PhD student: Yixuan (Jenifer) Wang, Supervisors: Wei Gao & Filicia Wicaksana Electrospun Silicon Oxycarbide (SiOC) Fibre Mats and Its Composites Abstract: This work presents the preparation of ultrafine SiOC fibre mats through the electrospinning/sol-gel method, where specific concern has been laid on the elimination of the spinning-aid, compositional control, porosity control, and surface functionalization of…

Photo: CHEMMAT’s Dr Andrea Kolb, Professional Teaching Fellow   The Alternative Fuel Vehicle (AFV) team project is part of an elective for our Part III students and discusses the energy sector’s future. The project spans the entire semester and requires the students to work in teams on one out of six topics. Each topic has…

Photo: CHEMMAT’s Adjunct Professor Rob Kirkpatrick   Read the full article

Photo from left: CHEMMAT’s Part 4 team – Swashna Lal, Tharushi Wijesinha, Dr Amar Auckaili, Michelle Lu, and Omar Mustafa   Regardless of restrictions from COVID-19  in 2020, our Part-4 students would have been able to adapt their projects accordingly to fulfil the academic requirements. These projects were completed as entirely experimental; this would not…

Photo: Kānuka forest Whareponga, East Cape CHEMMAT’s Associate Professor Saeid Baroutian, his family, CHEMMAT’s Dr Xing Xin, Dr Sinemobong Essien and a team from the Office of Pro-Vice-Chancellor Māori (Mike Steedman- Kaiarataki), Uniservices (Dr Andy Shenk – CEO and Tui Kaumoana – Kaiarahi), Faculty of Business and Economics (Dr Kiri Dell, Prof Snejina Michailova –…

Photo: CHEMMAT’s Dr Sinemobong Essien   We are excited to announce our newest Master of Engineering Studies, Sustainable Resource Recovery has officially started. Resource limitation is a global problem and Sustainable Resource Recovery addresses this problem. This is the first programme of its kind in New Zealand and Asia-Pacific that focuses on the development of…

Photo: Prof Amanda Ellis, Head of Department for Chemical Engineering at the University of Melbourne, Australia   On  5 November 2020, CHEMMAT PhD students and staff connected remotely with Prof Amanda Ellis for our first lunchtime webinar. As well as giving us an overview of their current activities and programmes at Chemical Engineering at the…

   Jenny Purdie, CHEMMAT ca. 1986, PhD ca. 1993 BHP appoints new asset president for Olympic Dam mega-mine 4 February 2021 BHP said Dr Purdie: “has more than 30 years of global management and leadership experience spanning operational, business improvement and corporate roles in the mining, energy, heavy manufacturing and infrastructure sectors.” “Jennifer will bring…

Photo: Sina Sheikholeslami, CHEMMAT PhD student   We recently emailed Sina to see how he was doing in Canada. He kindly supplied us with the following article, which we found very interesting and also inspiring for our PhD students. Thank you, Sina and congratulations on your new job! “Corrosion of most materials is, unfortunately, inevitable….