Welcome to the Downard Electrochemistry and Surface Chemistry Research Group
Top (from left): Alison Downard, Lita Lee, David Garrett, Josh Lehr, Frankie Rawson
Front row: Clément Roux, Brad Simons, Andrew Gross, Ali Babaei (sabbatical visitor from Arak University, Iran)
About us:
The Downard Group is an electrochemistry, analytical and surface chemistry group. Our research focuses on the fabrication, characterisation and surface modification of conducting and non-conducting substrates.
We are located in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Canterbury under the supervision of Professor Alison J Downard, a Principal Investigator with The MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology.
Our current research receives funding from:
- The MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology
- Tertiary Education Commission (TEC)
- International Science and Technology fund (ISAT).
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Group Vacancies:
We do not currently have funding to support additional postdoctoral fellows or research students. However we are actively looking for prospective group members who can self-fund their studies.
The University offers scholarships for local and international PhD and MSc students. However applicants must have very high grades to be successful. If you have a GPA equivalent to 8.2/9.0 or higher for your last two years of university study, and meet other entrance criteria, you should consider applying for a UC scholarship.
For further information, please consult the following websites:
University of Canterbury Scholarships page:
http://www.canterbury.ac.nz/scholarships/foryou.shtml
University of Canterbury page for International Students: http://www.canterbury.ac.nz/intstud/postgrad.shtml
China Scholarship Council / University of Canterbury Joint PhD Scholarship Programme: http://www.canterbury.ac.nz/intstud/scholarships/csc/
Sources of Postdoctoral Research Funding to come and work with us in New Zealand:
Marie Curie International Outgoing Fellowships: http://ec.europa.eu/research/fp7/understanding/marie-curieinbrief/europe-world_en.html
We are also always interested in hearing from prospective postdoctoral fellows or academic visitors who can obtain their own funding to come and join us.
To enquire about these possibilities, please contact Alison Downard via email alison.downard@canterbury.ac.nz
Upcoming Events:
News and Events:
2011:
February 2011: AMN-5 - Fifth International Conference on Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology.
January 2011: Alison Downard had a visiting Professorship at Université Joseph Fourier, Grenoble, France where she taught in their international Master of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Programme.
2010:
December: Professor Jean-Claude Moutet and Dr Christophe Bucher, two of our collaborators from Université Joseph Fourier, Grenoble, France, paid us a short visit.
December: Frankie Rawson leaves for home. After a 17-month postdoc with us, Frankie will be back in the UK for Christmas and starting a new postdoc position at the University of Birmingham in the new year.
November-December: Our group welcomed Letizia Amato, PhD student from the Technical University of Denmark, for a one-month research visit.
November: Congratulations to Alison Downard who has been elected 'Chair-Elect' of Division 1, Analytical Electrochemistry, of the International Society of Electrochemistry.
November: Lita Lee, Brad Simons, Andrew Gross and Clément Roux attended The MacDiarmid Institute Student and Postdoctoral Symposium 2010, Wellington, 18-19th November.
October: David Garrett has also headed to Australia; he has a ‘postdoc’ (he hasn’t got his PhD yet!) position at the University of Melbourne.
September: Josh Lehr took off across the ditch to take up a postdoc position at the University of Newcastle
October: Andrew Gross was selected as one of three New Zealand representatives to attend the Asia Nanotech Camp (ANC) 2010, Institute of Materials Research and Engineering, Singapore, 3-15th October 2010. This event is jointly organized by the Institute of Materials Research and Engineering (IMRE) and Akademi Sains Malaysia.
September: The major event of the year was our 7.1 magnitude earthquake. We were lucky: our homes, offices and labs were not too badly affected although there was a lot of cleaning up to do.
September: We farewelled Dr Ali Babaei who spent 11 months with the Downard group while on sabbatical leave from Arak University, Iran.
August: We welcomed Dr Paula Brooksby back to our research group for a short-term postdoctoral position.
August: David Garrett was been in the news twice this month with pictures of our patterned carbon nanotubes. This is well worth a look - especially David's spin-coating technique.
View video of David on TV3: http://www.3news.co.nz/Art-and-the-atom-meet-in-new-exhibition/tabid/1216/articleID/170731/Default.aspx
See local article: http://www.infonews.co.nz/news.cfm?id=55720
July: Well done to Clément Roux for winning second prize for an oral presentation at the ARNAM/ARCNN 2010 Joint Workshop, 19-23 July, at Flinders University, Adelaide. Andrew Gross and Brad Simons also attended this meeting and gave presentations.
June: congratulations to Josh Lehr who successfully defended his PhD thesis ‘Modification of Surfaces with Thin Organic Films by Reaction with Aryldiazonium Salts’.
April: Andrew Gross returned to UC after a very enjoyable and productive three-month visit to Université Joseph Fourier, Grenoble, France, where his hosts were Professors Jean-Claude Moutet and Pierre Labbé, and Drs Liliane Guerante and Christophe Bucher. While in Europe, Andrew gave an oral presentation at the International Conference on Functional Nanocoatings, Dresden, Germany, 28-31st March 2010.
January: The Downard Group hosted Year 13 Mäori and Pacifika students as part of the Discovery Awards programme (this being the second year we have hosted this group).
January–March: we welcomed Lutz Stramann, PhD student from Ruhr-Universität in Bochum, Germany, for a two-month research visit.