Natural Sciences Research Seminars

Speaker: Elisabeth Cooke, Chief Process Engineer at Sellafield Ltd

The Chester Physics Student Seminar Series is back with a webinar on career prospects in the Nuclear Technology sector, delivered by Elisabeth Cooke, Chief Process Engineer at Sellafield Ltd. The webinar will start with an introduction to the UK nuclear industry landscape, followed by career prospects for Physics and Chemical...

Speaker: Ashley Broughton, University of Chester

Currently, many thousands of tons of pesticides are used annually to control agricultural pests. These general purpose non species specific agents have many drawbacks including negative impacts on human health and ecosystem damage. This work’s purpose was to investigate if previously characterised pheromones of pest insect species could be synthesised...

Speaker: Daniel Akinbosede, University of Sussex

Scientific disciplines are well known for their grounding in objectivity and fact-driven research practices. As a result, it is easy to assume that new educational initiatives such as ‘decolonising the curriculum’ are not relevant in our fields. This session seeks to make the case that the opposite is true. In...

Speaker: Jordan Williams, University of Chester

Electrodeposition is a simple and effective process of fabricating nanostructures. Using this method, nanostructures are produced to induce properties in materials to enhance their efficiency. Using a complex electrolyte solution, a catalyst was altered to find a drastic change in the nanostructures produced, both in size and shape. The catalysts...

Speaker: Varun Bheemireddy, University of Chester

Single-Molecule Junctions (SMJs) are fundamental to nanoelectronic components that use molecules as their building elements. It is an interdisciplinary field that includes a subtle interplay of physics, chemistry, materials science, and electrical engineering. This presentation broadly focuses on the computational study of symmetry-breaking effects on SMJs. The first part of...

Speaker: Matthew Lockwood, University of Chester

The gaseous and particulate matter exhaust emissions produced by internal combustion engine (ICE) powered vehicles are detrimental to human and environmental health. To reduce harmful exhaust emissions, manufacturers implement various exhaust aftertreatment systems with minimal impact on the performance of an engine. Automotive emission testing began in the late 20th...

Speaker: Robert Swierczewski, University of Chester

Life Amia is an acronym for the EU-funded, international engineering project ref. LIFE18 ENV/ES/000170 aiming to develop a novel approach to wastewater treatment by implementing a combination of carbon-neutral emerging technologies in a fully functional, mid-size (<3000 m3/day) demonstration plant located in the region of Murcia, Spain. A local company...

Speaker: Sanjay Lad, University of Chester

Contamination of water sources, from perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS), remains a growing concern from a biological and ecological perspective. Currently, they are considered an emerging pollutant that is linked to a myriad of adverse health effects such as cancers and gastrointestinal diseases in mammals. Its presence in water is ubiquitous...

Speaker: Aydin Oryou, University of Chester

The market’s desire to find a new method to replace fossil fuels is growing and this, together with climate change on our planet are acting as a reminder to innovative contrivance methods in the future. Microalgae is a leading candidate having attracted the attention of several types of research to...

Speaker: Ashley Broughton, University of Chester

Currently, multi-species pesticides are used extensively in agriculture in many parts of the world. These pesticides are effective but have several drawbacks including stress on bee colonies and concerns about impact on human health including links with cancers. Attractant pheromones for a range of pest species have been known about...