Klaas Wynne
Chair of Chemical Physics
University of Glasgow
School of Chemistry
Joseph Black Building
University Avenue
Glasgow, G12 8QQ
UK
office: A4.11b
e: klaas.wynne glasgow.ac.uk

skype: klaas.wynne
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Map from Hillhead to JB building
Map to my office in Joseph Black

Klaas Wynne running Devil's Burden 2018

Prof Klaas Wynne

Chair of chemical physics, School of Chemistry, University of Glasgow since 2010. FRSC, FInstP, FRSE, and recipient of the 2018 Chemical Dynamics Award of the RSC. Associate Editor of the Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS) 2017-2020. MSci (Amsterdam) 1987; PhD (Amsterdam) 1990; Postdoctoral fellow (University of Pennsylvania, Dept. of Chemistry) 1991-1996; Lecturer to Professor (University of Strathclyde) 1996-2010; Chair of Chemical Physics (University of Glasgow) 2010-present.

Contributions to research – Ultrafast

My group pioneered the use of time-resolved terahertz spectroscopy to the study of molecular systems by studying dipole solvation (PRL 79, 3078 (1997), 77 cits. and CPL 274, 365 (1997), 116 cits.).
The unique opportunities presented by being able to measure the entire waveform of terahertz pulses was leveraged to study causality (OptLett 24, 25 (1999), 99 cits., PRL 84, 1431 (2000), 94 cits.) and to demonstrate the futility of faster-than-light communication (OptComm 209, 85 (2002), 48 cits.).
I am responsible for the transformative idea of evanescent-wave femtosecond electron-bunch acceleration (APL 79, 2130 (2001), 70 cits.), which led to the first detection of terahertz-pulse emission through surface plasmons (PRL 98, 026803 (2007), 116 cits.).
We were the first to study the terahertz dynamics of room-temperature ionic liquids using optical Kerr effect (OKE), leading to a landmark paper (JCP 119, 464 (2003), 250 cits.). With collaborators, we combined OKE, dielectric relaxation, and terahertz spectroscopy to discover mesoscopic structure in ionic liquids (JACS 131, 11140 (2009), 234 cits.).
My group exploited molecular symmetry to isolate physical effects in OKE, dielectric, and terahertz spectroscopy (JCP 128, 161102 (2008), 93 cits.). This allowed us to reveal structural and dynamical changes associated with the polyamorphic liquid-liquid transition in nano-pools of water (PCCP 14, 8067 (2012), 27 cits.). It was put to ultimate use in liquid noble gasses, which were shown to exhibit coherent phonon-like dynamics previously only associated with strongly-interacting liquids and solids (JCP 131, 201101 (2009), 30 cits.) and in ionic liquids (JACS 139, 7160 (2018), 9 cits.).
We were the first to explore detailed low-frequency Raman spectra of proteins using OKE (BiophysJ 85, 1903 (2003), 120 cits.) and were able to show changes in intra- and inter-molecular hydrogen bonding patterns during a helix-to-coil transition in a peptide (JACS 129, 3168 (2007) 72 cits.).
My group were able to show that proteins have underdamped delocalised terahertz-frequency modes and, crucially, that these modes are coupled to protein-ligand binding (Nat. Commun. 5, 3999 (2014) 98 cits.). Recent work from the group on solvated DNA demonstrated the presence of delocalised phonons associated with transcription processes fundamentally altering our understanding of biochemical reactions (Nat. Commun., 7, 11799 (2016) 24 cits.).

Contributions to research – Ultraslow

Three years ago, I decided to develop a new research direction involving the ultraslow (milliseconds to hours) dynamics associated with phase transitions in liquids using microscopy and spectroscopy.

We were the first to use confocal fluorescence lifetime imaging to determine the order parameter of a polyamorphic liquid–liquid transition (JPCLett 6, 38 (2015) 17 cits.).
Using a battery of micro-spectroscopy techniques, we were able to demonstrate that n-butanol undergoes a transition to an unusual metastable rippled-lamellar phase that frustrates crystallisation with wide implications to the understanding of supercooling and glass formation (Sci. Rep. 7, 42439 (2017), 5 cits.).
In a recent publication (Nat. Chem. 10, 506 (2018), 3 cits.), we showed that laser-induced nucleation can be understood in terms of the harnessing of concentration fluctuations near a liquid–liquid critical point using optical tweezing.

