Small items of research equipment at the University of St Andrews. Supporting a new generation of Physical Sciences Research.

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A range of small equipment will be used to support and enhance activities of early career researchers and EPSRC funded fellows and PhD students:Groups in synthetic optical materials (SOM) and nanophotonics are developing materials and devices for all fields that benefit from tailored control of light matter interaction at the nanoscale, eg ultrathin flexible metamaterials (metaflex) embedding graphene layers with dynamically controllable optical response for imaging and cloaking to energy and bio-related applications and narrow linewidth lasers based on semiconductor optical amplifiers and narrow nanostructured mirrors, as optical interconnect for energy efficient data transfer and manipulation. Researchers in catalysis are developing more atom efficient syntheses and syntheses under benign conditions to provide a sustainable future for the UK. Furthermore, the rapid depletion of fossil fuels as a resource for energy and chemicals production necessitates a future change to increase the use of biomass. The most abundant renewable resource in this context is lignocellulosic biomass, which is much more plentiful than the alternative feedstocks such as sugars, starch, oils and fats. A diverse range of high quality facilities and research programs aimed at characterising for example novel materials, devices, different states of matter, biological materials, will be enhanced by the provision of eg improved variable temperature devices, modern computer interfaces and atmospheric control. These facilities support all of the physical sciences in St Andrews.Chemical Biology and Health will develop programs combining molecular biology, surface science and engineering in order to make new designer biocatalysts and expeditious access to designer natural product analogues for health and as tools for chemical biology by combining synthetic biology and synthetic chemistry. Furthermore, single-molecule microscopy techniques will be applied to elucidate molecular conformation, assess chemical reactions, achieve single molecule sensing, monitor relevant kinetics, reveal sample heterogeneity and detect transient species with an unprecedented level of detail.Mathematical computational activity will be enhanced by provision of new parallel computing facilities. In addition the new equipment will enhance the ability of multi-disciplinary groups in the schools of Psychology and Computer Science to develop and test new novel input and output devices, and c) explore how best to create, design and explain content with these input and output modalities.