Catriona Crawford
I received my MChem degree from the University of Aberdeen in 2018, where is worked on shorter projects undertaken in my penultimate year, synthesising a range of hexagonal perovskites and measuring their impedance, and investigating factors affecting the formation of bipyridal based MOFs. My masters project was based at the University of Warsaw where I characterised a series of nematic twist-bend liquid crystals, including their phase transitions and measuring properties such as birefringence and elastic constants.
I currently work of designing perovskite based materials with different applications, primarily those of multiferroic properties and protonic conductors. Outside of the lab I enjoy hillwalking and horse riding.
Robert Dickson
Robert received his MChem degree in June 2019 from the University of St Andrews. His final year dissertation focused on computational analysis of negative thermal expansion in aluminophosphates. Robert joined the group as a PhD student in October 2019 investigating computational methods for the prediction of black oxide pigments.
Sam Durdy
After finishing my MSci Computer Science at the University of Birmingham in 2019 I moved to the Rosseinsky Group researching how best to apply machine learning techniques for the discovery of interesting materials.
Alex Ghannam
My research project is titled “High throughput discovery of heterogenous catalysts for long-chain alcohol synthesis”. In 2019, I graduated with an MChem degree from the University of Sheffield, with my fourth-year project titled “Improving dendrimer-protein binding using the non-covalent attachment of targeting groups”.
Aside from Chemistry, I enjoy football, snowboarding and skiing. I was on the committee for the Sheffield University Snowboarding Club for two years and in 2018, captained the 2nd team at Varsity in Val Thorens.
Oliver Gilford
Oliver received his undergraduate degree in Chemistry from the University of St. Andrews, where he did his project in the group of Professor Sharon Ashbrook. His research primarily focuses on exploring the properties of flexible MOFs with computational methods.
Bowen Liu
Bowen obtained his Batchelor’s and Master’s degree in Chemical Engineering from China University of Petroleum (East China). Then, Bowen started his PhD in Rosseinsky’s group from 2018 focusing on inorganic CO2 conversion catalysts.
Niamh McCallum
Niamh graduated with a Master’s of Chemistry degree in 2017 and, after spending some time working for pharmaceutical company Elanco, is now completing a cross disciplinary PhD between the Departments of Chemistry and Cellular and Molecular Physiology at University of Liverpool.
Niamh’s PhD is focused on developing bimodal PET/MRI contrast agents for stem cell imaging with the purpose of gathering better safety and efficacy data surrounding regenerative medicine therapies. Specifically, she is labelling superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) with the PET tracer zirconium-89 and testing the particles’ biocompatibility in murine and human derived macrophages.
Niamh is highly passionate about materials discovery and how such materials can be applied in a biomedical setting. As well as this, she has gained a lot of interest in the ethics and safety of regenerative medicine therapies over the course of her PhD.
Jon Newnham
Jon graduated from the University of Hull in 2019 with a Masters degree in Chemistry with Nanotechnology. As part of his studies, whilst working under Dr Timothy Prior, he investigated developing efficient syntheses of nitrides with the eta-carbide and filled beta-manganese structures.
Jon joined the Rosseinsky Group as a PhD student in 2019. His current research focuses on synthesising and understanding the properties of novel thermoelectric materials, and his research interests centre around developing devices for green power generation.
Jack Quayle
Currently working on a PhD project, with Johnson Matthey and the Rosseinsky group, on the discovery and evaluation of heterogeneous catalysis for sustainable processes. Previously, I have completed a third-year undergraduate project with the Rosseinsky group, working on the synthesis of a MOF based Mg electrolyte. I then completed a masters research project, working with Unilever and the University of Liverpool, investigating the interaction of proteins on various fabrics through IR and other spectroscopies.
Katie Scott
After completing my Master’s degree in Chemistry at Newcastle University I joined the Rosseinsky Group in October 2019. My project focuses on synthesising new intermetallics and looking at their magnetic and electronic properties.
Eleanor Stemple
Eleanor completed her Chemistry MSci degree at the University of Nottingham in 2019, researching for her master’s in the Champness group there, working with photochromic metal-organic frameworks (MOFs).
She joined the Rosseinsky group in September 2019, continuing with her research towards MOFs, and now currently works with ultra-stable, highly porous frameworks.
Kate Thompson
I studied my undergraduate Chemistry degree at the University of Cardiff, where I conducted a masters project in Catalysis searching for materials to simultaneous remove soot and NOx gases from diesel exhaust emissions.
After working for two years after University I got the opportunity to undertake a PhD in the Rosseinsky group and I took it. My research project is based on new Li conductor materials, primarily focusing on non-oxide materials.
Matt Wright
Currently working on employment of robotics and digitally enabled methods to investigate the design and synthesis of new multivalent cathode materials.
Areas of interest include metal-ion cathodes featuring a range of metals beyond Li; oxide and non-oxide compounds involving interesting and unique structural chemistry; electrochemistry; and solid-state characterisation techniques including operando measurements in X-ray absorption spectroscopy, X-ray powder diffraction and neutron powder diffraction.
The Ph.D. project is supported by external partners Johnson Matthey, with the aim of accelerating the progression of new materials from the academic laboratory into industry and manufacture.
Xiang Zhou
I achieved my master degree at the Zhejiang University of Technology in China. My supervisor is Prof. Jianguo Wang who was awarded The National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars in 2016. During my master period, I was focused on the synthesis of nanomaterials and their’ application in electrochemistry.
I got the Chinese Government Scholarship (CSC) and joined this group in Sep. 2018. Currently, my research topic is the design and synthesis of highly active Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs) for catalytic reactions e.g. selective oxidation of methane to methanol and CO2 reduction.
Christopher Hampson
Funded by Morgan Advanced Materials, investigating problems related to sintered silicon carbide and alumina ceramics. Moved to Liverpool in 2018, after working for Morgan in a variety of technical roles in development and industrial scale production of these and other technical ceramics including zirconia, microwave dielectrics and glass bonded mica composites. Before joining Morgan in 1982, spent two years as Redland Research Fellow at University of Surrey investigating the chemistry and electron microscopy of Portland cement (spending most of the UK's two best Summers sitting in the dark) and five years at British Ceramic Research Association (now LUCIDEON) solving problems with calcium phosphate raw materials for bone china.
A practical, hands-on person who when not working keeps busy with the repair and renovation of harmoniums / reed organs, riding and maintaining a 1961 BSA motorcycle and as church organist. Has recently started to learn to play the piano accordion. Married to Jan, with two children, two grandchildren and more step-children/grandchildren than you can count on your fingers.
Tom Beesley
Thomas graduated from The University of Leeds in 2018 with a MPhys (Hons). His masters project involved the synthesis of metal/C60 thin films via DC magnetron sputtering, with a focus on the study of the magnetic properties at the interface.
Thomas joined the Rosseinsky group as a PhD student at the University of Liverpool in 2019. His current research is on designing new transparent conducting materials for optoelectronic devices.
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