Beatrice Jones was awarded a Rideal Travel Bursary to attend the 39th Annual Conference for the European Colloids and Interface Society (ECIS) held in September in Bristol, UK. Here she tells us about her highlights from the conference.
"The range of talks, from leading professors in the field to early-stage PhD students, meant that the scientific discussion was extremely rich, providing both greater understanding into the future direction of the field, and the nitty-gritty of experimental details and methodological set-ups. I particularly enjoyed the focus on specialised techniques, such as the sessions dedicated to scattering in colloid science. This drove discussion between researchers and beamline scientists from large-scale facilities, leaving me with many ideas for how to use state-of-the-art techniques to gain new insights into my materials.
"On the final day, I had the opportunity to present my research in a talk entitled Harnessing Light-Responsive Behaviour in Lyotropic Liquid Crystals. I was excited to share the results of my PhD work, namely the diverse behaviours that are exhibited by surfactants in lyotropic liquid crystals in response to light, and how they can be harnessed for three potential applications.
"These are (1) targeted drug delivery, (2) solar energy storage, and (3) switchable gas diffusion membranes for microfluidic reactors. This sparked many conversations and was a great chance to share the results of multiple projects with the community. I left Bristol with a bolstered network within the field, a list of pathways for future collaborations, and many ideas that I was itching to pursue in the lab. I once again thank the RSC-SCI Rideal Trust for funding this opportunity at such a pivotal point in my career."
Beatrice Jones
PhD student
University of Cambridge
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