Seminars

4 February 2026

12 to 1pm

Chemical Kinetics at Very Low Temperatures in Interstellar Environments

It is generally accepted that if a reaction displays an activation barrier to reaction then it will be very slow at cold temperatures. In this talk I will show that the reverse can be true for gas-phase reactions in which the reagents are able to form a weakly-bound van der Waals complex in the entrance channel, and product formation involves transferring a hydrogen atom via quantum mechanical tunnelling. For reactions of the hydroxyl radical (OH) with volatile organic compounds (VOCs) containing alcohol, ether, carbonyl and ester functional groups, the rate of reaction accelerates dramatically at very low temperatures, with rate coefficients, k, that can be up to a 1000 times faster than at room temperature, displaying very non-Arrhenius type behaviour. To study chemical kinetics at very low temperatures and without any condensation to walls, we employ a Laval nozzle to generate a uniform supersonic flow that can reach as low 24 K. Laser flash-photolysis within this flow is used to generate OH and other small radicals such as CH, C2H, CN and NH2. Time-resolved laser-induced fluorescence spectroscopy then monitors the decay of these radicals or the production of products. The experiments are supported by ab initio theoretical calculations to calculate potential energy surfaces, and also by rate theory calculations to predict k(T) and product yields. The impact of the new kinetic data have been quantified using astrochemical models for a variety of circumstellar environments to calculate abundances of molecules in space.

10 February 2026

2 to 3 pm

Smart Materials and Biomimicry: Pioneering Technologies Reshaping the Future of Healthcare

This talk will introduce cutting-edge smart materials and biomimetic systems that are transforming modern healthcare. The talk will showcase the development of synthetic recognition nanomaterials and their use as antibody replacements in non-invasive stress monitoring sensors, with commercialisation being evaluated across Japan, South America, and the United States. Additionally, we will explore innovation organ-on-chip biomimetic platforms designed to replicate human tissue environments, offering ethical, animal-free models for drug testing and regulatory approval. These technologies represent a paradigm shift toward personalised healthcare, real-time physiological monitoring, and accelerated drug development. Together, they highlight the potential of smart biomaterials to redefine health diagnostics and therapeutic evaluation. 

11 February 2026

12 to 1pm

Discovery synthesis of inorganic functional materials in the digital age

The need for new materials to tackle societal challenges in energy and sustainability is widely acknowledged. As demands for performance increase while resource constraints narrow available options, the vastness of composition, structure and process parameter space make the apparently simple questions of where to look for and how to then find the materials we need a grand challenge to contemporary physical science. This talk will emphasise that discovery synthesis of new inorganic materials (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 63 e202403670 2024) is at the extreme forefront of this endeavour. Given the scale of the challenge, it is natural to look for new and improved methodology. There has been a lot of excitement in the popular press and in some scientific literature recently concerning the potential for artificial intelligence to transform materials discovery. While this is of course intriguing in principle, it remains important to consider how such approaches connect to the actual scientific problem. For example, the role of disorder in describing crystal structures appropriately (J. Appl. Cryst. 2025 58 659) needs to be understood as important in all real materials.
 

The presentation will address the role that machine learning and crystal structure prediction can play in the realisation of new materials, focussing on their use as tools in supporting decisions made and hypotheses created by chemistry researchers. This is illustrated by the discovery (i.e., the experimental synthesis in the laboratory) of an inorganic solid with a high lithium conductivity that arises from its unique structure. The material provides a different perspective on how ions can attain high mobility in solids (Science 383, 739, 2024; Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 63 e202409372 2024). The scope of potential advances is illustrated with the demonstration that it is now possible under clear assumptions to guarantee to predict the crystal structure of a material based solely on its composition (Nature 619, 68, 2023) and to use automated reasoning to explore chemical space (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 64 e202417657 2025). The perspective given is expressed in more detail in the recent paper in Accounts of Chemical Research 2025, 58, 9, 1355–1365.

18 February 2026

12 to 1pm

Proteins for zinc homeostasis: the importance of molecular switches and forays into Metallomics and metalloproteomics

All organisms need zinc for a multitude of biological processes including enzymatic catalysis and signalling. Zinc-requiring proteins are involved in processes as diverse as carbon fixation by plants and bacteria, and maintenance of immune function and energy metabolism in humans. For these processes to operate smoothly, it is imperative that the movements of zinc in these biological systems are minutely regulated. This regulation involves proteins that bind and/or “sense” Zn(II), the only redox state encountered in biology. The talk will discuss two examples of such zinc-binding proteins involved in the maintenance of regulated zinc concentrations and movements: The cyanobacterial zinc sensor Zur (for zinc uptake regulator) and mammalian serum albumin. Both proteins feature molecular switches (i.e. undergo conformational changes triggered by a binding event) that affect their binding affinities for a second binding partner – in both cases with momentous consequences. Studies into the latter have benefitted from -omics approaches (including transcriptomics, metallomics and metalloproteomics) that will also be discussed.

25 February 2026

12 to 1pm

How does RNA catalyse chemical reactions? From phosphoryl transfer to alkyl transfer reactions

Most known natural ribozymes catalyse phosphoryl transfer reactions, and these have taught us much about mechanism. They either use metal ions, or general acid-base catalysis. For the most part the nucleolytic ribozymes use the latter (though perhaps not exclusively) using nucleobases, hydrated metal ions or 2’-hydroxyl groups in these roles. The rates typically range over 1-16 min-1; this can vary with the local structure of the ribozyme, where peripheral elements can be important. Some nucleolytic ribozymes are mechanistically well understood. Some are still less well worked out. In some cases two different ribozymes can have closely similar overall structures, yet be catalytically distinct. Overall we can classify the nucleolytic ribozymes according to the nature of the general acid and base. Broadening the range of chemistry at the present time largely requires in vitro evolution. MTR1 is an alkyl transfer ribozyme generated by selection in the laboratory. The ribozyme catalyses the formation of a carbon-nitrogen bond. We have solved the crystal structure of this ribozyme, and probed its catalytic mechanism using pH dependence, atomic mutation and quantum mechanical modelling. MTR1 employs nucleobase-mediated general acid catalysis in a remarkably sophisticated mechanism. This lends new support to the RNA world hypothesis for the emergence of life on the planet.

