellowship to work with Nobel Laureate Prof. Jack Szostak FRS at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. He returned to the UK in 2011, joining UCL as a Lecturer in the Chemistry Department, where he is currently an Associate Professor of Organic Chemistry and an Investigator of the Simons Foundation Collaboration on the Origins of Life. His research interests centre around chemistry associated with the origin of life and, along with his research group, has made contributions in the areas of nucleic acid and amino acid chemistry, protometabolic networks, ribozymes, lipids, crystal engineering, green chemistry, catalysis and photochemistry. Prof Powner has been awarded various prizes and fellowships in recognition of his research, including the ISSOL Stanley Miller Award (2011), the SET for Britain Roscoe Medal (2012), 1st prize in the Origins of Life Challenge (2012; jointly with Prof. John Sutherland FRS), an EPSRC Early Career Fellowship (2013), a Bürgenstock JPS Fellowship (2015), the Thieme Chemistry Journal Award (2015), a Center for Advanced Studies Fellowship (2016) and the RSC Harrison-Meldola Memorial Prize (2019).

Our after dinner speech will be given by Ebony-Jewel Rainford-Brentm who graduated with a MSci in Chemistry in 2006 and went on to play with the England team that won the 9th ICC Women's Cricket World Cup, the World T20 and Women’s Ashes in 2009. Ebony-Jewel was awarded UCL Sportswoman of the Year in March 2007 and was the first Director of Women’s Cricket at Surrey County Cricket Club. Since retiring from sport, Ebony has gone on to a career in the media including becoming a broadcaster and commentator for the flagship BBC programme ‘Test Match Special’, as well as following her passion for personal development as a Motivational Speaker and Performance Coach.

We have also invited the President of the Chemical and Physical Society, Dr Anna Roffey to give a short speech on the current status of the CPS and how you can get involved. Anna joined the department as Teaching Fellow in 2017.

The evening should end around 10.30pm, for those that with to continue to mingle; there are several local pubs just a short walk from the hotel.

The full cost of the evening is £45 per person; this includes welcome tea/coffee, drinks reception following the Thomas Graham Lecture, a three course meal, 1/2 bottle of wine, and coffee to finish. Any additional drinks may be purchased at the bar within the hotel.  We do have a number of PhD tickets available at a reduced price of £25 per student. To book your place at this year’s event, please complete the attached form and return with payment, all cheques should be made payable to “University College London”. Card payments are also acceptable – please see the booking form for details. Please note tickets are non-refundable.

Should you have any queries regarding this year’s event please do let me know by email at l.mcseveny@ucl.ac.uk