Congratulations to Jen (PhD Candidate, Kerton Group) who was honoured at the School of Graduate Studies Awards Ceremony.
Jen Murphy at School of Graduate Studies Award Ceremony
Also, congratulations to Greg Curtis (MSc, Kerton Group, 2014) on his new job with a start-up company as a medicinal green chemist. He will be using supercritical carbon dioxide in his new work and is about to jet off to his first business meeting/team building exercise in Pittsburgh.
Well done everyone!
http://today.mun.ca/news.php?id=9498.
The University is starting to prepare the site of the new Science building. Chemistry is one of the departments that will move in here!
Group at the Underbelly (Yellow Belly Brewery) postgame
At the Icecaps game
At the Icecaps game
Teddy Toss Success – The van is full
Buddy abusing the bears
Face-off!
Our research group is busy trying to make fish and seafood waste into something else – hopefully one day we will turn it into something more valuable. Nowadays, when we have finished eating a shrimp or crab dish – the shells go into the trash and off to a landfill site. With space in landfills becoming less readily available, we can try to turn our waste into something else. In our case, this something else is a new chemical building block that we could turn into a new disease-fighting drug or into a new plastic. Chemicals are all around us in daily life (including the parts of this computer that I am using to write this blog post). To me it seems obvious to take one problem, waste, and to use it to solve another problem, making the objects we need and use everyday. In this way, we can all live a little bit more sustainably and take better care of our planet.
Dr. Kerton enjoying Singapore’s famous chili crab earlier this year – where did those shells go? probably to landfill
Filed under: St. John's
St. John’s winters aren’t as harsh as people think. We’re the warmest in Canada today!
More information on the application process and grad studies in chemistry at Memorial Univ. can be found on this departmental site.
If any questions aren’t answered there, drop Fran or Chris a line
Thank you to the Walsh Family and particularly Andrew (SWASP 2013, Kerton Group) for these extra photos:
Filed under: Group News, Science, St. John's | Tags: biodegradable plastics, green chemistry, Memorial University, polycarbonate, polylactide, research, sustainable development
Chris was interviewed on the Rogers TV St. John’s local television program “Out of the Fog” yesterday. The segment discussed the problems with currently used plastics and how biodegradable and renewably-sourced plastics, such as those being investigated in the MUN Green Chemistry Group, may be able to address some of the long term environmental issues.
Filed under: Group News, Group Photos, Science, St. John's, Students | Tags: carbon dioxide, chemistry, Green polymers, Memorial University, research, students
The St. John’s arts and entertainment magazine, “The Scope”, recently published an article in their on-line edition on some of the work occurring in the MUN Green Chemistry and Catalysis Group. Entitled “Great future in green plastics“, the article by Dave Jerome describes the research on degradable plastics that is being performed by Justin Belanger and other students in the group.
Filed under: St. John's | Tags: chemistry, east coast trail, hiking, Memorial University, newfoundland, st. john's
Beautiful scenery on our doorstep – a recent story from the Telegram newspaper – World class adventure!
Hope all current and future researchers in our group are taking advantage of the East Coast Trail on our doorstep. Louise Dawe and other researchers in the department have been involved with the development, maintenance and general up keep of the trail – ask around the department and people will love to tell you about their favourite sections and their recommendations.
Green Chemistry @ MUN 