Alexander (Sasha) Bulgakov from Novosibirsk visted for a couple of days, getting first impressions of Edinburgh before coming to join us long-term in September.

David and Alice finished their Masters projects

The Portobello Mushrooms played their last game in this year's ChemSoc 5-aside football league, narrowly avoiding last place overall, on goal-difference.

We celebrated with champagne when the publication by Olof et al. was accepted to Physical Review Letters. In the paper, we present evidence for the so-called superatom molecular orbitals (SAMOs) of gas-phase fullerenes. The SAMOs are hydrogenic molecular orbitals that are centred on the cage rather than on individual carbon atoms. Such excited state orbitals have been observed earlier in scanning tunnel microscopy studies of fullerenes on metal surfaces but this is the first time that they have been identified for isolated molecules. Due to their unusual nature, the SAMOs are of fundamental interest but may also be of practical importance. By understanding their properties it should be possible to tune the energies of these states to produce molecules with excellent properties for applications in molecular electronics.

Eleanor junior finished her Masters project.

We ate pancakes of all descriptions at Kirsten's. Craig was voted best cook but everyone contributed something to the feast.

Christian left after his month in our labs, having learned a little bit about chemists and faulty equipment.

Martin Jönsson-Niedziólka from the Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Science, in Warsaw, visited us for one week. His activities while here included some experiments in our labs; discussions about possible collaborations between his department and ours; and taking lots of photos.

Eleanor made her long-awaited début on the football field and helped achieve the team's best result in this year's league so far.

The ChemSoc Burns Night was a fun introduction to Scottish culture for Christian. Kilts were worn, poetry recited, haggis eaten, dances danced and whisky sampled during the evening.

The ChemSoc 5-aside football league kicked off, with the Portobello Mushrooms once again comprising Campbell group and friends. Resolving not to be discouraged by a significant defeat in the first game...

Christian, from the Free University, Berlin, arrived to spend a month doing experiments in our labs, as part of the NANOSPEC project.

We enjoyed a meal and much whisky tasting at Howies and the Bow Bar along with the rest of the Physical Section for the Christmas lunch.

Time for the Secret Santa came and the office became a dangerous place, equipped with a plethora of toy guns and other weaponry.

Our annual group Christmas dinner was held at My Big Fat Greek Kitchen.

Xianlun finished his project and left for a tour around Europe before returning to Singapore to complete his degree.

In honour of Dr Johan's birthday, we went out to a Malaysian restaurant.

We all enjoyed a night of bowling, where Chaweewan impressed us all with her good shots and high score, after a tasty pub meal.

Dima and Salavat, two visiting Russian researchers from Novosibirsk, left us after spending a few weeks here in our labs and our country.

Eleanor started her Masters project, involving trapping and spectroscopy of diatoms.

Andrew passed his viva.

David and Alice started their Masters projects. These are about Raman-transport of single-walled carbon nanotubes and chemical functionalisation of carbon nanotubes for CO₂ capture, respectively.

Guo Xianlun joined us to do a research project on ultrafast ionisation of C₆₀ as part of an exchange program from his home university in Singapore.

Johan left us to continue his career in nanocarbon science with a post doc job at a university in Belo Horizonte, Brazil.

The Korean students left Edinburgh to continue their research in warmer climates at home.

We took a trip to the driving range to practise our swings.

Johan passed his viva.

Andrew submitted his thesis.