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Lab News
This page documents the latest news and updates, be they academic or social, coming out of the SCoTCH group
Aug 2026
A Digital Future? İlayda Presents at ACS Fall 2026
Last week, İlayda had the opportunity to present her work at the Andersonian Chemistry Society's Fall 2026 Meeting in Chicago. She outlined her recent findings on combining computational chemistry and machine learning to better understand steptavidin-based artificial metalloenzymes. İlayda considered the event a great chance 'to share my research with an international audience [and] discuss [her] work with researchers' across many different fields 'at one of the largest international chemistry meetings'. İlayda was able to present her poster digitally, allowing for a greater level of interactability. While she enjoyed the novel experience, she felt that it increased the barrier to entry, and perhaps hampered engagement as much as it helped it. Everyone in the SCoTCH group congratulates her on a job well done!
Aug 2026
Hafiz' Next Steps
Everyone in the SCoTCH group wishes Hafiz all the best in his next steps as a Research Fellow for the Department of Chemistry and the Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics at the University of Liverpool. This is the continuation of Hafiz' half a decade in post-doctoral academia, and he will primarily be looking at how machine learning workflows can accelerate the discovery of new antibiotics, specifically those that target the decoding center of bacterial ribosomes. Good luck to him!
Jul 2026
Talks A'plenty: İlayda and Hafiz
Recently, both İlayda and Hafiz (Palmer lab) presented their latest work to their peers. For Hafiz, this consisted of the GSK Prosperity Partnership scientific showcase in Stevenage, wherein he discussed his research into next-generation antibody drug conjugates for the treatment of disease. He also spoke on his work at this year's Inorganic Reaction Mechanisms Group Symposium in Manchester. Reflecting on the talks, Hafiz said they were 'an excellent opportunity to share [his] research on emerging therapeutic strategies'. He greatly appreciated the chance to 'engage with the wider scientific community', and enjoyed being able to 'exchange ideas' with other researchers across a variety of different fields. İlayda, meanwhile, presented at the 18th European Biological Inorganic Chemistry Conference in Groningen. She considered it a 'great opportunity to share [her] work', as well as to connect with other 'inspiring' researchers in the field of bio-inorganic chemistry. Both thank the organisers, the support of their supervisor David Palmer. And everyone here in the SCoTCH group gives them a warm round of applause.
Mar 2026
'A Great Day': SCoTCH Winter Research Day
Another excellent research day has come and gone. As always, it was great to see what everyone in the SCoTCH lab had been getting up to, especially to see the work of all the new members of the lab! But it wasn't just research - the lab also got to enjoy the yearly SCoTCHies awards, as well as an excellent evening meal to tie off 'a great day' of research!
Mar 2026
Collaboration Bears Fruit
Recently, four members of SCoTCH group: Malin Zollner, Ryan Fraser, Nikita Myasnikov and Jack Rodden were awarded for their submission to Strathclyde's 'Images of Collaboration' competition. Designed to celebrate 'how Postgraduate Researchers experience, practise, and value collaboration in their research', the quartet submitted to the Collegiality and Belonging theme, and won the best in theme award! Their submission, 'Fragments of Collaboration', celebrated 'everyday fragments of collaboration within' the SCoTCH lab, and consisted of a patchwork of each of the team's interpretation of the lab. Everyone in the SCoTCH lab warmly congratulates them on their success!
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Feb 2026
Malin Publishes First Papers
Everyone in the SCoTCH lab gives a massive congratulations to Malin for publishing two first-author papers - her first such publications. The papers, 'Learning the limits: how data, diversity, and representation control machine-learning predictions of reorganisation energy' and 'Artificial intelligence in the discovery and design of molecular semiconductors: a systematic review', were "an important milestone in my research journey" said Malin when asked for comment. It was "an incredibly rewarding experience", and Malin was "very grateful to my supervisors, Dr. Tahereh Nematiaram and Dr. Yashar Moshfeghi, for their guidance, support, and for giving me the opportunity to contribute to [the] work". We all look forward to Malin's next project!
Feb 2026
Bridging the Gap
Last week the SCoTCH lab partook in a team building exercise to build bridges, both physically and socially. The group was divided into small teams, with each given paper, craft sticks, string, and tape to make the best bridge they could. Each construction was then ranked objectively on its carrying capacity, and subjectively based on judging from the other teams. In all, it was a wonderful time, and fun was had by all on an otherwise dreich Thursday afternoon. The team of Ross and Jack, along with one of the lab's Masters' students Eilidh, were the only ones to build a bridge capable of withstanding the entire battery of weights, and thus were deemed the winners of bragging rights. Congratulations to them!
Jan 2026
Ross Celebrates Viva Defence
Congratulations to Dr. Ross Urquhart, who recently celebrated the successful defence of his PhD thesis. Entitled 'Chemical Space Exploration: Beyond Anthropogenic Reaction Features', Ross' viva was examined by Marc Reid (University of Strathclyde) and Fernanda Duarte (University of Oxford), with Sebastian Sprick (University of Strathclyde) acting as Convener. When asked about the defence, Ross said it was 'thought provoking', and stimulated ideas for 'current and future' research. However, he was 'delighted to be done'. Everyone in the SCoTCH lab congratulates Ross and wishes him all the best in his next steps. But he hasn't travelled far at all - Ross is now a postdoc in the Tuttle lab, and so is sitting at exactly the same desk!