This Joint Symposium is a one-day event to mark the beginning of a partnership between the University of Birmingham and WPI-SKCM² for fostering collaboration and exchanging students and postdocs. The symposium will take place Friday, April 4, 2025, from 09:00–17:00 BST / 17:00–01:00 JST at the Edgbaston Park Hotel & Conference Centre at UoB and online.
The program is designed to deepen disciplinary connections while encouraging cross-disciplinary exchange in exploring and exploiting chirality and topology in seemingly diverse matter / materials.
The morning will feature two parallel sessions of 25-minute talks by outstanding researchers from both the UK and Japan affiliated to either the University of Birmingham or WPI-SKCM². The afternoon will include:
- A presentation by representatives from JSPS London, highlighting funding opportunities for international collaboration
- A roundtable discussion focused on identifying promising avenues for future joint research efforts
Opening Session @ Pevsner / Edgbaston Park Hotel
08:45 – 09:00Arrival
09:00 – 09:20Opening Remarks by Tim Albrecht | University of Birmingham and Takahiro Iwata | WPI-SKCM2
09:20 – 09:35Move to Parallel Sessions
Parallel Session I @ Pevsner / Edgbaston Park Hotel
09:35 – 10:00Mark Dennis | University of BirminghamTopological textures in optical polarisation patterns: Stokes origami
10:00 – 10:25Malcolm Kadodwala | University of GlasgowHarnessing Chiral Light to Detect and Create Chemical Asymmetry
10:25 – 10:50Bruno Frka-Petesic | University of CambridgeChiral Self-assembly of Cellulose Nanocrystals into Structurally Coloured Materials
10:50 – 11:20Tea/Coffee
11:20 – 11:45Dwaipayan Chakrabarti | University of BirminghamTetrahedral Liquids: From a Tale of Two Liquids to a Tale of Topology
11:45 – 12:10Yair Augusto Gutierrez Fosado | University of EdinburghTopological Viscoelasticity: When DNA Nanostars Build Loopy Networks
12:10 – 12:35Hiroshi Sato | RIKEN Centre for Emergent Matter Science and WPI-SKCM2Stimuli-responsive porous crystals
12:35 – 13:00Neil Champness | University of BirminghamMolecular Organisation: A Journey Through Complex Structures
Parallel Session II @ Kingfisher / Peter Scott House
09:35 – 10:00Steve Goldup | University of BirminghamControlling topological stereochemistry in interlocked molecules
10:00 – 10:25Takeharu Haino | WPI-SKCM2Supramolecular Chemistry of Cavitand-based Coordination Capsule
10:25 – 10:50James Lewis | University of BirminghamLow-Symmetry Molecular Capsules
10:50 – 11:20Tea/Coffee
11:20 – 11:45Takahiro Iwata | WPI-SKCM2Study of Spin Structure of Nucleon – What is the Origin of the Nucleon Spin?
11:45 – 12:10Andrew Wilson | University of BirminghamUnderstanding and Modulating of Protein-Protein Interactions Employing Intrinsically Disordered Motifs Using Chemical Biology Approaches
12:10 – 12:35Mykola Tasinkevych | Nottingham Trent UniversityCollective variable approach for the dynamics of liquid crystal skyrmions
12:35 – 13:00Ivan I. Smalyukh | University of Colorado Boulder and WPI-SKCM2Knot-theory-inspired demonstration of single-brick-scale analogue of Earth’s greenhouse effect
Afternoon Session @ Pevsner / Edgbaston Park Hotel
13:00 – 14:30Lunch
14:30 – 15:00Naoto Kobayashi, Yumiko Myoken and Asuka Nishida | JSPS LondonOpening Remarks and Overviews of JSPS International Activities and JSPS Fellowship Program
15:00 – 17:00Roundtable Discussion for Collaborations
