Lots of people are surprised at how wide the ceramics industry is. Many smart materials are ceramics designed and made in Britain. These are often high-margin products developed to address urgent challenges like climate change. 1/2

*substituting parsley for cumin in an Ottolenghi recipe* 🎶no-one cooks like Gaston 🎶

Cambridge have done a 2-page spread on their curriculum review progress, which is good. Exciting to see both immediate concrete changes and thoughtful ambitions for the longer term. But also good to see UG teaching featured so prominently in their external communications.

Have started my break and am now chomping through Wolf Hall. The hype is all true - it’s *really* well written.

Well, it's finally up. Thanks @sarahbraner.bsky.social @cenmag.bsky.social for profiling me and my journey from @cmu.edu to @ucddublin.bsky.social. It's been a hell of a ride. I'm glad I'm here safe, at least. ⚗️ #newpi #disabledinstem #lgbtqinstem #transinstem #leavingus #howtoleave #ireland

Online now: Main-group mimics of transition-metal carbonyl redox chemistry

New pre-print! Giorgio Volpe, Rob Malinowski, and myself discuss the possibilities of making materials from droplets that can move, process information, and make decisions collectively. @livunisps.bsky.social @uclchemistry.bsky.social arxiv.org/abs/2512.13425 #chemsky

**New Blog Post** The economics of offering a Chemistry degree. I've been trying to understand what's going on for about a year now, and this is my best attempt at explaining why so many departments are under threat. www.michaeloneill.org/blog-1/2025/...

**new blog post** I thought it would be interesting to see what it would look like if tuition fees had grown with the "triple lock" approach of the state pension. www.michaeloneill.org/blog-1/2025/...

We’re looking for an enthusiastic PhD student to join our vibrant research group. We have an opening for a PhD position to work on radical Frustrated Lewis pairs. Check out the link below for more information and contacts. ⬇️⬇️⬇️ www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

I had a very lovely trip to Keele this week. I'd never been before, and it's beautiful. My talk was on the closure of Departments, and hopeful ways through the economics and geography of a difficult moment for Chemistry.

**New blog post** Slightly personal one, in which I start by thinking about how I felt as a slow student in undergrad labs and develop some reflections about speed as a goal in lab teaching. www.michaeloneill.org/blog-1/2025/11/28/being-slow-in-labs

Aim: get 3 books as Christmas presents. Outcome: get 2 books as Christmas presents and 3 books for me. Evaluation: huge success.

The RSC Higher Education Group is looking for new committee members as the terms of some of the committee are closing. I have found it a really positive and thoughtful group. If you are an RSC member, consider standing for election! www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/SJMOSO/

Liverpool is hiring for a Professor who would also be Head of Chemistry. Application deadline Jan 4th. Interviews Feb 5th. I really like it here; maybe you would, too. www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DPQ019/p...

The RSC Higher Education Group is looking for new committee members as the terms of some of the committee are closing. I have found it a really positive and thoughtful group. If you are an RSC member, consider standing for election! www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/SJMOSO/

Liverpool is hiring for a Professor who would also be Head of Chemistry. Application deadline Jan 4th. Interviews Feb 5th. I really like it here; maybe you would, too. www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DPQ019/p...

I read the generic guidance about peer observations in preparation for observing a colleague. There are helpful lists of ideas for what to think about. Something missing: the skill of a teacher to explain technical concepts. Wondering if this is very Chemistry-specific (or Science-specific).

**New Blog Post** The economics of offering a Chemistry degree. I've been trying to understand what's going on for about a year now, and this is my best attempt at explaining why so many departments are under threat. www.michaeloneill.org/blog-1/2025/...

**New blog post** Slightly personal one, in which I start by thinking about how I felt as a slow student in undergrad labs and develop some reflections about speed as a goal in lab teaching. www.michaeloneill.org/blog-1/2025/11/28/being-slow-in-labs

📢 Dr Ieuan Seymour has a 2.5-year Research Fellow/Advanced Research Fellow position working on sustainable solid-state battery technology. If you are passionate about the development of new solid-state battery technology, this opportunity could be for you! #ChemSky 🧪 #sustainability #batteries

Funded PhD position: www.findaphd.com/phds/project... This is an interdisciplinary project where you get to do coordination chemistry with bismuth and zinc, as well as some microbiology and some computational chemistry - all in the name of combatting antimicrobial resistance. Currently UK only.

