On 13th September, 2011, the Directed Assembly Network will be holding its first DREAMS of the Future event (DiREcted Assembly of MaterialS) targeted at early-career researchers. The aim is to help build cross-disciplinary networks of collaborators and promote work within the research fields covered by the Directed Assembly Network.
The event will be held at the Research Complex at Harwell, next door to the Diamond Light Source, and there should be the opportunity to tour both the RCaH and Diamond for those keen to discover more about these facilities and how they can be accessed for experimental work.
We invite any early-career researcher with an interest in the themes covered by the Directed Assembly Network to take part. We hope to encourage participants from a wide spread of disciplines, including – but not limited to – chemists, biochemists, chemical engineers, materials scientists, modellers, theoreticians, experimentalists or instrument scientists from both academia and industry.
We expect participants to be drawn from post-docs, final-year PhD students, newly-appointed lecturers and those who have recently taken-up jobs outside academia. Those returning to research after career breaks are particularly welcomed.
The day will be structured mainly around informal activities, with plenty of chance to show off your research through flash presentations or posters, discuss your interests in a relaxed setting, discover what else is going on in the field and how you might build a future research programme.
There will be a presentation from EPSRC on their research-sponsoring strategy, with emphasis on funding opportunities of particular relevance to early-career researchers. The Directed Assembly Network coordinator will also discuss how new and social media can be used to promote collaboration, help exchange results of research and enhance impact.
There will be no charge to attend the meeting, although participants will need to meet their own travel costs. Lunch and refreshments are provided. We will limit numbers to 40 participants due to space requirements. Local hotel details, at a range of price points, are available for those needing to stay overnight.
Please contact the network coordinator Jenny Woods, [email protected], if you are interested in this meeting to be put on the list for further information.
Participants may also like to know that the network will be running a meeting at Diamond the following day, 14th September, around the network theme of “Developing self-optimised chemical systems through self-evolution” at which they will also be very welcome. Details of that meeting will be announced soon.
For more details, check out: www.beyondthemolecule.org.uk or follow @DA_Challenge on twitter.