General

Just given my talk (on my birthday no less) and I won joint first prize for it, so I am really pleased. I wrote it all in Linux using Kile, LaTeX and LaTeX beamer. You can look at a copy of the PDF here if you would like to. It is a summary of two of the main areas of my research - alkanethiol encapsulated gold nanoparticle Langmuir-Blodgett/Langmuir-Schaeffer multilayers, and the sensing/conductivity characteristics of these multilayers to various gases and vapours.

I just have to get more of my work published, write up my thesis, find a postdoctoral position (hopefully in the States or Canada) and pass my viva! Shouldn't be too hard, for now I am going to take the evening off and enjoy the rest of my 26th birthday

With all the pressures of this year I decided that I would like to make some time to read for pleasure and had been meaning to read a discworld novel by Terry Pratchett for quite some time. Louise and I were in the city centre on Monday and I saw Thud! on special offer at Waterstones and bought it. It is the first fiction book I have picked up and read in months - always seem to have my head buried in physics, nanotechnology, mathematics and programming books these days.

I really enjoyed it and found the book very entertaining. I don't know if it is one of the better books in the series or not, but I certainly think I will find the time to read a few more. I don't want to get too engrossed though as I need to write up my thesis this year

Well it is the New Year already! 2006 has come around so fast... This will (hopefully) be the final year of my PhD studies at the University of Sheffield. I spent quite a bit of time before the break polishing up my CV, and will be sending it out to some research groups shortly to see if there are any potential postdoctoral positions going for when I finish. I am also scouring the job web sites for potential positions.

On top of that I am of course working on some more papers and my thesis! I also have to prepare a presentation to summarise my work for the final year PhD talks that are taking place on the 26th (by coincidence this coincides with my 26th birthday). If there is any time left in there I will hopefully be able to do some Gentoo development and work on my Qt4 based X-ray/neutron reflectivity package.

This is certainly going to be a tough year with lots of uncertainties. Time to get started!