We had a surprise Christmas visitor in our backyard - a very curious echidna! After roaming around for a bit, it went on its merry way to the neighbours and then up the next road back towards the bush.

Richard Robson always had very small research groups and limited, sporadic funding. This has never been better illustrated than by the acknowledgement slides to the Nobel lectures of Robson, Kitagawa, and Yaghi (only 1 of 4 slides shown below). We punched above our weight! #ozchem #NobelPrize

Goodbye Australia, Sydney (La Perouse), hello New Zealand (Te Korowai-o-Te-Tonga / South Head Peninsula), as I approach Auckland for the NZ RNA platform symposia. Looking forward to catch up again with our wonderful Kiwi #RNA #mRNA friends. #ozchem

We are very fortunate to have Dame Juliet Gerrard U. Aucklandhere at UNSW School of Chemistry to give a seminar about her journey through science, business and government. #ozchem

This is a fantastic day for Australian chemistry. First Australian chemistry Nobel prize since John Cornforth in 1975, but Richard Robson's work is at least as impactful. #ozchem

Beyond proud to be the 2025 recipient of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute (RACI) Leighton Memorial Medal, in recognition of eminent service to chemistry in Australia. Big thanks to all my former and current students, staff amd collaborators for making this happen. #RACI #ozchem #chemistry

Hahahaha! I still think of my favourite student survey feedback: "Great accent, sounds like a 1930's Chicago ganster" Maybe Sydney Uni should also look into the benefits of foreign accents;-) See www.news.com.au/lifestyle/pa...

A nice round number on Google Scholar, so I couldn't resist snapping a screenshot.

I got a light teaching load so it impacts me less than others but boy, isn't demoralising to have only 3 of 64 students attending lectures. This is not sustainable as eventually people lose the will to teach this way. Can we not just admit the lecture is dead & buried and make some big changes.

Saying goodbye to Carlos, our superstar visiting #supramolecular PhD student from U. Chile, Santiago who has been with us here at UNSW School of Chemistry, for the past 10 months doing some amazing work in #calixarene host-guest chemistry. We will miss you Carlos! #ozchem

Off to Les Diablerets in the Swiss Alps for the biannual Gordon Conference on Self-assembly and Supramolecular Chemistry! Looking forward to catching up with friends and making new + soaking in some great science in the alpine environment. And yes it includes RNA condensates etc ;-)

My 15y tells me there a lot of ads from Labor, LNP and yes, Clive's Trumpets on Insta. Big diff between the Labor & LNP content is that people just make fun of the latter for how out of touch they are while Labor, being also mostly lame, at least gets sometimes right with the cynical Insta crowd

My 15y son listens to Radiohead and my 13y daughter to Nirvana and got herself also a Green Day t-shirt (she had 2 Nirvana ones already). Several years of listening to my playlist in the car seem to have paid off;-) #GenX

Marc Greenberg from John Hopkins giving a fantastic lecture here at @unswchemistry.bsky.social UNSW RNA Institute on oxidative damage in DNA-histone protein interactions. #ozchem #RNA #DNA

Fantastic analysis of what is wrong with Australian politics: We wasted a $400b windfall, and now we’ll all have to pay www.afr.com/policy/econo...

Our faculty had a great discussion about these BIG proposed changes. My thoughts: 1) Fellowships are gone. 2) LIEF gone, the 30 "collaborate" grants may include some for large equipment. 4) Initiate = 2 years = too short. 5) No distinct fundamental research is risky. 6) Need international reviewers!

Lake George from the air on the way home from Melbourne after very productive meetings re RNA. Thanks mRNAVic for the invite! #RNA #mRNA #ozchem

First group lunch of the academic year for the Thordarson group with our newest member, Emma (Medchem Hons), "chairing" the Luncheon. #ozchem

Chemistry #ozchem gets a shout out from our Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in a press conference after his call with Trump re steel & aluminium traffifs.

Thank you David for this wonderful orbitury about a remarkable man and a great scientist; Sir Fraser Stoddart.

Stunning lecture from Eric Westhof here at @unswrna.bsky.social UNSW BABS on RNA structural biology & chemistry with focus on the ribosome & tRNA. Tautomers rule! And DNA is just a degraded RNA;-) #RNA #ozchem

Doing a spring clean and came across these old ANSTO/ Synchrotron access passes ;-) #ozchem

Vale Sir Fraser Stoddart. @sirfrasersays You were a true friend, mentor and a history-making Scientist. I and everyone here at UNSW School of Chemistry @unswchemistry.bsky.social #ozchem will forever be in debt to you for agree to spend time with us and encourage us to reach for the stars. 1/5

Sad to report that our esteemed colleague, Sir Fraser Stoddart, passed away yesterday in Melbourne, surrounded by family. His legacy is the 90+ academics he trained who continue to push the boundaries of human knowledge. Vale Fraser.

Merry Christmas. Did some rheology experiments on the thickened cream to create Eton mess - a family tradition here in our household.

Very Christmassy right now in my old hometown Vopnafjörður, in NA-Iceland. Photo from my friend Jósep Jósepsson.

The president, prime minister, bishop of the state church, chief of police, and the party leaders of all 3 parties in the new ruling coalition in Iceland are all women. However, equality has still to be achieved in the finance & business sectors according to locals.

