All Department of Chemistry courses

Have you thought about using AI in your research but aren’t sure how to get started? Or are you already using AI and have run into challenges with implementation? Come and meet the Accelerate team to find the support you need.

The Accelerate Programme, based in the Department of Computer Science and Technology, are holding an in-person AI Clinic Session on Wednesday 13th March from 11am – 1pm in the Todd-Hamied room of the Chemistry Department. The clinic is open to support all staff and students with AI research. No matter your level of experience with AI, we invite you to come and talk to our team. We support projects at all stages - from ideation, grant writing and data gathering, through to software issues and publication. The clinic is running as a drop-in session, but we also have a form if you'd like to share details of your issue in advance. We look forward to meeting you there!

A Scientific Editor from the Royal Society of Chemistry’s flagship journal Chemical Science will be talking about careers in scientific publishing, specifically focused on journals publishing, including her own career journey, what is involved in her role and an overview of the RSC and Chemical Science. The session will include an opportunity for questions about anything relating to scientific publishing in general, or specifically relating to the topic of the talk.

We find ourselves at a pivotal point in history for the long-term sustainability of our society and biome. It would be so easy to have a negative view about the future i.e. climate change is slowly baking us all to death. Last year alone was pretty intense - 1/3 of pakistan was flooded last year and arctic storms ravaged the US. Our climate is becoming more extreme and unpredictable. In 2 years time, we'll be closer to 2050 than the year 2000. We have no time to lose.

But this talk isn't about doomerism or trying to induce anxiety in you. It's about demonstrating how you, as a university graduate, highly trained in some technical field, can exert maximum leverage in the fight against climate change through the career choices that you make over the next 10, 20 or 30 years. In this talk, Dr Chadwick will highlight the exciting, state-of-the-art work ongoing around the planet in areas such as Green Hydrogen, The future of food, Carbon Dioxide Removal, Fusion, Fission, and Renewables - technologies all key to our sustainable future.

All with the goal of simply providing you with some inspiration and helping you to imagine how your skill sets might one day lend themselves to our collective goal of a sustainable world.

Climate change is daunting - but it also represents a massive opportunity to make the world better.

Dr Nicholas Chadwick received his MChem in organometallic chemistry from the University of Nottingham in 2012 before successfully studying for a PhD in materials science at University College London in 2015. After graduating he worked on the development of a range of early stage hardware technologies such as advanced transistor technologies, low-cost pollutant sensors for under-represented groups across Southern Asia and Mexico, and carbon capture technologies. He became convinced that direct air carbon capture (DAC) was the one thing we needed at scale to reach our net zero targets of 2050 and didn't have. After going on a bit of a journey scoping out opportunities he decided to co-found Mission Zero Technologies to commercialize and scale Direct Air Capture.

The session will cover the use of electronic laboratory notebook which is a computer programme designed to replace laboratory notebooks. ELN will help the users to document research, experiments and procedures performed in a laboratory.

Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/7507381413 Meeting ID: 750 738 1413

PhD students have plenty of options once you graduate. In this interactive session we will look at the pros and cons of different career options. You will have a chance to think about what you want your work to do for you and what you can offer employers, and you will learn ways to find out more about jobs in which you are interested. It is recommended that you attend both sessions.

• Session 1 - What jobs are out there and deciding what is ‘right’ for me?

Chemistry PhD students have many options after graduation. In this 1-hour session we will explore the pros and cons of different career choices. We will also consider how to assess which options would work for you.

• Session 2 - Career options for PhDs in chemistry

In this second 1-hour session we will focus on generating specific job ideas, how you might structure your careers ‘research’, key questions to ask and timelines for starting your ‘search’ for your next step after Cambridge.

This session is compulsory for all experimentalists to attend and will provide useful information regarding analytical facilities at this Department including NMR, Mass Spectrometry, X-ray Crystallography, Microanalysis and Electron Microscopy. Short descriptions will be given of all available instruments, as well as explain the procedures for preparing/submitting samples for the analysis will also be discussed.

This training will consist of two sessions, introducing you to use of both Water's MS software and MassLynx and Bruker and Thermo's MS software: MALDI and Orbitrap.

