Old Members’ Trust Graduate Conference and Academic Travel Fund Report – Alex Mapp (2021, Inorganic Chemistry for Future Manufacturing)

Thanks to the Old Members’ Trust Graduate Conference and Academic Travel Fund, I was fortunate to be able to travel to Vancouver to attend the Canadian Chemistry Conference. The conference kicked off on Sunday evening with a fantastic plenary talk from Nobel Prize winning chemist Carolyn Bertozzi on the applications of click chemistry in biorthogonal labelling. My own research focuses on a specific inorganic variation of this type of chemistry, so it was great to see how it can be applied in an entirely different field.

The next few days consisted of a busy schedule of talks across a range of topics in Inorganic Chemistry. I spent most of time between the Main Group and Molecular Catalysis sessions, where I attended talks from world-leading academics, post-docs and graduate students. This provided a great insight into the current state of research in the field I work in, which helped inspire new ideas to apply to my own research.

Lynn Canyon Park

On Tuesday evening I presented a poster on my research in the Inorganic Chemistry sessions. This was a great opportunity to present my research to the wider chemistry community and engage in discussion with other chemists. This improved my presentation and scientific communication skills, and tested my own understanding of my project. During the session I was able to talk to chemists who were previous group members of Paul Beer’s (my secondary supervisor) which gave me new ideas on where to take my project next.

The conference was an invaluable opportunity to network and meet other chemists. My primary supervisor, Jose Goicoechea (who left Oxford to take a position in Indiana in January 2023), was in attendance, so it was great to catch-up in person and spend some social time as a group. I met some new people during the conference who I hope to see at future chemistry meetings.

Overall, travelling to Vancouver to attend the Canadian Chemistry Conference was a fantastic opportunity. I am grateful to University College in helping fund this trip by paying for my conference registration fee. Undoubtedly, it has improved my knowledge of the current state of research in my field, helped inspire new ideas for my own project, and allowed me to network with other chemists.

Find out more about the range of travel grants and scholarships available to assist Univ students on our Travel Grants page or read further travel reports.

Published: 19 September 2023

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