Warwick Chemistry's Research Progress and Achievements since RAE2008, Study notes of Chemistry

Download Warwick Chemistry's Research Progress and Achievements since RAE2008 and more Study notes Chemistry in PDF only on Docsity! Environment template (REF5) Page 1 Institution: University of Warwick Unit of Assessment: 8 Chemistry a. Overview Warwick Chemistry is a thriving, highly collaborative and interdisciplinary unit within a Science Faculty of nine departments. Excellent progress since RAE2008 is evidenced by: 9.4 strategic academic appointments; 12 new external salaried fellowships, including 4 ERC; 18 prestigious research prizes; growth in research support staff (35.3 cf. 22.2 in 2007) and RAs (54 cf. 34 in 2007); major investment including a £24.5M building; research spend of £35.9M (cf. 14.2M in RAE2008) with a 2012/13 income of £8.44M (£242K per FTE); research papers per FTE p.a. increased by 56%; a doubling since 2007 of registered PhD students to 176, with 157 graduated. Chemical research is organised in six non-exclusive, strategic Themes comprising many programmes across the breadth of the subject and its borders with other disciplines: Analytical Science and Instrumentation, Chemical Biology, Interfaces and Materials, Polymer Chemistry, Synthesis and Catalysis, and Theory and Simulation. All staff submitted to UoA8 are based within the Department with one joint appointment with Life Sciences submitted to UoA5. b. Research strategy Warwick Chemistry was rated among the best in the UK in RAE2008. Our research steering committee has a vision of a leading chemistry department, with strong connections to other sciences. We thus seek continuously to improve and broaden core disciplinary excellence whilst expanding strategic and cross-disciplinary activities within the department and beyond. Our research strategy, reaffirmed in 2010 by a Strategic Departmental Review (chaired by Prof. Dudley Williams FRS), was developed in light of new Research Council and EU priorities, Warwick’s new cross-campus Global Research Priorities (GRPs, particularly Materials, Energy, Food, Science & Technology for Health and Innovative Manufacturing), the need to build critical mass in areas of strength and to provide better alignment with the needs of key industrial partners. We have six strategic Themes: Analytical Science & Instrumentation (AS&I); Chemical Biology (CB); Interfaces & Materials (I&M); Polymer Chemistry (Pol) introduced since RAE2008; Synthesis & Catalysis (S&C); and Theory & Simulation (T&S). These thematic groupings allow us to respond in an agile manner to external initiatives, as described in (d). For example, we lead or play a significant role in the above GRPs, numerous interdisciplinary research centres/CDTs and the Monash-Warwick Alliance. We have built several strategic relationships with companies [see (e)]. Since RAE2008 we have invested in some of the best ECR and established talent available internationally (9.4 FTE recruited) including professorial appointments to support major new strategic activities [EPSRC-funded Warwick Centre for Analytical Sciences (O’Connor); Green Chemistry (Lee) and Nanomedicine (Perrier, Davis) with Monash, Australia]. 15 Academic staff held 17 external salaried fellowships including 12 new awards from research council, learned society, charitable trusts and European Research Council (four); two further ERC awards were made in Nov 2013. We have won 18 prestigious national and international research prizes. The University has provided major investment for expansion of our research infrastructure including £24.5M for a new Materials & Analytical Sciences building (MAS, shared with Physics). Excellent progress since RAE2008 is further indicated by the following metrics: (i) very strong growth in research spend (see REF4b) with £35.9M in period (cf. 14.2M in RAE2008), record income levels in 2012/13 (£8.44M, or £242K per FTE p.a.) and £10.6M of new awards announced in the 12 months up to 31 July 2013; (ii) 56% increase in the volume of research outputs per FTE p.a.; (iii) doubling of PhD student population with 157.1 graduated in period (see REF4a); (iv) ca 60 % increase in both research support staff (to 35.3) and postdoctoral research assistants (to 54). All of this was achieved with only a small increase in submitted staff (34.8 cf. 32.8 in RAE2008). These and other metrics indicate that the environment for chemical research at Warwick has advanced substantially in REF2014. Given the strong upward trajectory in research income and with two new CDTs led from our research Themes, we expect further increases in PhD, research fellow and staff numbers during the next REF period. We are also confident that our vigorous, collegiate and productive department will continue to be strongly supported by the university to grow further in quality and international reach. The following brief exemplars of scientific achievements and strengths demonstrate the success of our strategy and allow us to describe areas for strategic expansion. Environment template (REF5) Page 2 Analytical Science & Instrumentation (AS&I) was established as a Theme in 2008 following an RCUK Science & Innovation Award (£3.56 M). As the central pillar of the Warwick Centre for Analytical Science (W-CAS) it runs a popular MSc (AS:MIT) leads a new EPSRC CDT in Molecular Analytical Science and a EU Innovative Doctoral Programme. Key strengths are the development of novel instrumentation and applications of frontier techniques in biology and materials. Lewandowski invented leading solid-state NMR methods for measurement of high resolution protein structures and quantification of slow protein motions. O’Connor created the first reliable method for phasing FT-ICR mass spectrometry data and developed several new methods for studying the structure of biomolecules. RodgerA invented the new technique of Raman linear difference spectroscopy and developed instrumentation and new data analysis methods for this and other polarised spectroscopies. Stavros employed state-of-the-art femtosecond laser techniques to unravel photoactivation mechanisms relevant to biology and cancer metallodrug action, and directly probed hydrogen tunnelling in real time. Unwin pioneered electrochemical imaging techniques capable of visualising electrode surface reactions with unprecedented resolution, whilst Macpherson developed carbon-based electroanalytical sensors offering ultra- high detection sensitivities. Lee developed new multi-dimensional (XPS/DRIFTS/IR/MS) methodologies for in situ and operando analysis of functional materials. Costantini pioneered the use of electrospray ion soft landing for the intact vacuum deposition of functional and fragile (bio)molecules, opening new horizons in fabrication and analysis of (bio)molecule-surface interactions. Chemical Biology (CB) continues to grow from a position of strength in RAE2008, with research in natural product discovery, enzymology and molecular genetics of natural product biosynthesis, and medicinal/bioinorganic chemistry. Synthetic biology and industrial biotechnology will be areas for future growth, through the opportunities they offer to deliver sustainable chemical processes. Challis made advances in genomics-driven discovery of novel bioactive polyketides and enzymology of biosynthesis, including the first structural and mechanistic studies of NRPS- independent siderophore synthetases and the discovery of metalloenzymes that catalyse novel C- H functionalization reactions. Tosin devised chemical probes capable of capturing polyketide biosynthetic intermediates in vitro and in vivo and reconstructed the timing of ring formation for the polyether lasalocid A. Bugg characterised tRNA-dependent ligases MurM and MurN involved in high-level penicillin resistance in Strep. pneumoniae, identified DypB (Rhodococcus jostii RHA1) as a bacterial lignin peroxidase towards renewables from biomass, and showed using pathway engineering that vanillin is produced from lignin breakdown in this strain. Dixon elucidated the roles of transmembrane domains in membrane proteins, described novel models of protein folding and function and characterised the dynamics and ligand binding characteristics of an important lectin. Blindauer revealed the structure of the major zinc site in mammalian plasma and its dependence on physiological fatty acid levels, the identity of the biomarker ischemia-modified albumin, and mechanisms for biological zinc/cadmium discrimination. RodgerA measured and modelled assemblies of biomacromolecules including those involved in bacterial cell division. In medicinal chemistry Fox discovered anti-inflammatory compounds with sub-nanomolar potency, Shipman identified the anti-cancer pharmacophore in the naturally occurring kigamicins, Sadler discovered several novel organometallic and photoactivatable anticancer complexes, and elucidated novel mechanisms of action, including redox, catalytic and coenzymatic processes, while Scott’s family of metallohelices include potent antibiotic and anticancer compounds. Interfaces & Materials (I&M) research is focused on the elucidation and control of interfacial properties, and the development and investigation of structure-function relationships in new materials. Research in this Theme will be further boosted by Macpherson’s leadership in an interdisciplinary, industry-partnered multi-site EPSRC CDT in Diamond Science & Technology continuing her pioneering work on doped carbon materials. Unwin has obtained major new insights in interfacial and electrochemical processes at the nanoscale, and developed a radical new understanding of the activity of advanced carbon materials and structure-activity measurements of individual electrocatalytic nanoparticles. Rourke elucidated key aspects of structure and reactivity for graphene oxide, proposing a new 2-phase model, which has gained widespread acceptance. Walton created rational syntheses of a wide range of inorganic materials, developed oxides as fuel cell catalysts and water resistant building products, and made the first observations of MOF crystallisation. Costantini used UHV-STM to reveal the basis for enantioselective