Once you book on the course you will receive a link to preregister on Zoom.

This course will provide an idea of what kind of scientific problems can be solved by solid state NMR. It will cover how NMR can be used to study molecular structure, nanostructure and dynamics in the solid state, including heterogeneous solids, such as polymers, MOFs, energy-storage and biological materials This course will build on a basic working knowledge of solution-state NMR for 1H and 13C, i.e. undergraduate level NMR. In order to highlight the utility of this technique, some materials based research using solid state NMR will also be covered.

This session will be delivered via Zoom.

These lectures will introduce the basics of crystallography and diffraction, assuming no prior knowledge. The aim is to provide an overview that will inspire and serve as a basis for researchers to use the Department’s single-crystal and/or powder X-ray diffraction facilities or to appreciate more effectively results obtained through the Department’s crystallographic services. The final lecture will be devoted to searching and visualising crystallographic data using the Cambridge Structural Database system.

Three workshops on aspects of writing for which the students would be expected to submit two pieces of written work that would be assessed by the instructor. The aim of the workshops will be for the students to improve both their scientific writing skills as well as their general academic literacy skills.

The specific areas of writing to be covered are:

• Literature Review
• Results section

Session One

Introduction to Academic Writing at PG Level

The aim of this session would be to prepare the foundations, as it were, covering the expectations of writing at PG level and covering some strategies for achieving what is the University’s only criterion when it comes to writing, namely that it is ‘clearly written’, before looking at writing in Chemistry specifically, and closing by looking at the two areas which will be the focus of the next two sessions – Literature Reviews and Results Sections.

Why writing at PG level is so hard

• Understanding the Writing Process
• How English works: Achieving Clarity
• Rhetorical Templates
• Paragraphs
• Editing: from the Macro to the Micro
• Discipline-specific Considerations
• Literature Review & Results Section

Sessions Two & Three

• Literature Reviews
• Results Sections

For both of these sessions the students who be expected to have submitted work a week beforehand – this could be either individually or as a group. Each piece of work should be ca. 5 pages in length.

The two areas, Literature Reviews and Results Sections, will have been introduced in the introductory section. Students will also be able to access additional support materials when preparing their written work for submission before the workshop.

Each workshop would then essentially be based on the submissions of the group – looking and the strengths and weaknesses of a selection of them, encouraging discussion amongst the group as to what would need to be done in order to strengthen the submissions. This would also include a range of hands-on exercises that the students would do during the workshop, either individually or in a small group.

An opportunity ask questions to the course trainer re Fortran 90/95.

• Please email training@ch.cam.ac.uk to book one 15 minute slot. You will be asked to confirm your attendance one day before.

This series of lectures will support you to improve the standard of your scientific writing. It will be delivered in two parts covering all you need to know about research journals including:

• Session 1: 'How to read a paper'
• Session 2: 'How to write scientific papers and your thesis'

This hands-on course teaches the basics of Latex including syntax, lists, maths equations, basic chemical equations, tables, graphical figures and internal and external referencing. We also learn how to link documents to help manage large projects. The course manual is presented in the style of a thesis and since you also receive the source code you also receive a template for a thesis.

Once booked you will receive a link to both sessions via Zoom.

This hands-on course teaches the basics of Latex including syntax, lists, maths equations, basic chemical equations, tables, graphical figures and internal and external referencing. We also learn how to link documents to help manage large projects. The course manual is presented in the style of a thesis and since you also receive the source code you also receive a template for a thesis.

Once booked you will receive a link to Zoom.

Engaging communications is important for any audience and vital for communicating research with a public audience. This 2 hour webinar will take you through the art and science for crafting engaging communications including:

• the fundamental principles for all good communication
• two simple ways to enhance your personal impact
• tools for collating and structuring engaging and accessible content
• psychological points of power when presenting with powerpoint

The first half of this session will cover an overview of Raytracing versus 3D Modelling, an introduction to the free Raytracing programme Povray, running Povray (command line options). Making and manipulating simple shapes, camera tricks (depth of field, angle of view) and using other software to generate Povray input (e.g. Jmol)

The second half of the session is an introduction to 3D modelling and animation using the open source programme Blender. This will cover the installation and customisation of the Blender interface for use with chemical models, how to import chemical structures from Jmol and the protein data base (PDB), the basics of 3D modelling, and an introduction to Key-frame animation.

