Chemistry academic awarded international prize
Professor Duncan Bruce has been awarded an International Cooperation Prize of the Petrochemical Foundation of China in recognition of his collaborative work with Professor Yafei Wang of the School of Materials Science and Engineering at Changzhou University in China.
Professor Bruce and Professor Wang have been collaborating for ten years since Professor Wang was a Marie Curie Fellow in the group of Dr Etienne Baranoff in Birmingham. Professor Wang is an expert in emissive materials and in the fabrication of organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) and, like Professor Bruce, was interested in how liquid crystal emitters might be used in these devices. Their partnership continued after Wang's return to China and together they have published some eleven papers and a review in the last seven years taking advantage of their complementary expertise around their shared interest.
The collaboration has also involved University of York academics, postgraduates and postdoctoral fellows, from across the department, working on the research. Notably, Professor Jason Lynam with whom they worked on the design of some of the gold emitters; former PhD student Dr Rachel Parker who spent two weeks in Professor Wang's laboratory fabricating OLED devices that used the gold complexes, and Dr Stephen Cowling who conducted the hands-on experimental work using polarising microscopy and small-angle X-ray scattering.
Professor Bruce said “It is a real honour to have received this award, which recognises the very productive collaboration that Professor Wang and I enjoy.”
Their joint programme has been supported by the National Natural Sciences Foundation of China and the UK Royal Society, which has facilitated visits in both directions as well as Parker's stay in Changzhou.