self-assembly of biomolecules, developed rules for 2D MOF construction and Environment template (REF5) Page 5 supervises 9 students (6.8 FTE) from DTC, DTG and other university-controlled scholarship funds. Alongside substantial university support for career development, a mentoring system operates in the department, whereby a senior member of staff provides encouragement and feedback to staff during probation and beyond, for example on proposal preparation and teaching. The quality and consistency of support applied across the department, and the vigour of our staff are reflected in the fact that 10 promotions to Associate Professor/Reader and 4 to personal chairs (Deeth, O’Reilly, Troisi, Walton) were made on merit in the REF period. Our workload management system is based around teaching, administration, leadership and collegiality and takes less account of research volume. Most established academic staff have the same teaching load; we are a research-led teaching institution and our best researchers are a key part of this. Leadership roles in the department are planned on the basis of career development via annual review and eight senior academic staff are graduates of the Warwick Leadership Programme. Staff have had many leadership roles at university and faculty level, including PVC for Research and Chair of Faculty (Jones), Deputy Chair of Faculty (Scott), Directors of GRPs (O’Reilly), CDTs and University Centres (RodgerA, RodgerM). We operate a generous study leave scheme (1 term in 7) which does not require external funding, and 18 staff have taken advantage of this in the period. In relation to the recruitment and retention of outstanding senior researchers, we have supported successful bids by Haddleton (2010-15), Challis (2013-18) and Perrier (2013-18) to the RS Wolfson Merit scheme for salary enhancements. Warwick has a range of internal strategic mechanisms for funding research. Chemistry engages strongly with these, with 71% of staff supported by £1.4M in awards, particularly the Research Development Fund for pump priming of new projects, the Institute of Advanced Studies which offers fellowship funding and support for EU bids, the Impact Fund for proof-of-concept work, the International Office which supports collaborations and networking. Additionally, University funds have provided £2.84M in PhD scholarship support (see below). Research Support Services (RSS) at the University provides an administrative focus and advice for research funding. The Department’s Research Development and Contracts Officers sit within Chemistry and work with colleagues at all career stages to identify funding opportunities and help prepare proposals. We have had great success in winning and hosting research fellowships including: EPSRC-CAF/Leadership (O’Reilly, Lee), Royal Society-URF (Chaplin, Corre, Notman), Royal Society-industry (Dove) and Leverhulme Trust (Barry, Cheung, Troisi, Habershon). In addition five other colleagues have held fellowships of this kind during the period (Blindauer, Fox, Hatton, Stavros, Macpherson). Colleagues have also won support from the highly-competitive European Research Council: Troisi and Costantini (ERC Starting Grants), Sadler and Unwin (ERC Advanced Investigators), with O’Reilly and Troisi awarded ERC Consolidator grants in Nov 2013. Following several international appointments, 40% of the submitted academic staff originate from and/or were recruited from outside the UK and it is notable that the five academic colleagues who have left us (Lochner, Drewello, Derrick, TaylorPR, Walsh) have all moved to senior international posts; chairs at Bern, Erlangen, Massey, Melbourne, and VESKI Fellow, Deakin respectively. Of our current staff, 65% have been involved in extended international visits with 15 formal adjunct and similar appointments at e.g. Australian Academy of Science, Austin, Berkeley, U of Hong Kong, ITQB Portugal, Stanford, Texas A&M, Western Sydney and U of Queensland. We have hosted substantial visits and sabbaticals by 35 international academic staff, with financial assistance from e.g. Warwick Institute of Advanced Study, Santander Partnership, Australian Research Council and Warwick partnerships with Monash, Brazil and others. Highlights include Profs Janice Aldrich-Wright (Western Sydney), Alan Bond (Monash), Jean Fréchet (Berkeley), Sam H Gellman (Wisconsin-Madison), Tim Keiderling (Chicago), Klaus Kern (Max Planck, Stuttgart), Miquel Pons (Barcelona), Kevin Smith (Boston), Martin Stillman (Western Ontario), John Sutherland (East Carolina). We have also hosted 19 holders of personal international research fellowships such as Marie Curie, Newton, Swiss NSF and other research foundations, and 57% of our current PDRA population are foreign nationals. We were one of the earliest UK departments with an Athena SWAN Silver award (2010) which has been successfully renewed (2013). Chemists (Jones – chair, RodgerA) led the successful 2013 University bid for Silver: one of only four in UK. Practical steps are taken such as ensuring that academic staff returning from maternity/adoptive leave