No previous experience with either 3D modelling or animation is required.

You will receive a Zoom link when you register for this course

The first half of this session will cover an overview of Raytracing versus 3D Modelling, an introduction to the free Raytracing programme Povray, running Povray (command line options). Making and manipulating simple shapes, camera tricks (depth of field, angle of view) and using other software to generate Povray input (e.g. Jmol)

The second half of the session is an introduction to 3D modelling and animation using the open source programme Blender. This will cover the installation and customisation of the Blender interface for use with chemical models, how to import chemical structures from Jmol and the protein data base (PDB), the basics of 3D modelling, and an introduction to Key-frame animation.

No previous experience with either 3D modelling or animation is required.

You will receive a Zoom link when you register for this course

Submission of the first year report can seem to be a daunting experience, from constructing it to submitting and then being assessed by academic staff. In this session, a member of the Degree Committee Office, School of Physical Sciences, a member of the PG Education team and an academic will talk through all aspects of procedure and answer any questions students wish to pose. Students who went through their first year exam, as well as members of academic staff who carry out first year vivas will also be there to talk about the reality of the process from all perspectives.

Submission of the PhD thesis can seem to be a daunting experience, from constructing it to submitting and then being examined, with one of those examiners coming from an external institution. In this session, a member of the Degree Committee Office, School of Physical Sciences, a member of the PG Education team and an academic will talk through all aspects of procedure regarding thesis submission and answer any questions students wish to pose. Students who were recently examined, as well as members of academic staff who carry out PhD vivas will also be there to talk about the reality of the process from all perspectives

Submission of an MPhil thesis can seem to be a daunting experience, from constructing it to submitting and then being examined, with one of those examiners coming from an external institution. In this session, a member of the Degree Committee Office, School of Physical Sciences, a member of the PG Education team and an academic will talk through all aspects of procedure regarding thesis submission and answer any questions students wish to pose. Students who were recently examined, as well as members of academic staff who carry out MPhil vivas will also be there to talk about the reality of the process from all perspectives.

FS1 - Successful Completion of a Research Degree An hour devoted to a discussion of how to plan your time effectively on a day to day basis, how to produce a dissertation/thesis (from first year report to MPhil to PhD) and the essential requirements of an experimental section.

FS2 - Dignity@Study The University of Cambridge is committed to protecting the dignity of staff, students, visitors to the University, and all members of the University community in their work and their interactions with others. The University expects all members of the University community to treat each other with respect, courtesy and consideration at all times. All members of the University community have the right to expect professional behaviour from others, and a corresponding responsibility to behave professionally towards others. Nick will explore what this means for graduate students in this Department with an opportunity to ask questions more informally.

This is a compulsory session for 1st year postgraduates.

You will be introduced to Fortran 90/95 and provided with materials which cover the basics of Fortran 90/95 with an emphasis on applications in the physical sciences. The key concepts of loops, functions, subroutines, modules, and other standard Fortran syntax will be introduced sequentially.

• This course will be made available on Moodle from 2 to 30 November

You will be introduced to Fortran 90/95 and provided with materials which cover the basics of Fortran 90/95 with an emphasis on applications in the physical sciences. The key concepts of loops, functions, subroutines, modules, and other standard Fortran syntax will be introduced sequentially.

A thorough awareness of issues relating to research ethics and research integrity are essential to producing excellent research. This session will provide an introduction to the ethical responsibilities of researchers at the University, publication ethics and research integrity.

This training is available via Moodle.

Unconscious Bias refers to the biases we hold that are not in our conscious control. Research shows that these biases can adversely affect key decisions in the workplace. The session will enable you to work towards reducing the effects of unconscious bias for yourself and within your organisation. Using examples that you will be able to relate to, we help you to explore the link between implicit bias and the impact on the organisation. The overall aim of the session is to provide participants with an understanding of the nature of Unconscious Bias and how it impacts on individual and group attitudes, behaviours and decision-making processes.

