Postgraduate Seminar Series
Thursday 12th June
Room 564
5pm
The Earth’s Bow Shock as an Information Barrier
By Rob Wicks
The Earth's magnetosphere causes a
shock to form in the very high Mach
number solar wind. The Cluster
spacecraft fly through this shock almost
every day providing observations of the
magnetc field, density and temperature
of the solar wind and magnetoshpere.
We use these observations to compare
the information content of the magnetic
field infront and behind the shock, with
the thermodynamic entropy increase. To
do this a new technique of multi-scale
information has been developed.
Fuel Cells: Can Solid State NMR help curb the
platinum addiction
By Tom Partridge
With increasing awareness of the
environment impact of burning fossil
fuels and the rapid depletion of oil
reserves, interest in hydrogen fuel cells
has soared. However, several issues
still stifle the hydrogen economy, both
technological and structural. One of the
key technological problems is finding a
substitute for platinum as the catalyst.
Palladium has been identified as the
obvious substitute but the dependence
on platinum still remains. Can solid
state NMR help understand the reasons
why?
The postgraduate seminar series is a series of informal talks run by
postgraduates for postgraduates. All postgraduates are welcome and
refreshments are always provided!