(Google Scholar citation data Dec. 2018)

resume (pdf, 140kB)

KW's other interests include orienteering and mountain/hill running.

Running on a glacier

2 October 2023: New PhD student Laure-Anne Hayes started today. She will start out working on some interesting cross-over between between molecular and soft-matter physics.
24 January 2023: A press release on our NatComm paper came out: SCIENTISTS OPEN NEW WINDOW ON THE PHYSICS OF GLASS FORMATION
16 January 2023: Our paper "Understanding the emergence of the boson peak in molecular glasses" has come out in NatureComms https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-35878-6. Most mysterious aspect of glass transition is the boson peak: a small effect but reflection of supramolecular structures responsible for formation of glass instead of crystal. Widely studied but poorly observed as obscured by other contributions. We used symmetry to get clean view of boson peak in tetrabutyl orthosilicate using Raman, a pre-peak in SAXS/WAXS, and boson peak in calorimetry. MD simulations (constrained by experiments) show boson peak caused by clusters of over-coordinated molecules.This opens way to investigation of detailed changes behaviour boson-peak & glasses in general as function temperature, pressure, fragility, & other physicochemical parameters. Fantastic collaboration with Gabriele Sosso (@SossoGroup) & PhD student Trent Barnard who did MD (@warwickchem) and the late Paul McMillan (@UCLChemistry). OKE by @magonji , rheology/DSC Ben Russell & undergrad Laure-Anne Hayes, DFT Nikita Tukachev & Hans Senn (@UofGChem),NMR Uroš Javornik & Gregor Mali (@kemijski ), SAXS/WAXS at the @DiamondLightSou with @evilokapi & Martin Wilding (@ChemistryCU), & calorimetry by Motohiro Nakano & Yuji Miyazaki (@ScienceOU).With funding from @ERC_Research #AdG, @LeverhulmeTrust , @DiamondLightSou , @EPSRC , @ARRS_rfo , HPC Midlands+ ConsortiumThe molecules were serendipitously "discovered" (in the @SigmaAldrich catalogue) by PhD student Andy Farrell & undergrad @NotchSg in 2019.
20 Sep 2022: Warm welcome to postdoc Dr. Ankita Das (PhD @TIFRScience & briefly @UofIllinois ) who will be working on laser-induced crystal nucleation funded by our ERC AdG CONTROL. She already has broad range of skills from synthesis to ultrafast lasers and plasmonics.
8 August 2022: Met with the ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands Karol van Oosterom to talk about scientific cooperation between Scotland and the Netherlands
27 June 2022: Our research on malaria and spectroscopy was featured on BBC Arabic Science programme
7 April 2022: Zhiyu’s lovely paper on the role of metastable amorphous intermediates in laser-induced nucleation has come out (ASAP) in JACS https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/jacs.1c11154 Laser-induced nucleation was first discovered in 1996 but never properly explained. We previously thought that it might be related to liquid-liquid phase separation. Now, in glycine at least, we have found that the key step is the formation of amorphous particles, which when touched by a laser trigger the nucleation of crystals. The preponderance of gamma glycine over alpha glycine in our experiments suggests that the laser action is through the Kerr effect. There are plenty of reasons to believe that both amorphous particle formation and its role in nucleation (laser induced or otherwise) are much more common, so expect to hear more about this sort of thing…
3 February 2022: Former PhD student Andrew Farrell passed his viva this morning with only minor corrections. Thanks to external Steve Meech (UEA Chemistry ) and internal Gordon Hedley.
16 June 2021: In our publication in Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 23, 13250 – 13260 (2021), we use femtosecond optical Kerr-effect spectroscopy to determine the low-frequency Raman spectra of nucleotides and oligomeric DNAs with unrivalled dynamic range and signal-to-noise. These samples were carefully chosen to form G-quadruplexes, structures formed by four strands of DNA, under the appropriate conditions. We find that the G-quadruplexes exhibit a highly unusual group of gigahertz to terahertz highly underdamped delocalised vibrational modes. As these modes are near kBT/h at room temperature, they are expected to be the thermally excited modes required to understand the interaction of DNA with proteins. This provides a new perspective on the role of low-frequency vibrational modes in the biological function of DNA.