Unconscious Bias refers to the biases we hold that are not in our conscious control. Research shows that these biases can adversely affect key decisions in the workplace. The session will enable you to work towards reducing the effects of unconscious bias for yourself and within your organisation. Using examples that you will be able to relate to, we help you to explore the link between implicit bias and the impact on the organisation. The overall aim of the session is to provide participants with an understanding of the nature of Unconscious Bias and how it impacts on individual and group attitudes, behaviours and decision-making processes.

How are you approaching getting published? Are you (passively) writing up your research, submitting your article and hoping for the best? Or are you (proactively) doing your best to get your work published into your intended journal and so contribute to your discipline and society? If it’s more the former than the latter, that’s OK: this introductory ‘Fundamentals of the Publication Process’ aims to help you to help yourself to be as successful as you can.

In the process of this practical and pragmatic half-day session outlining a series of proactive steps that you can take, this course will explore among other topics:

• how to select a target journal
• the peer review system in terms of submitting, revising and re-submitting
• how to communicate effectively with editors and reviewers
• explore what editors really look for

Have you ever struggled with styles of communication of others (peers, lecturers, supervisors, staff), wondered why some people seem to use more formal language, or be more direct than others? Culture plays a big part in how we communicate, and adjusting to the cultural communication norms means more than learning a foreign language.

In Cambridge's diverse and multicultural environment, we constantly communicate with people whose cultural communication norms differ from ours, whether you are a native English speaker from the United Kingdom, a native English speaker from elsewhere in the world, or have learnt English as a foreign language.

In order to avoid misunderstanding, or worse still, conflict, brought on by variations in communication styles we need to learn to make allowances for the cultural differences in how people communicate. To better understand cross-cultural complexity and increase your awareness of cultural identities, come to a session on intercultural communication to increase your cultural awareness and give you a better understanding of how culture may affect your everyday communication.

This compulsory session is intended to welcome new graduate students to the Department of Chemistry Library service in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The session will briefly cover how the physical library space can be used and, most importantly, give you practical information on how you can access the wide range of electronic resources available to you remotely. It will also cover the services available to you from other Cambridge libraries.

This session is intended to set you up so you can start to do your research as efficiently and effectively as possible.

• Once booked onto the course, you will receive a link to pre-register on Zoom.

This session introduces three citation databases: Web of Science, Scopus, and PubMed (if relevant to the audience). These databases index all the scientific literature that is published. When used efficiently, and in combination, they are a powerful tool for finding the research publications you need - so you don't miss out on anything. They will be compared and contrasted with each other, and with using Google or Google Scholar, to find citations.

You will be guided on how to search these databases effectively; the session includes a hands-on element where you can practice. The session covers how to set up email alerts for searches and citations, so you can keep up with research published in your field. It also covers how to find metrics and altmetrics available for a journal, journal article, or author, so you can evaluate the quality of a piece of research, or a particular author's research before collaborating with them, for example. It will cover how to export the citations you find to your reference manager so you can easily create a bibliography and/or cite publications in your own work.

The session will be most suitable for those who are new to searching citation databases or would like a refresher.

Please register via Zoom

This session introduces three citation databases: Web of Science, Scopus, and PubMed (if relevant to the audience). These databases index all the scientific literature that is published. When used efficiently, and in combination, they are a powerful tool for finding the research publications you need - so you don't miss out on anything. They will be compared and contrasted with each other, and with using Google or Google Scholar, to find citations.

You will be guided on how to search these databases effectively; the session includes a hands-on element where you can practice. The session covers how to set up email alerts for searches and citations, so you can keep up with research published in your field. It also covers how to find metrics and altmetrics available for a journal, journal article, or author, so you can evaluate the quality of a piece of research, or a particular author's research before collaborating with them, for example. It will cover how to export the citations you find to your reference manager so you can easily create a bibliography and/or cite publications in your own work.

The session will be most suitable for those who are new to searching citation databases or would like a refresher.

This compulsory online course will equip you with the skills required to manage the research information you will need to gather throughout your graduate course, as well as the publications you will produce yourself. It will also help you enhance your online research profile and measure the impact of research.

