The Mountford Group: people

The Mountford Group: Organometallic Chemistry and Catalysis

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Mountford Group 2012-2013

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Matt Blake is a graduate of Bristol University where he carried out his undergraduate research project with Dr Duncan Wass. He is a member of Linacre College. He spent the first year of his DPhil working on aspects of the metal-catalysed polymerisation of cyclic esters for the sustainable synthesis of biodegradable environmentally friendly polymers. In the last two years he has been developing the chemistry of new metal-metal bonds involving alkaline earth, lanthanide and transition metals.

Richard Collins is a new DPhil in the group and a member of Linacre College. Richard previously spent his Part II year in the Mountford group working on aspects of the metal-catalysed polymerisation of cyclic esters for the sustainable synthesis of biodegradable environmentally friendly polymers. He is now working towards his DPhil in olefin polymerisation catalysis in association with LANXESS Elastomers B.V.

Bryony Core is a graduate of the University of St Andrews where she carried out a research project with Prof. Paul Kamer on the the synthesis of new chiral phosphacyclic ligands for late transition metals. She is a member of Trinity College and is currently working towards her DPhil on ring-opening polymerization catalysis using rare earth and alkaline earth catalysts.

Laura Groom is a graduate of Oxford University and a member of St Hilda's college. Laura spent her Part II year in the Mountford group working ondeveloping new stoichiometric and catalytic chemistry of the Ti=N-R multiple bond, focussing on new C-N bond forming reactions. She is continuing to develop this area in her DPhil.

Minggang Hu is from Qiqihar University, PR China. Dr Hu is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Chemistry. He holds a China Scholarship Council scholarship that will allow him to pursue his interests in ring-opening polymerisation catalysis using indium compounds.

Philip Mountford is Professor of Organometallic Chemistry and Catalysis and Deputy Head of Inorganic Chemistry. His research interests centre around studies of the synthesis, structure, bonding and reactivity of organometallic compounds of the transition metals and lanthanides. For further details follow the link at the top of the page.

Andrey Protchenko is a post-doc in the group working on a collaborative project (with Profs Simon Aldridge and Cameron Jones, Monash University) which is funded by the Leverhulme Trust and Oxford University's John Fell Fund. Andrey is exploring the chemistry of the metal-boron bond in a range of new supporting ligand environments. He worked with Prof Mike Lappert at University of Sussex on the chemistry of lanthanide complexes in low (+2 for La) or high (+4 for Ce) oxidation states.

Nick Rees is NMR manager for Inorganic Chemistry and an associate member of the group. Without Nick and his repertoire of very clever NMR experiments - not to mention keeping the two 300 MHz and the 500 MHz Inorganic NMR spectrometers going - we wouldn't be able to characterise and study most of the more exotic compounds we make.

Adam Russell is a graduate of Imperial College (MSci) where he worked with Dr David Scheschkewitz in the area of unsaturated molecular silicon species in his final year research project. Adam is a member of Balliol College and is now working towards his DPhil in olefin polymerisation catalysis in association with LANXESS Elastomers B.V.

Liban Saleh is a graduate of Liverpool University and is working on the coordination chemistry of anionic Group 13 heterocycles with the early transition and rare earth metals. Liban is a member of New College. This work is being carried out in collaboration with Profs Simon Aldridge and Cameron Jones (Monash University, Australia).

Andrew Schwarz graduated from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne with an MChem degree, and joined the group in 2006 as a DPhil student developing the catalytic chemistry of titanium, zirconium and aluminium using novel polydentate ligand systems. This work was targetted towards the living polymerisation of cyclic esters for biodegradable polymers. He is currently an EPSRC-funded post-doc working on the organometallic and related chemistry of titanium hydrazide and related complexes. This work is also being carried out in collaboration with Dr Eric Clot (University of Montpellier).

Laura Stevenson is a graduate of Imperial College (MSci) where she worked with Dr George Britovsek on the carbonylation of biomass derived alcohols. Laura is currently working on aspects of transition metal hydrazide chemistry, principally towards catalytic N-C bond forming reactions.

Junjuda Unruangsri is a graduate of Oxford University and a member of St Hilda's college. Having spent her Part II year in the Mountford group working on developing the chemistry of the early transition metal M=N-NR₂ functional group, she is now working on the metal-catalysed polymerisation of cyclic esters for the sustainable synthesis of biodegradable environmentally friendly polymers.

Helen Yin is a graduate of Imperial College (BSc) where she did her undergraduate research project with Prof. Charlotte Williams on the synthesis of zinc alkyl and hydride species. She is now working towards her DPhil on ring-opening polymerization catalysis using rare earth and alkaline earth catalysts.

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