**New Blog Post** Lots of students don't know what a PhD is or how to apply for one. This is my attempt to set out the key points. Very open to edits if anyone has suggestions. www.michaeloneill.org/blog-1/2026/3/27/what-is-a-phd-a-primer-for-curious-students
**New Blog Post** Lots of students don't know what a PhD is or how to apply for one. This is my attempt to set out the key points. Very open to edits if anyone has suggestions. www.michaeloneill.org/blog-1/2026/3/27/what-is-a-phd-a-primer-for-curious-students
Really proud to have written this with @profdamienpage.bsky.social championing the value of teaching staff who are disproportionately hit by cuts, but are what drives the fundamental activity of HE - educating students.#HigherEducation #TeachingAcademics www.timeshighereducation.com/even-hard-ti...
This is interesting. 5min read. Main point for me was how students use AI differently if there is an AI-free assessment at the end (maybe an exam, but maybe something else).
![A black-and-white historical photograph of Dr. Maud Leonora Menten (1879–1960), the Canadian physician and biochemist who co-developed the Michaelis–Menten equation for enzyme kinetics. Taken in her laboratory (likely at the University of Pittsburgh in the 1910s–1920s), she stands with a serious, focused expression—lips closed, eyes direct and thoughtful—against a backdrop of wooden shelves filled with glass bottles, jars, scientific equipment, and a wire-mesh enclosure. She wears a dark dress with a lace collar, a string of beads, and her hair styled in a neat bun. Superimposed on the image is the Michaelis–Menten equation in white text:v=Vmax[S]Km+[S]v = \frac{V_{\max} [S]}{K_m + [S]}v = \frac{V_{\max} [S]}{K_m + [S]}
This iconic portrait captures Menten during her groundbreaking research in biochemistry and histochemistry, where she helped establish the foundational mathematical model of enzyme-substrate reactions still used today, while overcoming significant gender barriers as one of the first women in Canada to earn both an M.D. and a Ph.D.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2xisupj43xdq7uvffzigis5p/bafkreihpw72tjmrypo7d5tc2fv5kzpsmsc7kglj4n3ekw22e2ys4gg6nti)
A black-and-white historical photograph of Dr. Maud Leonora Menten (1879–1960), the Canadian physician and biochemist who co-developed the Michaelis–Menten equation for enzyme kinetics. Taken in her laboratory (likely at the University of Pittsburgh in the 1910s–1920s), she stands with a serious, focused expression—lips closed, eyes direct and thoughtful—against a backdrop of wooden shelves filled with glass bottles, jars, scientific equipment, and a wire-mesh enclosure. She wears a dark dress with a lace collar, a string of beads, and her hair styled in a neat bun. Superimposed on the image is the Michaelis–Menten equation in white text:v=Vmax[S]Km+[S]v = \frac{V_{\max} [S]}{K_m + [S]}v = \frac{V_{\max} [S]}{K_m + [S]} This iconic portrait captures Menten during her groundbreaking research in biochemistry and histochemistry, where she helped establish the foundational mathematical model of enzyme-substrate reactions still used today, while overcoming significant gender barriers as one of the first women in Canada to earn both an M.D. and a Ph.D.
Chemist/physician Dr. Maud Menten co-authored the seminal paper 𝘋𝘪𝘦 𝘒𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘬 𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘐𝘯𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘸𝘪𝘳𝘬𝘶𝘯𝘨, 1931. This intro'd the Michaelis–Menten equation (image). It remains a cornerstone of #biochemistry, used in drug design, metabolic studies & enzyme engineering. She was born #OTD in 1879.
#WomenInSTEM
This is the kind of baseless flattery some people can only get from the very largest of the language models.
Certificate awarding SFHEA to Michael O'Neill
Extremely grateful for all the fantastic support I was given, but gosh I hated the SFHEA application paperwork.
Chinese seamen, Liverpool, 1942, by Bert Hardy. Unpublished by Picture Post because too sensitive. They were on half the pay of British seamen, lived in squalor, went on strike and were labelled troublemakers.
