Alumni

Josh studied for his his MChem at the University of Sheffield, completing his master’s project under the supervision of Dr Peter Portius, synthesising highly-energetic, nitrogen-rich silicon compounds using highly air-sensitive techniques. His PhD research project with Jona focuses on developing new methods for making functional MONs, by tuning their chemistry through design. He aims to use these techniques to develop novel MON systems for sensing and catalysis.

Charlotte is working under the co-supervision of Professor Jim Thomas. She also undertook her MChem in the department here at Sheffield, and completed her master’s project under Prof. Beining Chen. She is a Graduate Teaching Assistant (GTA) within the department, so spends a lot of her time teaching and demonstrating in the undergraduate labs. Her research aims to develop MONS capable of sensing DNA.

Henry is a fourth year MChem student, having spent his third year at the University of Waterloo in Canada. His research in Canada was around the anti-bacterial resistant drug, Daptomycin, using solid-phase peptide synthesis on macrobeads. Henry worked alongside Ram on the synthesis of functionalised novel MONs for catalysis applications.

Oleta is a fourth year MChem student, having completed her third year project with Professor Patrick Fowler exploring electronic 2D and 3D pi systems using Hückel theory. Oleta worked alongside Millie on post synthetic functionalisation of MONs for biosensing applications. 

Priyanka joined as a summer student funded by the RSC. She worked with Mike to combine polymers with MONs to create novel structures and understand their properties.

Josie is studying for her MChem at the University of Sheffield and joined as a summer student under the SURE scheme. She worked with Mike to combine polymers with MONs to create novel structures and understand their properties.

Dave completed his MChem at the University of Sheffield, in 2016. His Masters project was co-supervised by Jona and Prof. Lee Brammer, and he stayed on to work with Dr Foster as the group’s first PhD student. His doctoral research centred around the development and chemical understanding of 2D MON paddle-wheel structures and their syntheses. Dave then stayed with us as a post-doc to demonstrate the scale-up of paddle-wheel nanosheet systems.

Having finally managed to escape, Dave now works as a post-doctoral associate at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow.

Justin joined us for three months after completing his PhD in the University of Sheffield’s Department of Chemical Engineering with Prof. Peter Styring. Justin’s research in the group centred on experimentally demonstrating the scaled-up synthesis of a candidate MON, and evaluating its commercial potential by conducting a technoeconomic assessment. He now holds a PDRA position at Imperial College London.

Kezia joined the group under the award of a prestigious University of Sheffield, Faculty of Science, Doctoral Academy Scholarship. She completed her MSc at Christ University, Bangalore after being awarded her BSc from the University of Madras, Chennai. During her doctoral studies, she worked in collaboration with Prof. David Lidzey (Department of Physics) and Dr Ahmed Iraqi to develop MON-polymer composites for next-generation solar cells.

Kezia now works as an independent research fellow at the Centre for Advanced Photovoltaics in Prague, Czech Republic.

Melissa joined us during the summer of her third year in Sheffield. She worked with Mike, with the aim of identifying favourable interactions between common two-dimensional materials and polymers in the scientific literature, so as to improve our understanding of how to design these composites.

Shangari joined us as part of her MRes degree and worked alongside Freya. Her aim was to investigate the use of ZIF-based nanosheets with varying surface properties for potential separation applications.

Toby spent his fourth year research project working with Ram. His research focused on developing unique organic linkers, then incorporating them into novel nanosheet systems. 

Joel initially joined the group as a summer student funded by the Royal Society of Analytical Chemistry, working with Josh to study the post-synthetic functionalisation of his MONs with aldehydes. Joel then stayed in the group for his master’s project, working with Mike to study polymeric PSF of MONs.

Holly worked alongside Josh to secure an RSC summer student bursary to fund her SURE placement here in the group. Holly’s research focused on developing new routes towards functionalising the MONs developed by Josh, as well as investigating methods to improve the extent of functionalisation.

Due to her interests in sustainability, Millie worked with Kezia on her solar cells devices. She focused on tuning the band gap of MONs in MON-polymer composites for these next-generation solar cells. She has now gone on to be a member of the nuclear graduates program.

George spent his final year research project working with Josh on his sensing systems. George focused on developing ultrathin nanosheets that could be used to investigate both mono- and multi-dentate binding to MON surfaces for sensing applications.

Leo joined the group as a visiting Erasmus Masters student, from the University of Heidelburg, Germany. He worked with Dave in collaboration with Dr Rob Dawson’s group, on incorporating MONs within polymer membranes.

Sam joined us from the Lycée Pierre-Gilles de Gennes (ENCPB), Paris, on a 2-month Erasmus scheme. She worked with Josh, with a focus on using NMR spectroscopy to monitor and optimise reaction conditions for his different MOF systems.

Carrie joined the department after completing her BSc in Taiwan. She worked in collaboration with Dr Rob Dawson’s group, in order to create new MON-polymer composites to use for membranes.

Dave was awarded SURE (Sheffield Undergraduate Research Experience) Scheme funding for a summer student, and Jonny worked with him to create an in-house synthetic library of layered MOFs. Jonny completed his third-year in the USA before returning for the summer project, and finished his MChem with Dr Marco Conte, before going on to study for a PhD with Professor Andrew Slark.

For the final year of his MChem studies, Josh undertook our first foray into cobalt-based nanosheets. He developed a series of halogenated layered MOFs and investigated how these could be made into 2D nanosheets.

Tom used our “hydrophilic” Cu-MOF (see DOI: 10.1039/C6CC05154E) as a model compound to compare different top-down exfoliative methodologies. After leaving us, he is rejoining Pfizer, who he worked for on his Year in Industry.

Jen worked on a collaborative project with Professor Mike Ward,  investigating supramolecular cages developed by the Ward group and potentially increasing their catalytic applicability.

Mollie graduated from The University of Cambridge with a MSc, and worked with us through the summer to gain some lab-based work experience. She collected data comparing the exfoliation of hydrophilic and hydrophobic MOFs into solvents with differing properties (DOI: 10.1002/chem.201803221). After leaving us, she took a year out to assess options, and is starting a PhD at the University of Manchester in September 2018.

Mariam came to Sheffield on a 2-month Erasmus scheme, from Lycée Pierre-Gilles de Gennes (ENCPB), Paris. She worked on the synthesis and purification of organic ligands functionalised with long aliphatic chains.

Adam developed our SOP for ultrasonic exfoliation, and systematically investigated the effect of solvent on the exfoliation of layered MOFs with hydrophilic and hydrophobic properties (see DOI: 10.1002/chem.201803221). After leaving us, he joined a graduate programme working within the defence sector.

Max functionalised a basic organic linker ligand with a series of aliphatic chains, in order to assess the effect this may have on the exfoliation after incorporation into layered MOFs. After his studies, he took a well-earned gap-year in order to “find himself” and get a semi-decent tan. 

Liam was the group’s first summer student, who worked with Jona on the synthesis of layered MOFs, and developed the ultrasonic exfoliative technique we use today (DOI: 10.1002/chem.201803221).

Irene joined the group after her BSc at the University of Seville, Spain, and was the first student solely supervised by Dr Foster. She synthesised a series of functionalised organic linkers with varying length alkyl chains and incorporated them into MOFs, in order to assess the effect on exfoliation potential.