Professor Alison J. Downard from TAMK University of Applied Sciences, Finland will give a report titled “Smartening-up carbon: strategies for covalently attaching monolayers to carbon surfaces” in Lecture Hall of the Library on 30th Oct.
Alison obtained her BSc(Hons) degree and PhD at the University of Otago, under the supervision of Professors Brian Robinson and Jim Simpson. Her project involved the synthesis and redox chemistry of tricobalt carbonyl clusters and sparked her interest in electrochemistry, which has been a common theme in her research since that time. Following her PhD, Alison did a year’s postdoctoral research on conducting polymers with Professor Derek Pletcher at the University of Southampton and then took up a two-year postdoctoral position at UNC-Chapel Hill with Professor T. J. Meyer. Her research examined the use of conducting polymers functionalized with inorganic chromophores for artificial photosynthetic systems. Since joining the staff at the University of Canterbury, Alison has worked in several areas of electrochemistry, most recently with a nanotechnology focus. She has a particular interest in surface functionalisation and has published a number of highly cited papers in this area.
For many years, Alison has been the New Zealand Corresponding Member of the Electrochemistry Division of the Royal Australian Chemical Society. She has undertaken various leadership roles including Associate Dean of Science, University of Canterbury (1999-2004), Leader of the Molecular Materials theme, MacDiarmid Institute (2009-2013) and Head of Department of Chemistry (2009-2010). Alison is currently the chair of the Analytical Electrochemistry Division of the International Society of Electrochemistry and Deputy Director, Stakeholder Engagement, of the MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology.
