PhD – Yeung Research Group at UoB

Suzie passes her PhD viva

Today we celebrated as Suzie passed her PhD viva! Congratulations Suzie!

Woman smiling with long dark brown hair, wearing a white blouse, beige jacket and dark brown trousers and shoes, holding a bottle of prosecco, standing in front of a chemistry laboratory.

Suzie’s thesis investigated the structure and properties of some intriguing mixed-metal MOFs, using in- and ex-situ X-ray diffraction as well as other allied techniques to build a detailed picture of how they form and how the spatial arrangement of the different metals influences gas sorption.

Many thanks to Richard Walton and Josh Makepeace for examining the thesis.

Opportunities

Birmingham Chemistry Scholarships 2025

Applications are now open for the Birmingham Chemistry Scholarships 2025.

Each fully funded scholarship is for 3.5 years full-time study and covers academic fees and a maintenance grant in line with the UK Research Innovation rate. These scholarships are primarily for students eligible to pay Home/UK tuition fees. However, exceptional overseas students may be supported.

Applicants should send Hamish their CV and a cover letter, including a “Person and Preparedness statement” (max 2000 characters), by 12:00 Friday 31 January. In this statement, you may wish to consider your academic history, skills and expertise, professional experience and awards or publications. Additionally, you should indicate in this statement that you wish to work with Dr Hamish Yeung within the School of Chemistry and why. Specific details around a research project is not to be included.
Applicants should also apply for the PhD School of Chemistry programme through the Course Finder section of the University of Birmingham website. Please ensure that your referees have submitted their references by midnight 3rd February.

Awards will be allocated based on academic excellence; normally students will expect to have (or hold) a first-class honors degree (or equivalent). Candidates will be shortlisted based on the information provided in the application process (see below) and invited for interview. Successful candidates will be expected to start by 1 October 2025.

News

Aaron passes his PhD viva

Today marked a big milestone in the Yeung group, as Aaron successfully defended his PhD thesis! All being well, he’ll be graduating as Dr Chambers very soon! A big thank you to his examiners, Sam Chong and Tim Easun, and his project co-supervisor at BAM, Brian Pauw, as well as everyone that helped with his project along the way.

News

Suzie presents

This week, Suzie presented her PhD research at the School of Chemistry Postgraduate Symposium. Well done!

Papers

New MDABCO perovskites paper

Sam and Harry’s paper on MDABCO-based ABX₃ perovskites is now out in CrystEngComm!

These materials are very promising candidates for ferroelectric applications, owing to their ease of synthesis, flexibility and properties that rival existing materials, such as BaTiO₃. Sam and Harry discovered the single crystal structures of three new compositions, which help to define the design limits within which the ferroelectric pseudo-cubic perovskite phases form.

Congratulations Sam and Harry and thanks to all contributing authors!

Read the paper, which features in the 2022 New Talent Special Issue (Open Access) here.

Update: new cover art available too!