• This training will be made available on Moodle from 2nd November until 31st May 2021.

This compulsory online course will equip you with the skills required to manage the research information you will need to gather throughout your graduate course, as well as the publications you will produce yourself. It will also help you enhance your online research profile and measure the impact of research.

The course is self-taught through Moodle.

Enrol here.

These optional drop-in sessions provide an opportunity for new chemistry graduate students who have completed the compulsory online IS4 Research Data Management and IS3 Information Research Skills courses to ask the trainer any questions they have about the content, or about how they can apply what they have learnt, in more detail.

• Please email training@ch.cam to book a 15 minute slot and you will receive a Zoom link. You will be asked to confirm your attendance one day before it takes place. If you do not confirm, your place will be offered to someone else.

As our understanding of gender identity and sexuality continues to grow, it is up to us as professionals to keep up to date with new language and terminology, as well as maintaining our inclusivity practice in the workplace. This training will provide you with the tools and training needed to create a safe and inclusive professional environment for your staff and students

This session introduces new undergraduate Chemistry students to the Department of Chemistry Library and its place within the wider Cambridge University Library system. It provides general information on what is available, where it is, and how to get it. Print and online resources are included.

This course explores how to write a paper and improve your writing style in Chemistry papers. The course will be particularly useful for those working on their first year report, MPhil thesis or an article.

This event is in-person only.

Science is a strikingly successful and powerful feature of contemporary human cultures: it has transformed lives, enabled great technological feats and often revealed the world to be a much stranger place than appearances suggest. But what is science, really, and how and why has it been so successful?

Science is a strikingly successful and powerful feature of contemporary human cultures: it has transformed lives, enabled great technological feats and often revealed the world to be a much stranger place than appearances suggest. But what is science, really, and how and why has it been so successful?

An 8 week Improv Theatre Course Improv teaches excellent skills for scientists! It will boost your confidence, teach you to be spontaneous and overcome the fear of failure. It will work wonders for your public speaking, communication and presentation skills.

This course will cover the quantitative background to underpin many of the electrochemical methods exploited by the research groups in the Department. The first part ('Foundations') will cover the background physical chemistry relevant for electrochemical systems: Following a reminder of the basics of electrochemistry, we address the physical chemistry of metals, ionic solutions and the electrode/solution interface, including electrode dynamics, and connection to experimental measurements. The second part ('Applications') will cover specific examples of applications drawn from active research groups in the department.

This course is made up of 8 sessions which will be based around the topics below: unlike other courses in the Graduate Lecture Series, it is essential to attend all 8 sessions to benefit from this training. Places are limited so please be absolutely certain upon booking that you will commit to the entire course.

Once you book this course, you will need to register for each session via Zoom.

This is a practical skills-based course which comprises of 1 optional drop-in session and 6 compulsory instructor-lead statistics sessions. These will take place in Todd Hamied

The Departmental Advanced Safety Training covers basic induction training in how to work safely, including emergency arrangements for fire and evacuation, first aid and incidents including flood and gas leak. By attending, you are made aware of the Department’s Health and Safety Policy and your responsibilities under health and safety law. You will be introduced to the process required to prepare a risk assessment with standard operating procedure (SOP) or method statement, how to select the correct type of protective equipment (PPE) and why it needs to be worn, and reminded of the importance of good house keeping for reducing the likelihood of there being an incident. The hazards associated with display screen equipment (DSE) and manual handling are identified and the need to control them by a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risk is explained. Electrical safety and the requirement for annual Portable Appliance Testing (PAT) is made clear.

• Please note you will find this training on Moodle.

Part of Induction Week

Advanced induction training for experimentalists introduces some of the department’s special chemical hazards including explosives, hydrogen fluoride and cyanide, and restricted chemicals, and illustrates the consequences of incorrect waste disposal. Experimentalists are made aware of the biological hazards in the department and how these are controlled with a suitable risk assessment, safety cabinets and the need for the appropriate inactivation method to be applied. Attendees are alerted to the hazards and damage caused by non-ionising radiation, glassware and sharps, oil baths and lifting equipment. The induction concludes by directing the experimentalist to compulsory University-provided specialist training courses, the requirement for fire awareness training and sources of Health and Safety information.