13 April 2020: Just accepted in JACS, https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/jacs.0c01712, shows why liquid-liquid transitions happen: competition between different local molecular packings resembling crystal polymorphs results in transition from geometric frustration to kinetic frustration. Funded by @ERC_Research, @EPSRC, @LeverhulmeTrust, and @DiamondLightSou. So many contributions: PhDs @finlaywalton, John Bolling and Andy Farrell, RAs @heschemistrypro and @magonji, as well as Claire Wilson, Hans Senn, Gianfelice Cinque. And @UofGChem BSc undergrad Jamie McEwen who serendipitously found key that solved the mystery. And last but not least, our first ever crystal structure in the CCDC. F. Walton, J. Bolling, A. Farrell, J. MacEwen, C. Syme, M. González Jiménez, H. Senn, C. Wilson, G. Cinque, and K. Wynne, ‘Polyamorphism mirrors polymorphism in the liquid–liquid transition of a molecular liquid’, ChemRxiv (https://dx.doi.org/10.26434/chemrxiv.9891491.v2) and J. Am. Chem. Soc. in press (2020).
13 January 2020: We have a PhD positionin Chemistry for UK/EU nationals – Laser control over crystal nucleation – Closing Date: 1 April 2020
10 December 2019: Congratulations to Finlay Walton who passed his PhD viva today with minor corrections. Thanks to external Andy Alexander and internal Adrian Lapthorn.
4 October 2019: Finlay's paper "Using optical tweezing to control phase separation and nucleation near a liquid–liquid critical point" came out in Soft Matter, see https://dx.doi.org/10.1039/C9SM01297D.
16 September 2019: Our new paper "Prediction of mosquito species and population age structure using mid-infrared spectroscopy and supervised machine learning" has come out in Welcome Open Research 4, 76 (2019) doi: 0.12688/wellcomeopenres.15201.3 feauturing an international author list: Mario González Jiménez, Simon A. Babayan, Pegah Khazaeli1, Margaret Doyle, Finlay Walton, Elliott Reedy, Thomas Glew, Mafalda Viana, Lisa Ranford-Cartwright, Abdoulaye Niang, Doreen J. Siria, Fredros O. Okumu, Abdoulaye Diabaté, Heather M. Ferguson, Francesco Baldini, Klaas Wynne.
11 July, 2019: The School of Chemistry has a lectureship (assistant prof.) position in Physical Chemistry, see https://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/BTM762/lecturer-in-physical-chemistry …. The applicant’s research should strategically align with that of the Chemical Photonics Group (https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/chemistry/research/cp/ …). Closing date: 1 August 2019.
19 June, 2019: We have two postdoctoral position available now funded by the five-year European Research Council (ERC) funded project Laser Control over Crystal Nucleation (CONTROL), which aims to develop a novel platform for the manipulation of phase transitions, crystal nucleation, and polymorph control based on optical tweezing and plasmonic tweezing. Closing Date: 12 August 2019. More details here.
3 June 2019: A polarisation microscopy photo of a new polymorph of a molecular crystal growing into another polymorph won the EPSRC Science Photo Competition Eureka & Discovery category. Photo by @finlaywalton Manuscript in preparation... Research funded by @EPSRC
28 March 2019: KW has been awarded a €2.49M European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Grant: CONTROL - Laser control over crystal nucleation. We will use sophisticated light sources to “pull” crystals out of solution, control their properties, and thereby enable new applications in the pharmaceutical industry and elsewhere. See https://erc.europa.eu/news/erc-2018-advanced-grants-results
28 January 2019: Maternity cover job opening (in principle 6 months), Editorial Support Assistant to assist KW as JACS associate editor, linked to the University of Glasgow, part time, see https://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/BPT274/editorial-support-assistant
22 December, 2018: Our mosquito work made it into the christmas (22 December 2018) issue of The Economist. Fraunhofer lines?!?! Anyway, the gist is about right and at least they mention Mario González Jiménez and Fredros Okumu.
29 November 2018: Today we were awarded a Leverhulme Research Project Grant, 'Delocalised phonon-like modes in organic and bio-molecules', jointly with Adrain Lapthorn and Hans Senn. This will fund our experimental work on delocalised modes in proteins and DNA as well as novel MD simulations.
1 October 2018: Delighted that today Josh Mitton is starting on a joint machine learning PhD project with Roderick Murray-Smith and Francesco Baldini (and unofficially but no less importantly Roman Biek, Simon Babayan, Lisa Ranford-Cartwright, Heather Ferguson, Adrian Lapthorn, and Simon Rogers)
