Professor Kyriakos Porfyrakis, Associate Professor in the Department of Materials, has recently been admitted as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry. The FRSC title is given to people who "have made an outstanding contribution to the advancement of the chemical sciences; or to the advancement of the chemical sciences as a profession; or have been distinguished in the management of a chemical sciences organisation”.
Professor Porfyrakis' research focuses on fullerenes, a type of carbon nanomaterial which has unique physical properties, leading to applications in areas as diverse as energy and medicine. Fullerenes are popularly known as 'bucky-balls' because of their spherical shape. In 2014 Professor Porfyrakis established the spin-out company Designer Carbon Materials to cost-effectively manufacture commercially useful quantities of the spherical carbon cage structures.
See the University of Oxford news pages for more information about Designer Carbon Materials.