• This training is will be available on Moodle.

This course will cover safe storage and use of cryogens, safe use and stores of compressed gas, and aspects of oxygen depletion with respect to the above.

• This training will be available on Moodle.

This course will focus on recent progress in the application of kernel-based methods, Random Forests and Deep Neural Networks to modelling in chemistry. The material will build on the content of the core Informatics course and introduce new descriptors, advanced modelling techniques and example applications drawn from the current literature. Lectures will be interactive, with students working through computational exercises during class sessions.

An applied introduction to probabilistic modelling, machine learning and artificial intelligence-based approaches for students with little or no background in theory and modelling. The course will be taught through a series of case studies from the current literature in which modelling approaches have been applied to large datasets from chemistry and biochemistry. Data and code will be made available to students and discussed in class. Students will become familiar with python based tools that implement the models though practical sessions and group based assignments.

This course will introduce students to the central question of how to encode molecules and molecular properties in a computational model. Building on the compulsory informatics course (see previous table entry), it will focus on reactivity parameterisation and prediction. The basics of DFT calculations will be introduced, together with how DFT can be used to model reactions (including flaws, assumptions, drawbacks etc). Lecture based format will be complemented by practical sessions in setting up different DFT-based calculations.

There are 8 sessions in total DD1 to DD8 starting from 18th May and ending 10th June. The sessions are listed below:

DD1: Introduction to Drug Discovery and path to clinic Bobby Glen (UoC) 18th May, 10:00 - 12:00

SESSION CANCELLED DD2: Pharmacology + Biochemical and Biophysical methods Chris Stubbs (AZ) 20th May, 10:00 - 12:00

DD3: Structural Biology Gavin Collie (AZ) 25th May, 10:00 - 12:00

DD4: Hit generation methods and tactics Ben Whitehurst (AZ) 27th May, 10:00 - 12:00

DD5: Potency & thermodynamics Steve Atkinson (AZ) 1st June, 10:00 - 12:00

DD6: Computational methods (Session 1) - Modelling/MD/potency prediction/ML/AI Kathryn Giblin (AZ) 3th June, 10:00 - 12:00

DD7: Computational methods (Session 2) - Modelling/MD/potency prediction/ML/AI Bobby Glen (UoC) 8th June, 10:00 - 12:00

DD8: Impact of structures and physchem on DMPK/safety Jen Nelson (AZ) 10th June, 10:00 - 12:00

While leading others is often part of advancing our career – whether inside or outside of academia – often those in leadership positions do not receive training in how to lead and so do it badly. This full-day, practical and pragmatic course introduces participants to four essential ‘elements’ of leadership. In the process of doing so, it explores what leadership is and offers practical tools, strategies and examples to help you begin to lead others more effectively.

Join Cambridge Careers Consultant, Raj Sidhu for a discursive and interactive session where you will learn:

• What career options are open to you after a Chemistry PhD or PostDoc
• What alumni of the Department of Chemistry are doing now
• How to structure and approach career-thinking, during your PhD or PostDoc

All questions will be warmly welcomed throughout.

Trainer: Oleksandra Korychenska from Cambridge enterprise

What is Intellectual Property (IP)? Why does it matter to you? Who owns it? Who benefits? What is consultancy? What is a spin out? Why would you want to commercialise results from your research? What is it anyway? All this, and more, will be covered in a one-hour presentation by Cambridge Enterprise on the 12th of March. It is aimed at postgraduate students in Chemistry, after feedback showed that they would like to learn more about research commercialisation and IP. However, anybody is welcome to attend!

Training for PhD students:

Public engagement is increasingly seen as an important part of any research career, with the potential to give you the skills and insight to improve your research, make it more relevant and have impact. Rather than trying to engage with everyone, we’ll help you explore why you want to engage and who it would be valuable for you to have conversations with, and how, and where. We’ll introduce a logic model way of planning public engagement and sign post you to further training, support, advice and platforms for engagement across the University.