2 August 2018: Judith's nice paper "Frustration vs Prenucleation: Understanding the Surprising Stability of Supersaturated Sodium Thiosulfate Solutions" came out in JPC B http://dx.doi.org/0.1021/acs.jpcb.8b04112
8 May 2018: KW is given the 2018 Chemical Dynamics Award of the Royal Society of Chemistry for outstanding contributions to time-resolved spectroscopy.
9 March 2018: Dr Mario González Jiménez wins the 2018 RSC Twitter Conference poster prize in the #RSCPhys category with https://twitter.com/magonji/status/970952685938757632
5 March 2018: Our paper "Control over phase separation and nucleation using a laser-tweezing potential", Nature Chemistry 10, 506 (2018) (http://doi.org/10.1038/s41557-018-0009-8) just came out! See a write up at Un-mixing using lasers to make new crystals.
2 March 2018: I am delighted to be able to announce that, funded by EPSRC, I have published a paper in J Phys Chem with a picture of a mayonnaise jar. See doi: 10.1021/acs.jpcb.8b01006. As promised, I will eat my hat with mayonnaise over the next few days.
2 January 2018: "The Mayonnaise Effect" is the #1 most read article in JPCLett of the past month. See http://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.jpclett.7b03207.
8 December 2017: My paper "The Mayonnaise Effect" came out in JPC Lett. See http://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.jpclett.7b03207. See also this short explanation of the Mayonnaise Effect.
29 November 2017: We have a prestigious Lord Kelvin-Adam Smith (LKAS) 4-year PhD studentship on “Machine learning in spectroscopy” available for UK, EU, and international students. We will combine expertise in chemistry, spectroscopy, entomology, and computing science to apply state-of-the-art machine-learning techniques to the determination of traits in insects and the design of novel molecules for attracting or repelling insects. The application deadline is 12 noon, Friday 12th January 2018. Much more information at https://tinyurl.com/y927jhpo.
27 October 2017: Wahey again! PhD student Judith Reichenbach passed her PhD viva today with her thesis "Structure and Dynamics in Ionic Liquids and Concentrated Salt Solutions: An Ultrafast Spectroscopy Study"! Thanks to external examiner Steve Meech, internal Steven Sproules, and convenor Adrian Lapthorn.
28 September 2017: Wahey! PhD student Joanna (Asia) Mosses passed her PhD viva today with her thesis 'Phase transitions and mesophases in molecular liquids and solutions: spectroscopic and imaging studies’'! A thank you also to the external examiner Mischa Bonn, internal Malcolm Kadodwala, and convenor Justin Hargreaves.
15 June 2017: Our paper "Spectrum of slow and super-slow (picosecond to nanosecond) water dynamics around organic and biological solutes" by Gopa Ramakrishnan, Mario González-Jiménez, Adrian Lapthorn, and Klaas Wynne, on the universally imhomogeneous solvation shell around solutes came out in J.Phys.Chem. Lett today. See http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.jpclett.7b01127. Should be freely available soon.
31 May 2017: We got a paper out in JACS today "Phonon-like Hydrogen-Bond Modes in Protic Ionic Liquids". PhD student Judith's first paper in the best chemistry journal in the universe (... :-)) Also with PhD student Stuart Ruddell in David France's group, former undergrad Julio Lemes, David Turton, and Mario González. Download for free at http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/jacs.7b03036
19 April 2017: Our paper "Ultrafast 2D-IR and optical Kerr effect spectroscopy reveal the impact of duplex melting on the structural dynamics of DNA" came out in PCCP today. It's open access so download it for free. Collaboration with Neil Hunt and colleagues at Strathclyde and Paul Donaldson and colleagues at the STFC Central Laser Facility.
1 April 2017: Started as Associate Editor of the Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS)!
17 February 2017: Our paper "Frustration of crystallisation by a liquid–crystal phase" came out in Scientific Reports today. Read more about this research: Frustrating liquid crystals and watch a movie about it on YouTube here.
November 2016: We are looking for somebody to join us as a PhD student to work on imaging and laser manipulation of nucleation phenomena. A great project on the border between physics,chemistry, and engineering.
1 October 2016: Andrew Farrell joined the group as a new PhD student to work on ultrafast spectroscopy.
5 July 2016: Spain's Consul General visits the group on invitation by Mario.
6 June 2016: A number of places have taken up our press release. Exclusive: Professor Klaas Wynne On Decoding DNA Sound Bubbles & Human Life on HealthAim.com is probably the weirdest. Also Vibraciones y burbujas de sonido del ADN son esenciales para la vida shown on the homepage of SINC.
