Projects

• You will have access to the School’s PGR research that is current and exciting within Scotland, and that is linked closely with industry through its membership in ScotCHEM and WestCHEM.
• You must carry out a 3 month full-time project (June-August) alongside one of the research groups within the School. You will experience complete integration, and share the daily life and experience of a researcher. You will have the opportunity to work on a piece of substantially independent research.

Projects are assessed by the following criteria:

• Practical performance: Diligence and effort; background reading and literature research; group participation, communication with peers/supervisor; ability to handle new concepts and techniques; efficiency and effectiveness; methodical in approach to work; initiative and independence; response to problems/difficulties encountered.
• Written thesis: Clarity, logical arrangement and organisation of material; suitability of data presentation; correct use of references; appropriate background material; grasp of theoretical background; clear description of experimental techniques; correct inferences drawn from data; unbiased appraisal of data; appreciation of experimental limitations; ability to rationalise results and take an overview; assessment of strengths/weaknesses of investigative approach used.

Please find below some recent example project titles:

• The Synthesis and Investigative Analysis of Phenanthridinium-Based Compounds as Potential Sensors (Professor Cronin)
• Toward the Synthesis of the 7-Deoxy Taxol ABC Tricycle (Dr Prunet)
• A Computational Study of Pd-catalyzed Heterocyclization/Allylation (Dr Senn)
• Synthesis of Heterocyclic Compounds from Nitrogen-Containing Substrates using Palladium Catalysis (Dr France)
• Organocatalytic Synthesis of Furans with Tandem [4+3] Cycloaddition Reactions (Professor Clarke)