I found this more balanced than I expected. For me, the central theme is probably about how research productivity is increasingly framed as being in direct conflict with teaching work. AI didn't cause that, but it does heighten the contradictions. www.science.org/content/arti...
Just had coffee in the sun and gained three hit points.
There is a circular hole in a brick wall, through which can be seen a triangle with an angry face and a square who is sad. On the near side of the wall is a smiling circle with a speech bubble reading "if you want to make it through, just be yourself!"
Went to an EDI talk yesterday and was shown this cartoon, which I think is worth seeing.
Delighted to recieve funding from the @researchireland.ie Discover programme. We have set ourselves a major challenge to see if we can co-create, deliver and evaluate a new inquiry based intervention to help engage everyone in the scientific process #InformalEd #IrishResearch #ChemSky #irishSky
🎧 Did you know? The University has it's own record label, managed and run entirely by students.
🎸 Learn about Merciful Sound and its hit-making artists here:
Asked my students today why they picked Chemistry to study. Range of answers. Interesting conversations. Would recommend.
This is why in higher education you should not let your curriculum be driven by 'demand.' You need give students the precious opportunity to discover the things they don't already know they will be excited about.
RSC newsletter today re-upping their "a Future in Chemistry" career site, which has lots of very good videos. edu.rsc.org/future-in-ch...
We are looking for two talented people to join us at the Department of Chemistry at the University of Warwick as assistant professors. Permanent positions. 🧪🍎🥽
warwick-careers.tal.net/vx/appcentre...
Check out recent work from the Mehta group looking at structure of Ar-P=P-X molecules, the compositional all P analogue of aryldiazonium halides. Published in @chemicalscience.rsc.org Thanks @ukri.org @erc.europa.eu for funding!
pubs.rsc.org/en/content/a...
Knights of the round table labelled "organic chemists", "inorganic chemists", and "analytical chemists". They lower their swords to the table, which is labelled "putting the sample in a huge magnet".
We're not so different
Do either of you think the volume has changed? I’m aware of lots of maths software for homework problems, but I haven’t heard of this for other subjects so much.
Is the volume of work something which has changed? Do you test knowledge differently to skills?
I think maybe the type of work, but perhaps also the volume of work. Interested about the way it is set, too, though!
Something I am curious about and do not know the answer to:
has the way homework is set for UK school pupils changed over the last 10-ish years?
Copper finally joins the metallocene club More than 70 years after ferrocene’s discovery, cuprocene fills a long-standing gap in the sandwich menu by Mark Peplow, special to C&EN
Cuprocene is the first neutral, stable copper metallocene, created by a team led by William J. Evans, an organometallic chemist at the University of California, Irvine. cen.acs.org/synthesis/cu...
#chemsky 🧪
Becoming a chemistry teacher in England - join our ChemCareers webinar on Wednesday 25th February
Heard about our teacher training scholarship, but not sure what it's about? We support talented people entering secondary chemistry teacher training with bursaries, coaching & more.
Join our upcoming webinar (free for members) to find out how we could help you: https://rsc.li/4rgUwS2 #ChemSky
Cartoon comparison of good and bad sigma donor MO schemes
Teaching ligand field theory to a class where some study symmetry and some don’t, which is a fun challenge. This year I am aggressively leaning into sigma/pi labels, which is going pretty ok I think.
Very interesting HEPI paper on Awarding Gaps. Analysis of TEF data shows that *large* gaps were completely compatible with winning TEF Gold. The case for including gaps as a metric in future regulation is explored very thoughtfully, I think. www.hepi.ac.uk/reports/maki...
Free meeting (coffee/lunch included) on links between UG Chemistry teaching and industry on Friday Feb 20th in Liverpool.
No need to be a member of the RSC or the Higher Education Group.
Sign up link in blog.
Excellent piece on how universities are important economic players in local economies, but also how they have been giving people hope about the future in very practical ways. 5min read.
**ALERT** The #ViCEPHEC26 website is now live! vicephec2026.wordpress.com
Abstract submission will open soon, with satellite meetings on Weds Aug 26th and the conference opening on Thursday Aug 27th.