Thoughts with staff at Leicester as this awful situation develops while they're also busy teaching.

Article on student complaints about being taught with AI-generated materials. The language in the University's statement was fascinating. 5min read. www.theguardian.com/education/20...

Been doing very quick storyboard sketches to help students connect with the wider story of a lecture course in magnetism. I think it works ok.

new publication (my first!) in the JCP! pubs.aip.org/aip/jcp/arti...

Join us for a celebration of this year’s Education Prizes winners! We are honouring inspirational, innovative and dedicated people working in primary, secondary, further and higher education. Follow the thread and learn about all 12 winners of our #RSCPrizes as we congratulate… #ChemSky

Obviously there are major geopolitical implications, but honestly thanks to President Trump for saying "no-one knows what a magnet is" in a discussion of trade policy for rare earth elements a week before my lecture on rare-earth magnetism. An electrifying video to show students after Hund's Rules.

Interesting piece on the university structures relating to (?causing?) student loneliness. 10min read.

At the individual level, obtaining a degree is consistently associated with improved life chances for those from disadvantaged backgrounds, in all OECD countries. This is particularly true in the UK, where universities play a highly important role in driving social mobility.

I was teaching in Engineering this morning, and saw this sign about the invention of the goal net by the @evertonfc.com fan the building is named after.

We are advertising for two PhD studentships in organometallic chemistry! Come and work with us @imperialchemistry.bsky.social from October 2026: Advert 2) www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

This is excellent. Describes graduate salaries in the context of employers failing to invest in productivity growth. 10min read. theconversation.com/university-s...

Prepping for teaching magnetism next week, and discovering in an idle google that the word “quench” comes from an old English word for “extinguish”.

Europe's MSCA postdoctoral fellowships are now attracting many researchers who would have gone to the US. So the payline has dropped below 10% (~1,600 fellowships to 17k applicants). Super tough situation. One more reason to double the next Horizon budget, as proposed by the EU Commission.

It's been one year since my blog on the closure of Hull, which kind of blew up. A thread with some reflections on what's happened since then. 1/ www.michaeloneill.org/blog-1/2024/...

Something I have found interesting over the last few years is how first year students are so keen to draw Hess cycles in ways which reflect the energies of each system. Sheer horror in the workshop when I draw cycles like this.

Honest millennial question: what was academia like before emails?

It's been one year since my blog on the closure of Hull, which kind of blew up. A thread with some reflections on what's happened since then. 1/ www.michaeloneill.org/blog-1/2024/...

Sound UP 👍

On Thursday Sofia Olendraru from PERIODically presented at the Variety in Chemistry/Physics Higher Education Conference 2025! Sofia presented her poster titled ‘Towards Period Dignity: Increasing and Improving Accessible Provision of Free Period Products’. ❤️🩸🧪 #ViCEPHEC2025

Shoutout to whoever was like the news sucks, let’s spice it up by doing a jewel heist at the Louvre

Remember the Year of the MOOC from a decade ago? The one where tech bros predicted the end of all but 3-4 universities because who needs campuses when everyone can just take MOOCs and learn everything? Hits a little different now after pandemic pedagogy, huh? The tech hype cycle is a helluva drug.

Doing cell volume/atomic radii problems in a tutorial today and thinking about how we are still using Pythagoras' work thousands of years after he died.

Teaching scientific writing like

🧪🧪 Nature: More than 30% of this century’s science Nobel prizewinners immigrated: see their journeys -- The most common destination for eventual Nobel laureates in physics, chemistry and medicine since 2000 is the United States www.nature.com/articles/d41...

How do chemistry and menstruation connect? Oxford University students explored this through PERIODically, a podcast tackling stigma, sparking discussion and earning the team the 2024 Horizon Prize for Education. Watch the video: youtu.be/3QnO_8FKVIQ #ChemSky #RSCPrizes

The Mehta Group is recruiting a PhD student in Inorganic Synthesis and Catalysis. www.chem.ox.ac.uk/sitefiles/me... We are also taking on students through the iMAT CDT program! www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/g... If you are interested, apply!

Dreamt that Tesco started offering a 2-pill pack of paracetamol in the Meal Deal (as the snack). I honestly think it would be a commercial success, thinking about the profit margins and the shelf space.