The Craig Celebration Symposium, Lecture and Dinner last Friday were very successful and well attended. We had many attendees from Canberra and interstate. The RSC would like to thank all the presenters for their contributions which provided an ideal mixture of personal recollections, anecdotes and science.
The Craig Family has expressed their sincere thanks to the School for our efforts in celebrating David’s life and his science. Jo Bayley is to be congratulated for her superb organisation of the day’s events. She was ably assisted by Alannah Macleod and Carol Taylor.

Congratulations to Sam Drew, who from 450 submissions was selected as one of the 45 finalists of the REAXYS PhD prize. The Reaxys PhD Prize finalists comprise talented PhD students or recent graduates who have conducted original, innovative research in synthetic chemistry and have demonstrated excellence in methodology and approach, the prize is highly competitive and adjudged on six selection criteria;

Scientists have harnessed static electricity to control chemical reactions for the first time, in a breakthrough that could bring cleaner industry and cheaper nanotechnology.
The team used an electric field as a catalyst for a common reaction, the Diels-Alder reaction, improving its reaction rate by a factor of five.