Graduate Old Members’ Trust Travel Report – Alex Mapp (2021, Inorganic Chemistry for Future Manufacturing)

Thanks to the financial support of the Univ travel grant, I was able to attend the 19th European Workshop on Phosphorus Chemistry (EWPC) and the 3rd Spanish Workshop on Phosphorus Chemistry (SWPC), taking place in the beautiful San Sebastian from the 28th to 30th March.

After arriving late Monday afternoon, myself and my lab colleagues explored the old town of San Sebastian, scouting out the best pintxos bars before heading home for an early night before the start of the conference. Each morning we would grab a coffee and take a leisurely walk along the beachfront on the way to the conference centre.

The conference took place over three days, each day beginning with a keynote talk. The highlight of the keynote talks was Dr. Ana Geer who spoke about the challenges of hydrophosphination reactions. Following the keynote talks, the days consisted of short talks by PhD students, working in the broad field of phosphorus chemistry. The talks ranged from main group to organic and bioinorganic phosphorus-based materials. This gave me a huge appreciation for the broad applicability that phosphorus compounds can have in chemistry.

Following the talks, poster sessions would take place each evening, where I was able to casually chat with fellow phosphorus-chemists on their research. This was an invaluable opportunity to network and gain new insights into research that is directly related to my project. I was also able to discover new topics of research that I was previously unaware of.

On the Wednesday evening, I presented a poster of my current DPhil work to date: the synthesis of novel organometallic rotaxanes via cyaphide click chemistry. It was really encouraging to see other chem

ists so interested in my work, and it was extremely helpful in helping me to view my project from a different angle. It challenged me to be able to explain my research to chemists who are not necessarily familiar with the field of interlocked molecules, as there is very little research on the incorporation of phosphorus into these molecules.
During the evenings, we spent the social time with research groups from overseas, which was an opportunity that will not come around often. After the conference, I spent a long weekend to explore San Sebastian a bit more. It is a beautiful city with incredible food, and a great location for a conference on phosphorus chemistry.

Find out more about the range of travel grants and scholarships available to assist Univ students on our Travel Grants page or read further travel reports.

Published: 28 June 2023

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