1 June 2016: Our paper Observation of coherent delocalised phonon-like modes in DNA under physiological conditions was published to day in Nature Communications. See also Sound-like bubbles whizzing around in DNA are essential to life and a similar Glasgow University press release.
11 March 2016: Tommy Harwood successfully defended his thesis today at the Strathclyde Institute of Pharmacy & Biomedical Sciences (SIPBS). Tommy studied for his PhD under Elizabeth Ellis (SIPBS) and came to work in the UCP labs in 2012 to do terahertz spectroscopy of biomolecules and optical Kerr-effect spectroscopy of small biomolecules, proteins, and DNA. Although he is not officially our PhD student, in practice he did all the spectroscopy experiments under our supervision at Glasgow University. Check out our paper "Terahertz underdamped vibrational motion governs protein-ligand binding in solution" came out in Nature Communications.
November 2015: A £0.5M EPSRC grant “Mapping and controlling nucleation” was awarded to Klaas Wynne and David France in the School of Chemistry. The nucleation of new phases from solution, such as the nucleation of crystals, is of immense importance to both industry and fundamental science. Industrial crystallisation has changed little in the past 350 years and suffers from an embarrassing lack of control with sometimes unexpected and severe financial consequences. The new research programme will image and control the early stages of nucleation. Driving liquid systems very far from equilibrium will allow the creation of meta- and unstable states that will give rise to nucleation and spinodal decomposition. The subsequent highly non-equilibrium processes will be controlled using a novel instrument that will change the study of crystal nucleation and will make the first steps towards control over the polymorph that crystallises. It involves laser-induced nucleation using powerful picosecond and femtosecond lasers, and programmable optics.
June 2015: We were joined by Finlay Walton, initially as summer project student for summer 2015 and in October as a PhD student. The summer project involves the study of mosquitos while the PhD project will be on microscopy of phase transitions.
April 2015: UCP group members Chris Syme, Joanna Mosses, and Klaas Wynne win 2nd and 3rd price in College photo competition. See Technical photography competition 2015.
March 2015: Mapping and Controlling (Crystal) Nucleation. Applications are invited for a fully-funded 3.5-year PhD studentship at the University of Glasgow to study the chemical physics of (crystal) nucleation in the Ultrafast Chemical Physics (UCP) group in the School of Chemistry under the supervision of Prof Klaas Wynne. The PhD project involves (laser) microscopy and laser control of the early stages of nucleation in liquids. It involves laser-induced nucleation using powerful lasers and programmable diffractive optics. The new instrument will be used to carry out experiments that range from creating crystals of the desired type to shedding light on the origins of life. We are now looking for a PhD student who is interested in developing new imaging techniques including the use of spatial light modulators and interfacing a microscope with a high power pulsed laser. The ideal candidate for this position is a chemical physicist, physical chemist, or somebody with knowledge of optics or microscopy. The PhD student will be working alongside a team of postdoctoral researchers with experience in ultrafast techniques, chemical physics, and microscopy. More information and application details can be found here.
January 2015: Another exciting imaging paper out for 2015. J. Phys. Chem. Lett. has published our paper Order Parameter of the Liquid–Liquid Transition in a Molecular Liquid in which we use for the first time fluorescene lifetime imaging (FLIM) to study a liquid-liquid phase transition in supercooled triphenyl phosphite.
November 2014: Our paper "Crystal templating through liquid–liquid phase separation" has been published as an Advanced Article in ChemComm.See also The role of liquid-liquid demixing in crystallisation: icy fluff balls.
June 2014: Our paper "Terahertz underdamped vibrational motion governs protein-ligand binding in solution" came out in Nature Communications. The University published a news item Proteins ‘ring like bells’, which was taken up by Science Daily and a bunch of other news outlets. Strangely, it was also picked up by a creationist website who thought it was proof of design. The best write up was on an Austrina site Späte Bestätigung für Erwin Schrödinger? For the paper itself see here.