have reduced loads and that meetings are scheduled at family-friendly times for all. Of 7 academic staff who are women, 3 are Environment template (REF5) Page 6 professors (RodgerA, Macpherson, O’Reilly) i.e. 17% of FA9. Female staff hold a number of senior leadership roles in the university (see above). A Welfare & Communications group (chaired by HoD) oversees E&D issues for all activities and staffing groups and we have two representatives on the university E&D committee. We played a leading role in Warwick’s status as Stonewall Diversity Champion. We have a current FTE-weighted average age of 39, with 41% of faculty members aged 40 or under. The PhD population has doubled since 2007 (see table and RAE2008 data) with 157.1 PhD graduating in the period. Diverse funding sources have been employed, including EPSRC DTG, EPSRC ChemD (similar to EngD), BBSRC studentships, Charities, China Scholarships, Warwick Chancellor’s and Collaborative Scholarships, ERC, industry, and CDTs [see (e)]. We will internationalise further the PhD experience through joint PhDs (e.g. Monash-Warwick PhD). Over REF2014, 27% of our PhD intake has been international and ca 85% of UK recruits had M-level qualifications. An undergraduate cohort that includes 90 MChem researchers and 48 summer interns (2013) contributes strongly to recruitment of excellent, highly motivated PhD students. Oct census year 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 Registered PhDs 137.9 152.2 164.6 178.8 175.6 PhD training and support begins with induction on relevant technical, analytical and research resources. A bespoke laboratory demonstrating course is delivered with the Learning and Development Centre. All PhDs take a RC-compliant Certificate in Transferable Skills in Science with a large array of options. Similarly, scientific modules are provided according to agreed plans for each student. All this is integrated with research studies, broadening activities such as conference and seminar attendance, and graduate school reporting/continuation requirements. Individual PGR students have an advisory committee that reviews various structured reports at key stages and recommends continuation of studies. Formal poster presentations and lectures are given at the annual Chemistry PhD Conference. The average completion rate for students starting since the end of RAE2008 is 90%. The PhD training landscape is enriched by a number of interdisciplinary training centres and activities led by Chemistry: the Centre for Scientific Computing (CSC, Director RodgerM) connects a vibrant interdisciplinary research community across the science faculty and provides ready access to courses on software engineering, code optimisation and parallel programming paradigms and high performance computing; the Molecular Organisation & Assembly in Cells (MOAC) Doctoral Training Centre (Director RodgerA) operates a 1 y research training MSc in Mathematical Biology and Biophysical Chemistry and a 3 year PhD co-supervised across two disciplines; Analytical Science: Methods and Instrumental Techniques (AS:MIT, Director Blindauer) is an interdisciplinary MSc with a major research component operated by WCAS; the Polymer Chemistry MSc (Director Dove) includes modules in synthesis, characterization and properties of polymers. This content is available to all PhDs and there is significant input from industry. Our success and reputation in PhD training is indicated by the award of a Marie Curie IDP [see (e)] and two new EPSRC CDTs (Molecular Analytical Science and Diamond Science & Technology). d. Income, infrastructure and facilities Following a range of investments (see below) the footprint of the department has increased by 35% (5570 to 7520 m2) so that we now occupy a cluster of buildings around the original five-story research facility. Cross-disciplinary activities are housed in common or adjacent space, and new facilities including the £24.5M MAS building help us build on a tradition of collaboration on campus, particularly with Physics but also across a range of other research centres. We are actively engaged with the Science City Research Alliance (with Birmingham) and the M5 (5 research-intensive midlands universities) equipment sharing consortia. With leadership from a research facilities committee, the department is exceptionally well equipped with a range of modern instrumentation, including many recent acquisitions. Solution- state NMR suites in Chemistry house seven instruments: 700 MHz (with cryoprobe), 600 MHz, 500 MHz, two 400 MHz, 300 MHz and 250 MHz with various autosamplers. The multi-user Centre for Magnetic Resonance houses eight solid-state NMR spectrometers (143 to 850 MHz) with a large array of probes for MAS, static and DOR, two DNP spectrometers, plus pulsed and cw EPR systems and a range of other spectrometers. Mass spectrometers are state-of-the-art, with 11 modern instruments in Chemistry including 12T FT-ICR, GC-MS, MALDI-TOF, MicroTOF, UHR- Environment template (REF5) Page 7 TOF (tandem), LC-MS, HCT-plus Ion Trap. An OD Gemini CCD single crystal diffractometer, four