Electronic Precinct - February 1999

Chemistry Success

The Department of Chemistry is one of the only five chemistry departments in the UK to have two entries in a Government list of centres of research excellence.

Nineteen chemistry departments appear in the list which was compiled by the Invest in Britain Bureau (IBB) to encourage inward investment. The list includes academic departments and other organisations which, based on Funding Council assessments, have been assessed to be at the forefront of researc h in high technology, high added value industries.

The University of Liverpool Department of Chemistry has two entries - one for the work of Professor Stan Roberts on chiral catalysts and chiralepoxyketones, and another on the work of Professor David Schiffrin on metallic clusters. These are areas in Organic and Physical Chemistry of intense collab orative activity, embracing asymmetric synthesis of chiral medicinal compounds on the one hand and cutting-edge nanotechnology research on the other.

The list of centres of research excellence appears in a widely distributed report prepared by the IBB, which promotes inward investment on behalf of the Department of Trade and Industry and the Foreign Office.