Christopher Blanford's Page

Well, Networkers, I'm annoyed with myself. I had been looking forward to Robert Hamers' talk this morning in Symposium SS on his (photochemical) grafting work (he's got his materials going on just about everything, including diamond). Clearly, I'm wearing out a bit as the week comes to a close. Either that, or too much sake last night at Koreana.

One word I've been hearing more and more lately is "nanodiamond". (Is this the leading edge of the next trend, or have I been living in a cave outside… Continue

So today, we're purportedly just over halfway through the MRS meeting, but there's been the predictable drop in attendees. There's always a peak on Monday (and it's still very well attended on Tuesday), but by Wednesday a lot of folks have apparently gone home or are doing other things. The quality of the speakers in still high and there are still important and entertaining invited speakers, but there are fewer people listening. By tomorrow, the packed rooms I commented on earlier will have an e… Continue

Afternoon. The next talk features a former co-worker from Andreas Stein's group on the author list. I'm only having a look at a couple before I head to do other work here.

Y7.1 "Designing Electrocatalytic Nanarchitechtures in 3D" Debra Rolison (US NRL)

Here they're using aerogels for their interconnected 3D architectures. These have huge surface-volume ratios (slilca aerogels are ~10⁶ cm^–… Continue

I've been to a half-dozen talks this morning in SS & Y (in the single letters!), but I wanted to focus on my favourite.

SS6.1 "Bioinspired immobilization chemistries for surface modification & biointerfacial control" Phillip Messersmith (Northwestern)

I've been following the work from the group of Northwestern's Phillip Messersmith since they published information about their "geckle" adhesive… Continue

I'm back in Symposium UU (Molecular biomimetics and materials design) for the rest of the morning, then off to the Exhibition in the afternoon.

One of my top wishes for these packed sessions is that people around me wouldn't have extended (and often loud) conversations. Then again, they probably are annoyed with me typing continually during the talks.


I'm particularly interested in the next talk, from Prof. Carole Perry. I had a lab nex… Continue