In a few hours, Kristín Frostadóttir (Social Democratic Alliance) will become the Prime Minister (PM) of Iceland. Aged 36, she will be the youngest PM the country ever had. Importantly her new centre coalition gov. ends the rein of the corrupt Independence Party. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kristr%...

And that is a wrap for me and @unswrna.bsky.social UNSW RNA Institute COO Dr. Joshua Peterson for 2024! It has been a great year the Institute and RNA research & development here at UNSW and beyond. Lots of the horizon for 2025! Until then, Merry Christmas & happy New Year. #ozchem #RNA

Early Christmas present for myself;-) The catalyst by Thomas R. Cech. I already enjoyed this as an audio book but can't wait to read it. My favourite quote from the book is below - 21st Century is...the age of RNA !

RNA Purine vs. pyrimidine + peptide condensate discrimination & macromol. crowding paper from our group in collaboration with Anna Wang, is out in Biomacromolecules @acspublications.bsky.social Congrats to @anikamoller.bsky.social Anika Moller who led this work #ozhcem pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

With the ARC deadline looming in less than 48 hours, George decided that now would be a great time to have a rest on my computer. #ozchem

Nice to see Max Lu returning to Australia and in particular, it is very pleasing to see he chosen to go to the University of Wollongong (UoW), which remains one of my favourite Unis here in Australia. #ozchem Congrats to UoW and welcome back to Max Lu next May: www.uow.edu.au/media/2024/p...

Chemical free compost?? @abc-news.bsky.social ABC News: Please don't take what is a really interesting and positive story and destroy it with anti-scientific language like "Chemical free". There is no such thing (especially when making compost!). #ozchem www.abc.net.au/news/2024-12...

Ye old bird site was reminding me that today I joined that one 10 years ago. Bittersweet memories because after Elongated neo-n%zi Moskovich bought it and renamed it - it has been going downhill at an accelerating rate (= what rate law?). Yes, 10 years there but I think mostly gonskies to blue now.

Daniel Getts CEO Myeloid here at NSW Chief Scientist & Engineer Breakfast and a nearly full house of people listening to a fascinating talk about his journey and the promise of RNA therapeutic, including in cancer treatment. #ozchem #mRNA

Joint Rizzuto & Thordarson group Christmas party in Centennial park! Lot's to celebrate after a great year for both groups and the rain also stayed away. Plus sooooo much good food. And Felix's little dog really enjoyed it too. #ozchem

Read all about our work on @chemrxiv.bsky.social ! Scramling the RGD motif actually creates better hydrogels!

Proud to receive the RACI Service to the Board award & be in such good company with two Sch Chemistry UNSW colleagues at last night's @RACInational @RACI_NSW Awards #ozchem Pictured here with Martina Lessio: RACI Rita Cornforth Lectureship and Chuan Zhao: @ChuanZhao11 RACI H.G. Smith Medal awardees.

I posted on the old bird site that my own institution UNSW has now "sunset" its account on that site due to diminishing organic reach etc. I feel the same re my bird-tweets-reach is down & down + lot of garbage/neon$zis etc. Bluesky a lot better, except I wish people were a bit more "talkative".

So #ozchem first impression after a full round of DP / EOI? Overall success rate from EOI to funding was 12.9%. Full application round = 47%. Interestingly % of fund allocated / requested was 86%. Chemistry got 32 DP this year viz 25 last year (DP24) and 30 the year before (DP23).

The Blue Lagoon car park got partly covered in the latest Grindavík eruption in Iceland. There is no damage to the actual lagoon complex, the lagoon itself, or in Grindavík town. This is the 7th eruption there this year, and as before, the main action is in the first 12-24 h.

Jonathan George receives here the Birch Medal of the RACI Organic Division. Named after one the giants of #ozchem history, Arthur J Birch. The Birch reaction was the key to the synthesis of the first contraceptive pill in the 1950's. Jonathan is very worthy recipient of this most prestigious medal.

Back to back two stellar talks here at RACI Organic 24 #Organic24 #ozchem from Michelle Coote and Rainer Herges.

Looks like ChatGTP has taken over East Adelaide.

@jonbeves.bsky.social Newly minted Professor Jon Beves with a great talk about photoswitchable cages with very long lifetimes (plus a cameo about smelly fat balls!). #RACI #Organic24

Am I reading this correctly? Labor & One Nation support International Student Caps but LNP and Greens oppose them? There has been no economic modelling of these caps and "evidence" international student make a big difference in housing squeeze is scares. Does Labor really want to die on this hill?

Heading to Adelaide once the storm here at Sydney Airport finishes to Adfor the 2025 RACI Organic Chemistry Conference! Looking forward to it and catching up with a lot of #OzChem friends!

RACI is in good hands with our new President, Prof. Amanda Ellis & CEO Shenal Basnayake. It has been my absolute privilege to serve on the RACI Board for the last 4 years, including the last 2 as RACI President. The RACI is the Voice of Chemistry in Australia. #ozchem

Arginine-rich peptides discriminate between purine- and pyrimidine-only RNA! Our latest preprint is out @ChemRxiv We also demonstrate how macromolecular crowding effects RNA-peptide condensates. @Thordarsongroup #supramolecular #RNA #mRNA @UNSWRNA #ozchem chemrxiv.org/engage/chemr...