Iron(VI)
Karl Wieghardt was visiting the Brooker Bunch and whilst here he found out he’d made the worlds first iron(VI) compound! While celebrating at Eureka, Sally arranged this cake with six silver candles to represent his new discovery.
For any of you non-chemists, discovering iron(VI) is pretty huge! Iron is almost always found in the +2 and +3 states so 6+ is completely nuts! There’s some more information about it here … http://www.news.wisc.edu/12636
Posted on 2006-03-19 by
Debbies 21st
I went down to Invercargill to celebrate Debbie’s birthday. Debbie is a fellow chemistry geek and one of the awesomest people I know. Happy 21st Debbie 
The speeches: So what did Carla say that made Debbie squirm so much?
Posted on 2006-02-16 by
Brooker Bunch
Here’s a photo of the Brooker Bunch, the research group (which I’m a member of) of Prof. Sally Brooker. From left: Jason Price, Nick White, Andy Noble, Sally Brooker, Jon Kitchen and Ryan Hellyer (me).
Posted on 2006-01-15 by
Stock pot chemistry
First came the number eight wire, now comes the stock pot 
We needed to scale up a reaction in the lab (potassium permanganate oxidation), so instead of repeating it a gazillion times, Sally suggested I got a big pot and scaled it up Since giant beakers from Aldrich cost a fortune (and break easily), I went and found the biggest, baddest, cheapest stock pot I could find at the Warehouse (NZ equivilent of Walmart), stuck a mechanical stirrer in it, heated the blazes out of it with a regular sized heater stirrer and we had a massive scale (by our standards) reaction vessel
Nick White helped me with some of this work as part of his summer project.
Posted on 2005-11-11 by
Froggat Rd
I drove Debbie and Brendon down to Invercargill. We stopped at the worlds most exciting bus stop – Froggat Rd.
… I am Milton …
Posted on 2005-08-25 by
To Christchurch with Debbie
I headed up to Christchurch with Debbie. We road tripped with her friends Davin and Emma (Goose). We went to an engagement party of some people I’d never met, promptly disturbed them and headed back to Dunedin the next day
Emma …
Debbie …
Davin … you’ll need to use your imagination as the photo didn’t turn out well.
Posted on 2005-08-02 by
Calgary lab
After a lot of trips with trolleys, moving some massive fridges and packing way too much glassware into too few draws and cupboards, we finally moved into our new lab in the basement of Science B at the University of Calgary.
Here’s a photo of my boss Mike Benn. I stole the photo of the University of Calgary website – hopefully they don’t mind.
Posted on 2004-10-01 by
Matt Dakins in Banff
It turned out Matt Dakins (an old mate of mine from our undergrad years studying chemistry at Otago) was living in Banff when I moved to Calgary. Thanks for letting me crash at your place Matt
Posted on 2004-07-30 by
BSc Graduation
Ick, graduation, the most BORING experience ever. I was graduating for my Bachelor of Science Degree in Chemistry. Here’s some pics of Michelle and I at my graduation dinner.
I can’t remember who gave me the photos, but thanks to whoever it was!
I graduated in absentia for my Master of Science degree so no photos for that one sorry.
Posted on 2001-03-23 by
