The results have just been announced for the latest round of applications to the John Fell Oxford University Research Fund. Our application for funding for meetings for the Red Kite network over the next three years was successful, which is excellent news and should secure its immediate future.
The results have just been announced for the latest round of applications to the John Fell Oxford University Research Fund. Our proposal for funding for a temperature controlled Peltier stage microscope with polarizing filters for the study of solid-state phase transitions in crystalline materials was successful. Polarized light allows the ready detection of discontinuous changes in the anisotropy of a material during heating or cooling since discontinuity in any property is symptomatic of a phase change (an order-disorder transformation, a change in crystal symmetry, or the formation of a completely new phase). Studying such phase changes using a temperature controlled stage can assist in optimising conditions for obtaining a given form of a material, and also leading to an understanding the nature or mechanism of the transformation.