Latest updates

Congratulations go to the 2016 LJH MChem students who all worked very hard and carried out successful research projects. Steven worked on the synthesis of interesting polynuclear lanthanide complexes, whilst both Vincent and Sophie worked on preparing novel Bodipy phosphine dyes for biological cell imaging. Enjoy your forthcoming graduation and best wishes for the future.

The LJH group would like to welcome our newest recruit, Charlotte Hepples. Charlotte graduated this summer from the School of Chemistry here at Newcastle, after spending a very successful year abroad at the University of Waterloo, as part of our Study Abroad undergraduate programme. She will research novel highly fluorescent phosphorus(III) compounds for use as imaging agents.

On Tuesday 19th May, James was awarded 1st Prize for his talk titled “Transition metal complexes of MOP-phosphonites and their applications in homogeneous asymmetric catalysis” at the Wynne-Jones Postgraduate Research Day. The event was organised by the School of Chemistry at Newcastle University; stage 3 PhD students gave oral presentations with a question and answer session, while stage 2 PhD students presented posters. We aim to publish the results presented by James in the near future.

The 2014-2015 MChem students are busy working away on their respective research projects.

Tom Backhouse is looking into the coordination chemistry of fluorescent phosphine ligands for applications in medical imaging and catalysis, whilst Jake Wimshurst and Sebastian Rath are investigating the synthesis of polymetallic transition and lanthanide metal complexes based on phosphorus scaffolds.

Good luck lads!

James was recently awarded a Researcher Mobility Fellowship by the Royal Society of Chemistry to visit the research group of Prof. Hey-Hawkins at the University of Leipzig for a 6 week period, with the aim of investigating the transition metal chemistry of highly reactive organophosphorus compounds. The fellowship is awarded to young researchers who wish to build relationships and research collaborations in the early stages of their career, and the RSC provided the generous support for his stay.

“I thoroughly enjoyed living in such a vibrant city and my time working in an internationally renowned research group. My time in the group of Prof. Hey-Hawkins was very informative and we learnt much about the nature of the compounds used in the project, furthermore I was pleased to make some very good friends. We aim to continue the project with the participation of a research group in the USA and hope that the collaboration between the Universities of Newcastle and Leipzig will grow in the future.”