May 2014: Our paper "Stokes-Einstein-Debye Failure in Molecular Orientational Diffusion: Exception or Rule?" finally came out in J .Phys. Chem. B, see http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/jp5012457. It truely has the loveliest Kerr-effect/Raman data I have ever seen.
21 February 2014: Dr Gopakumar (Gopa) Ramakrishna officially started at Research Assistant in the group. Gopa will concentrate on terahertz spectroscopy.
2 December: Today, Dr Mario González Jiménez officially started as a Research Assistant in the group. He'll be working on femtosecond spectroscopy of biomolecules.
1 October 2013: Today, Judith Reichenbach officially started her PhD studies in the group. She'll be working on nucleation using femtosecond spectroscopy.
18-20 September 2013: Faraday Discussion 167 on Mesostructure and Dynamics in Liquids and Solutions was a sucess with a lot of (heated) discussion. The published volume should come out later in the year.
April 2013: Another EPSRC grant funded on "Solvation dynamics and structure around proteins and peptides: collective network motions or weak interactions"
October 2012: Dr Christopher Syme has started as a research associate in the group. He will be using confocal fluorescence microscopy and fluorescence lifetime imaging to study phase transitions in liquids.
May 2012: Fully funded PhD studentships in the Wynne group. Applications are invited for a number of PhD studentships in the Wynne group. Some of these studentships are part of the Doctoral Training Centre (DTC) in Continuous Manufacturing and Crystallisation (CMAC).
9 May 2012: Our paper "The dynamic crossover in water does not require bulk water" just came out in PCCP, see doi:10.1039/c2cp40703e. In a nutshell, it shows that you only need one water molecule to have bulk water properties (as long as that water molecule can form a water pentamer).
18/4/12: The latest issue of PCCP (Physical Chemistry and Chemical Physics), the top physical chemistry journal of the Royal Society of Chemistry, is dedicated to such ultrafast chemical dynamics. The special issue was guest edited by Prof Klaas Wynne in the School of Chemistry at Glasgow University and his colleague Dr Neil Hunt at the University of Strathclyde. Special issue PCCP on Ultrafast Chemical Dynamics.
12/4/12: Glasgow University press release Funding boost for Ultrafast Chemical Physics.
March 2012: Postdoc position in the group.See http://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/AEF581/research-associate/. Apply online at www.glasgow.ac.uk/jobs(enter Reference Number 001765). Closing date: 29 April 2012
February 2012: The 2011 UCP meeting in Glasgow was discussed in the March 2012 issue of Nature Chemistry: Ultrafast chemical physics: In search of molecular movies. The future is ultrafast!
December 2011: The International Workshop on Ultrafast Chemical Physics & Physical Chemistry (UCP 2011) was held in Glasgow. Photos from the UCP2011 event here.
October 2011: The Ultrafast Chemical Physics group has won a £0.7M EPSRC grant to study liquid-liquid phase transitions using microscopy in collaboration with Chemical Engineering at Strathclyde. EPSRC grant for UCP group.
July 2011: We would like to cordially invite you to submit a paper to a special issue of PCCP on femtosecond spectroscopy entitled "Ultrafast Chemical Dynamics". Topics that will be covered include: * ultrafast dynamics of reactions in proteins * ultrafast structure and dynamics of liquids and solutions * ultrafast chemical processes at interfaces * ultrafast dynamics of electronically excited states * ultrafast atomic structure and dynamics in the solid state. The special issue will feature a number of invited overviews followed by contributed papers. The deadline for submissions is 14 November 2011. For more information, see http://blogs.rsc.org/cp/2011/06/29/pccp-themed-issue-ultrafast-chemical-dynamics/.
July 2011: the European Conference of Crystal Growth ECCG4 will be held 17 to 20 June 2012 in Glasgow.
7 July 2011: the EPSRC-funded Coherent regenerative amplifier (producing 23-fs 2.7-mJ 800-nm pulses at a repetition rate of 1 kHz) has been reinstalled in our lab again. This is in addition to a new Coherent Micra-10 (producing 15-fs 800-nm pulses at 80 MHz).
May 2011: A Faraday Discussion on 'Mesostructure and dynamics in liquids and solution' will be held in September 2013 most likely in Bristol.The organising committee consists at the moment of Alan Soper (Rutherford Appleton Laboratory), Austen Angell (Arizona State University), Ken Seddon (Queen's Belfast), Stephen Meech (UEA), an Klaas Wynne (Glasgow University).