PhDs and Postdocs welcome, no prior knowledge required

Machine learning has become a common feature of many scientific papers, including chemistry, biology, and chemical biology. But what does it all mean? In this course, we will investigate the core features of common machine learning techniques such as principal component analysis (PCA), support vector machines (SVMs), and Random Forests, and how these can be applied to a real-world chemistry dataset. This course is meant to serve as a gentle introduction to machine learning - no prior knowledge is required.

Emma began her career as an experimental chemist, gaining her PhD in chemoenzymatic total synthesis under the tutelage of Prof. Hans Renata (The Scripps Research Institute, FL). During the course of her doctorate, she gained an interest in machine learning and how it can be applied to help chemists understand their systems. She thus joined the group of Dr. Alpha Lee (University of Cambridge) and later the group of Prof. Matthew Gaunt (University of Cambridge) to hone her expertise in computer programming, algorithm development, and machine learning for chemistry application.

'Enhance focus, reduce stress, use time more wisely and be more productive.

Learn to:

• Establish a method that works for you to enhance focus for the most important work (Deep Work)
• Reduce distraction and prioritise more effectively
• Establish 1 daily high quality mini break, to relieve stress, reduce self criticism and strengthen resilience
• Create the space to recognise your achievements each day - increase self awareness and confidence
• Combining proven neuroscience & mindfulness based techniques into useful daily habits.

In these sessions, Dr. Mukund S. Chorghade will discuss the pivotal role played by Process Chemistry / Route Selection in the progress of a chemical entity from conception to commercialization.

« Description not available »

These lectures will provide an introduction to the field with relevant background and theory, a survey of main strategies that have been used and are most widely practised and finally will cover current challenges and latest approaches in the area.

In this course we will give a brief introduction to the theory and simulation of molecules and materials. The focus will be on explaining at an introductory level the types of problems and properties that can be tackled with current techniques in theoretical chemistry. Limitations of current methods and future perspectives of where the field is heading and its intersection with modern experimental methods will also be discussed.

In these introductory lectures, you will learn how machine learning inspired methods have been making inroads into molecular modelling, particularly first principles modelling. The focus will be on descriptors and representations of atomic geometry and modelling potential energy surfaces.

The course will be a brief overview of polymer chemistry, covering a range of synthetic methods and interests in the context of drug delivery.

These lectures seek to provide an overarching vision of chemical synthesis methodology using machinery as enabling tools. They will highlight current capabilities and limitations in this highly digitally connected world and suggest where new opportunities may arise in the future, going well beyond our present levels of innovation and automation.

In order to use machine learning methods on molecular data, it is necessary to express molecular structures in a form which can be used as the input. This workshop will outline ways in which this challenge has been addressed, including the InChI, SMILES, fingerprints and other ways of expressing molecules as text strings. The strengths and weaknesses of the various approaches makes them suitable for different applications. What will be most appropriate for the molecular problems you are tackling?

Course provider: Timur Madzhidov

Course description: This is an advanced workshop providing a hands-on opportunity to work on several case studies in teams during the workshop. Several applications of classical ML and deep learning approaches in chemistry will be reviewed. As part of the tasks assigned to groups, the fundamentals such as data acquisition, preparation and modelling will be included.

This complimentary hands-on workshop is offered to PhD students and researchers at University of Cambridge who want to learn more about design of experiments (DOE) and data analysis. DOE skills are highly demanded by industry and still under-represented in many university curricula. Design of experiments is a practical and ubiquitous approach for exploring multifactor opportunity spaces, and JMP offers world-class capabilities for design and analysis in a form you can easily use without any programming. To properly uncover how inputs (factors) jointly affect the outputs (responses), DOE is the most efficient and effective way – and the only predictable way – of learning. Unlike the analysis of existing data, designed experiments can tell you about cause and effect, drive innovation and test opportunities by exploring new factor spaces. In addition to classical DOE designs, JMP also offers an innovative custom design capability that tailors your design to answer specific questions without wasting precious resources. Once the data has been collected, JMP streamlines the analysis and model building so you can easily see the pattern of response, identify active factors and optimize responses.