modern powder diffractometers and two further high-resolution/thin-film instruments allowing studies under a very wide range of non-ambient conditions are housed in a purpose-built diffraction suite. The GPC facility of 13+ instruments includes high temperature and multiple detectors and is complemented by various particle size and light-scattering instruments alongside a TAMIII calorimeter and modern TGA/DTA and DSC. HPLC-coupled ICP-OES, ICP-MS and AA are provided. We have a world-class circular and linear dichroism spectroscopy facility. Chemistry is a major user of an outstanding electron microscopy facility housed in the MAS building; a doubly- corrected ARM200F TEM/STEM has a Schottky FEG and two CEOS hexapole aberration correctors that enable imaging and analysis of individual atoms sits alongside two workhorse TEMs, two SEMs with EDX, EBSD, CL and cryo-transfer capabilities, FIB/SEM, several AFMs, and optical microscopes. Large dedicated suites of computational research workstations complement university facilities which include a 6000 core Infiniband massively parallel cluster plus thousands of other cores. Through Warwick's leadership of the EPSRC MidPlus Regional Centre for Computation the department has excellent access to a 4000 node cluster and a petabyte data store and we are substantial users of national and European high performance computing facilities. At least seven groups use Harwell Complex, Diamond Light Source and ISIS facilities. Our dramatic improvement in income and output per academic has been facilitated by an increase to 35.3 FTE in support staff for research (5 scientific, 17.7 technical, and 12.6 admin) cf. 22.2 in 2007. Instrumentation specialists e.g. NMR (2 FTE), MS (2) XRD (0.5) make important scientific contributions and have co-published 121 papers. Workshop technicians are intimately engaged in instrument design and development and have contributed significantly to Warwick Chemistry’s reputation in this area e.g. electrical/IT (4 FTE), glass-blowing (1), mechanical (2). Specialist staff are also attached to research teams and areas for continuity of expertise and maintenance of a strong safety culture. As part of an ambitious programme of building, refurbishment and strategic expansion, Warwick invested £28.5M in Chemistry’s infrastructure and facilities since 2008 including £9.2M of new capital equipment. Major investments include: the Materials & Analytical Sciences (MAS) building (£24.5M, 50:50 with Physics, 2011) is an outstanding research-only facility and houses the groups of O’Reilly, Dove, Hatton and Walton, alongside state-of-the art equipment suites for materials and molecular characterisation; for mass spectrometry the Ion Cyclotron Centre (£1.2M, 2010) was equipped with a new 12T FTICR (£1.34M) with an additional £1.0M in new service instrumentation in the main chemistry building; our superb NMR facilities have been improved by provision of new instruments and upgrades (£480k) and a new laboratory (£217k); a state-of-the-art Solar Cell Research Facility was built (£3.3M) and equipped (£980K); a new Chemical Biology Research Facility was established (£1.5M); a UHV Scanning Probe Microscopy lab was newly established (£1.1M); refurbishment of computational lab space (£147k) was conducted alongside major new computing installations (£817K); the Science City Research Alliance made a substantial contribution to >£1M of new polymer characterisation equipment. In addition to the investments in research infrastructure above we completed in 2012 superb new teaching laboratories (£3.6M). Plans have been submitted for a refurbishment or new build of synthetic research laboratories (~£10M, increasing fume hoods from 120 to 150). Chemistry will also benefit from the planned major new Interdisciplinary Biosciences Research Building. Our plans for investment in equipment are based on a recent review of capacity and bids will be made for: solution NMR with 13C-optimized cryoprobe; high resolution MALDI-TOF/TOF instruments; Fast Scan AFM; high sensitivity single crystal XRD among others. Annual research income has increased more than threefold from £2.58M in 2006/7 to £8.44M today, with a total spend of £35.9M plus £1.38M in-kind in REF2014 (see REF4b/c). Awards have grown strongly in size and number such that the average annual income per FTE has tripled to £242K in 2012/13 cf. 2006/7. Average external income won per FTE during the period is £1.03M. This growth has come from all major funders. Research Council income has more than doubled to £19.4M, mainly from EPSRC, BBSRC, RS and MRC. Industrial income (£5.1M; 78% of staff have held contracts), EU funders including ERC (£3.6M), and UK charities (£1.2M) have all increased as part of our strategy to diversify income streams. Future growth is confidently predicted with £10.6M of new awards announced in the 12 m period up to 31 July 2013. Warwick has established a £7M p.a. equipment fund to support RCUK bids and will establish Research Technology Platforms in key areas to ensure the sustainability of our state-of-the art facilities.