May 2011: The new ultrafast chemical physics laser lab is pretty much ready. Now all we need is some (working) femtosecond lasers...
16 November 2010: New website for the International Workshop on Ultrafast Chemical Physics & Physical Chemistry UCP 201.
October 2010: Next Ultrafast Chemical Physics meeting (UCP 2011) set for 14-16 December 2011 at the University of Strathclyde. Confirmed speakers include Prof David Klug (Imperial College, multidimensional spectroscopy), Prof Andrea Cavalleri (University of Oxford, femtosecond X-ray science) and Prof Klaas Wynne (University of Glasgow, terahertz spectroscopy). In addition we have confirmed attendance of Prof Dwayne Miller (University of Toronto) as plenary speaker for the conference.
2 October 2010: Positions. A lectureship (assistant professorship) in ultrafast physical chemistry is available. The ideal candidate would be interested in ultrafast femtosecond spectroscopy of the condensed phase or an allied area. Brand new lab space will be available. Ref: 00057-10, Closing Date: 29th October 2010.
1 November 2010: KW's official start as chair in physical chemistry in the School of Chemistry at the University of Glasgow.
August 2010: Our paper in JACS (described in Serving nanoparticle “soup”) has been cited 19 times on Web of Science exactly one year after its publication. It describes how using multiple spectroscopies, we discovered mesoscopic structure in room-temperature ionic liquids.
24 March 2010: Our paper The effects of anion and cation substitution on the ultrafast solvent dynamics of ionic liquids: A time-resolved optical Kerr-effect spectroscopic study, JCP 119, 464 (2003) was selected as highlighted reference in the JCP Spotlight Collection on ionic liquids, March 2010.
12 March 2010: Our paper Universal nonexponential relaxation: Complex dynamics in simple liquids was selected JChemPhys editors’ choice as one of the most innovative and influential articles in the field of Chemical Physics in 2009. See http://jcp.aip.org/jcp/editors_choices_2009.
5 January 2010: Our paper Universal nonexponential relaxation: Complex dynamics in simple liquids was the 3rd most downloaded paper of J. Chem. Phys. in December 2009.
5 August 2009: Read more about our latest paper in JACS in Serving nanoparticle "soup".
4 August 2009: We were joined by new postdoc Marco Candelaresi.
May 2009: New ultrafast physical-chemistry lab is ready!
30/31 October 2008: The 2008 ultrafast physical-chemistry (UCP) meeting was held at Strathclyde.
10 July 2008: We were joined by new postdoc Kitsakorn Locharoenrat.
23 May 2008: Our paper "Glasslike Behavior in Aqueous Electrolyte Solutions" was selected "Editors' Choice" in the 23 May issue of the journal Science (PDF, 800kB).
12 May 2008: Groups wins £0.6M EPSRC grant "Two-dimensional terahertz–IR spectroscopy: a unique probe of ultrafast hydrogen-bond dynamics of liquid water and model systems" by KW, JOK, and DJSB.
2 May 2008: Strathclyde will host the "International Workshop on ultrafast physical-chemistry 2008 (UCP ‘08)" on 30/31 October 2008 to be held in the Senate/Court suite. Plenary speaker is Prof Robin Hochstrasser FRSE (University of Pennsylvania). Confirmed invited speakers are Prof Casey Hynes (CNRS, Paris and University of Colorado, Boulder), Prof Charles Schmuttenmaer (Yale), Prof Majed Chergui (Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne), Prof Mischa Bonn (AMOLF, Amsterdam), Prof Peter Hamm (University of Zurich), and Prof Thomas Elsaesser (Max Born Institute, Berlin). The workshop is organised by Angus J. Bain (UCL), David Klug (Imperial), Steve Meech (UEA), Neil Hunt (Strathclyde), and Klaas Wynne (Strathclyde).
24 April 2008: Our paper "Glasslike Behavior in Aqueous Electrolyte Solutions" came out in J. Chem. Phys. A summary of the paper in simple terms (best attempt anyway) is on the page The science of syrup and traffic jams.
4 March 2008: Visiting professor Robin Hochstrasser of the University of Pennsylvania has been elected Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. This is a prestigious fellowship for scientists of great international renown and we are delighted that Robin has been honoured in this way.
18 March 2007: New paper in JACS on terahertz spectra associated with a helix to coil transition in a peptide. Read more about it in the research highlight Observing ‘The Lubricant of Life’
10 January 2007: New paper on terahertz emission from nanostructured surfaces has come out in PRL. Read more about it in the research page on terahertz technology.