Teaching and outreach

This picture shows an outreach event at the Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales organised by Dr Beames, Dr Richards and Dr Dayna Mason (Royal Society of Chemistry Education Coordinator, Wales) and funded by an outreach grant from the Royal Society of Chemistry.

Teaching

Dr Beames teaches undergraduate chemistry that ranges across all stages of the Cardiff Chemistry degree programme. This includes convening a 1st year module in Environmental Chemistry, teaching molecular orbital theory and spectroscopy in the second year, convening 3rd year Physical Chemistry laboratory practicals and teach gas phase spectroscopy and dynamics in year 4.

In addition, Dr Beames takes pride in the undergraduate projects on offer within the group, which allows students to undertake traditional laboratory chemistry projects, or alternatively explore scientific programming and instrument design, for example 3D printed spectrometers. Typically the group accepts one or two M.Chem. project students per year, and one to three B.Sc. students per year. The group has also hosted very successful summer student projects, supported by the Cardiff CUROP scheme, and would happy to assist in future applications to this programme.

Outreach

The Beames group has a strong outreach mission, and in recent years has focused on highlighting some of the issues surrounding increasing anthropogenic emissions into the troposphere, and how as scientists we can identify and tackle these problems. In collaboration with Dr Emma Richards, this has led to two successful RSC outreach grant applications, and the development of a range of outreach materials and tools, for example monitoring the aerosols formed during a cloud-in-a-bottle experiment using low cost particle sizing and counting equipment. The Beames group have delivered outreach to a broad range of children in Welsh schools, and has also engaged in events in the Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales. Dr Beames has supported and engaged with the national Pint of Science and Soapbox Science programmes.

Conference hosting

SUSDG programme, 2019
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In 2018 and 2019, the Beames group hosted very successful Southern Universities Spectroscopy and Dynamics group meetings. These were attended by graduate students and post doctoral research associates from around the UK, and were widely well received. These meetings are invaluable opportunities for early career researchers to interact, and gives graduate students the chance to present their work to a broad audience, but in a somewhat less formal setting. These meetings would not have been possible without support from the Royal Society of Chemistry and the Institute of Physics.