9 February 2026 

12 to 1pm

Asymptotic normality of Crump-Mode-Jagers processes

Crump-Mode-Jagers (CMJ) processes are a general class of branching models that generalize the well-known Bienaymé-Galton-Watson processes. They allow arbitrary point processes to dictate an individual's reproduction and replace the simple counting of living individuals with the sum of copies of an arbitrary random process—called a "characteristic"—over all individuals.
In this talk, we present an extension of the recent central limit theorem by Iksanov, Kolesko, and Meiners (2024) to characteristics that depend on individuals and their descendants up to a fixed generation. This extension allows for the examination of more structural properties of the processes, with fringe trees serving as our primary motivating example. This is joint work with Harlan Connor.

2 March 2026 

12 to 1pm

Valuation modelling at the Valuation Office Agency

The Valuation Office Agency (VOA) is an executive agency of UK government responsible for providing both domestic and non-domestic property valuations underpinning Council Tax and Business Rates taxation.

To assist with a Council Tax revaluation planned by the Welsh Government, our team has developed a statistical model based on Gaussian Markov Random Fields to generate first pass valuations for domestic properties in Wales. Location is a key factor in the valuation of domestic properties and this approach enables its impact to be captured more flexibly than alternative approaches. Due to the scale of the model, the Integrated Nested Laplace Approximation (INLA) was used to make the model computationally feasible.

We have now started to place a bigger focus on what might also be possible in the non-domestic space and have successfully developed a proof of concept model for shops using Whittle-Matérn Fields on Metric Graphs. The end aim is to increase the VOA’s ability to deliver valuations through a process that is more efficient, consistent, and trusted.

We will present both the domestic properties model and the initial proof of concept model for shops.

9 March 2026

12 to 1pm

Collective cell migration by self-generated gradients

Coordinated cell and tissue movement underlie key biological processes like morphogenesis, immune response, and cancer invasion. Although collective migration is often thought to be directed by pre-patterned chemical or mechanical cues, only limited evidence supports such long-range guidance in living organisms. In this talk, I will first summarize our recent discovery that immune cells steer their collective migration using self-generated chemotactic gradients (Alanko et al., 2023). I will then introduce a multi-component chemotaxis model that captures the migration and patterning strategies of heterogeneous cell populations (Ucar et al., 2025). Our model predicts that differences in chemotactic sensitivity between cell types determine the shape and speed of traveling density waves, while boundary conditions such as external cell and attractant reservoirs substantially influence the migration dynamics. We quantitatively test these predictions with in vitro experiments on co-migrating immune cell mixtures, and find that immune cells operate near the optimal parameter regime predicted by theory for coupled and colocalized migration. Together, our findings suggest that self-generated gradients provide a robust strategy for the navigation of mixed cell populations.

16 March 2026

12 to 1pm

Collective cell migration by self-generated gradients

Coordinated cell and tissue movement underlie key biological processes like morphogenesis, immune response, and cancer invasion. Although collective migration is often thought to be directed by pre-patterned chemical or mechanical cues, only limited evidence supports such long-range guidance in living organisms. In this talk, I will first summarize our recent discovery that immune cells steer their collective migration using self-generated chemotactic gradients (Alanko et al., 2023). I will then introduce a multi-component chemotaxis model that captures the migration and patterning strategies of heterogeneous cell populations (Ucar et al., 2025). Our model predicts that differences in chemotactic sensitivity between cell types determine the shape and speed of traveling density waves, while boundary conditions such as external cell and attractant reservoirs substantially influence the migration dynamics. We quantitatively test these predictions with in vitro experiments on co-migrating immune cell mixtures, and find that immune cells operate near the optimal parameter regime predicted by theory for coupled and colocalized migration. Together, our findings suggest that self-generated gradients provide a robust strategy for the navigation of mixed cell populations.

23 March 2026

12 to 1pm

Mathematical Modelling in Crop Protection: Challenges and Opportunities

Mathematical modelling is increasingly complementing empirical approaches in crop protection product development and regulatory decision-making. This presentation examines modelling challenges and opportunities through a herbicide case study, demonstrating how a physiologically-based pharmacokinetic/dynamic model predicts safety thresholds and enables quantitative cross-species extrapolation for human risk assessment. I also outline current modelling challenges in crop protection research and identify opportunities for developing new modelling tools through academic-industry collaboration.

20 April 2026

12 to 1pm

Accelerating expensive simulations with Gaussian process emulators and adaptive design of experiments

Many scientific and engineering problems rely on computationally expensive simulations, making exhaustive exploration of the input space impractical. Gaussian process (GP) emulators provide an efficient and flexible way to approximate such models while quantifying predictive uncertainty. In this talk, I will present an adaptive design of experiments strategy based on GPs, called Variance of Improvement for Global Fit (VIGF), which selects the most informative points to maximise the emulator's overall accuracy. The applicability of our method is assessed on a couple of test functions, and its performance is compared with several sequential sampling strategies. The results suggest that our method has a superior performance in predicting the benchmark functions in most cases.

27 April 2026 

12 to 1pm

20 May 2026

12 to 1pm