In this course you will learn to understand why to consider DOE analyze experiments with a single categorical factor using analysis of variance (ANOVA) analyze experiments with a single continuous factor using regression analysis understand the difference between classical and optimal designs design, analyze and interpret screening experiments incl. Definitive Screening Design design, analyze and interpret experiments in response surface methodology augment designs for sequential experimentation apply robust optimization evaluate and compare designs understand advanced features like blocking, split-plot experiments and covariates

The format of this course will be a mix of concept presentations, live demos and hands-on exercises. Most examples are inspired by chemistry and biotech, but can be easily transferred to other fields like materials science, agri-food science or engineering. Attendees should have access to JMP Pro (pre-installed). JMP Pro 17 is available for all attendees from University of Cambridge for both Windows and Mac. No prior knowledge required. All content and demos will be shared with the participants.

The course will be delivered by Lucy Colwell

This course will be delivered in person or via Zoom.

You will be informed closer to the date

This course will focus on recent progress in the application of kernel-based methods, Random Forests and Deep Neural Networks to modelling in chemistry. The material will build on the content of the core Informatics course and introduce new descriptors, advanced modelling techniques and example applications drawn from the current literature. Lectures will be interactive, with students working through computational exercises during class sessions.

The course will be delivered by Lucy Colwell

This course will be delivered in person or via Zoom.

You will be informed closer to the date

An applied introduction to probabilistic modelling, machine learning and artificial intelligence-based approaches for students with little or no background in theory and modelling. The course will be taught through a series of case studies from the current literature in which modelling approaches have been applied to large datasets from chemistry and biochemistry. Data and code will be made available to students and discussed in class. Students will become familiar with python based tools that implement the models though practical sessions and group based assignments.

The course will be delivered by Lucy Colwell This course will be delivered in person or via Zoom. You will be informed closer to the date

This course will introduce students to the central question of how to encode molecules and molecular properties in a computational model. Building on the compulsory informatics course (see previous table entry), it will focus on reactivity parameterisation and prediction. The basics of DFT calculations will be introduced, together with how DFT can be used to model reactions (including flaws, assumptions, drawbacks etc). Lecture based format will be complemented by practical sessions in setting up different DFT-based calculations.

During this workshop students will learn the appropriate strategies on how to write a research manuscript in subject areas related to the SynTech CDT. Participants will learn about when they should think about working towards writing up a paper, factors to consider when identifying the right journal in specific scientific area and practical writing tips. Students will also learn about the submission process and how to assess the feedback from the reviewers.

This workshop will be held online.

You will receive a link to sign into the workshop a few days before the session starts.

During this workshop students will learn how to develop skills in presenting information for a grant proposal and to arrange different sections. Participants will also learn how to review and respond to the feedback of assessors and how to revise proposals for resubmission in the case of rejection. By the end of this workshop students will gain a full understanding of the criteria most funders use to determine whether grant proposals are funded.

This will be an online workshop.

You will be sent a link to sign in closer to the date.

This course will introduce the new generation of molecules, including novel peptides, oligonucleotides, hybrids, and molecular conjugates, that are enabling novel strategies to address challenging targets and biological processes. This workshop will review these next generation therapeutics, and will highlight progress in this area towards a range of novel drug candidates.

The University of Cambridge has a well-deserved reputation for spinning out high technology startups from its world-class science research and innovation programs. It is the home of startups on the leading edge of medical technology, biotech, semiconductors, and quantum computing, among many other scientific frontiers. Six lectures by Mukund S. Chorghade and James Skinner will take the aspiring entrepreneur through the strategic considerations for starting a company.

Are you a post-doc (or a PI) at Chemistry applying for grants? Do you need to write a Data Management Plan (DMP) as part of your grant application but don't know how? Are you a post-doc (or PI) who is just interested in learning about writing data management plans? If so, this session is for you.

You will increasingly be required to write a DMP as part of your grant applications, but it is also useful to write one whenever you begin a research project, to help you plan how to manage your data effectively from the start.

During this session you will learn everything you need to know about data management plans:

• What they are
• Why they are increasingly required as part of grant applications
• What to include in data management plans
• Tools to help writing data management plans
• See example data management plans

Refreshments will be provided (tea, coffee, and biscuits).