Dr Bao Nguyen is an Associate Professor in Physical Organic Chemistry at University of Leeds, where he has been from September 2012. He actively collaborates with colleagues from both the School of Chemistry and School of Chemical and Process Engineering to address current challenges in process chemistry. He is a core member of the Institute of Process Research and Development (iPRD), a flagship institute set up by the Leeds Transformation Fund.
Dr Nguyen did his PhD in Organic Chemistry at the University of Oxford, under the supervision of Dr John M. Brown FRS. He then moved to Dr Michael C. Willis' group, where he developed the first Pd-catalysed coupling reaction employing sulfur dioxide by suppressing catalyst deactivation. Afterward, he joined Imperial College London, working in Dr King Kuok Hii's group to delineate the nature of the palladium species in different catalytic reactions and developing separation methods for these species. He was awarded his first independent position as a Ramsay Memorial Fellow at Department of Chemistry, Imperial College London.
Rachel Napier is a PhD student sponsored by AstraZeneca, who joined the BN group in September 2023. Rachel completed her integrated masters at the University of York. Her project aims to develop surfactant-enabled nucleophilic fluorination into a general sustainable method by preparing fluorine-containing compounds in water. Outside of chemistry Rachel also enjoys playing badminton and netball.
Fong Ching Wai (Andy) is a PhD student who joined the BN group in October 2022. His project aims to develop electrochemical flow processes to enable Ni-catalysed reductive coupling reactions with organic reductants. He has completed his bachelors and masters at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Samuel Mace is a PhD student who joined the BN group in September 2022. Sam completed his bachelors and integrated masters at the University of Manchester. His project aims is to apply machine learning methodologies in assisting in the design of ligands for catalysis and recycling precious metals from waste streams. When Sam is not thinking about chemistry he is thinking about climbing and music.
James Mottram is a Molecules to Product CDT PhD student who joined BN Group on January 2021. His work aims to demonstrate the application of machine-learning-assisted rapid prototyping to the design of supported catalysts in continuous flow applications. James graduated in 2020 with a first class degree in chemical and energy process engineering from University of Leeds.
George Hodgin is a home grown PhD student who joined BN group on 2020. His project is sponsored by Lhasa. It aims to develop data oriented reaction protocol predict reaction outcomes in organic syntheses.
Sam Meredith began his PhD project in September 2019; the project has the working title ‘Connecting the solid state, bioavailability and formulation strategies with the Drug-Development pipeline’. This will be achieved by statistical analysis of intermolecular ‘synthons’ which build up the bulk and surface of API crystal lattice. He is a joint student with Fishwick and McPhillie group.
Asma Aladiyani joins the group in 2023 as a joint PhD student with Dr Paul Thornton. She did her MSc chemistry at University of Leeds. Her PhD project is on synthesis and processing novel biodegradable polymers.
Oliver Provan Resina Rodrigues is an MChem student. He is interested in inorganic chemistry and his project explores the use of AI and how it can be used to advance homogeneous catalyst design.
Krishna Sharma (PDRA, 2020-2023) Alison McCorry (PhD, 2019-2023) Ruby Robinson (MChem, 2022-2023) Katarzyna Maltby (PDRA, 2021-2022) Marc Short (PhD, 2019-2022) Xiaoying Ding (MSc, 2022) Rosalie Hamill (PhD, 2018-2022) Edgar Frost (MChem, 2022) William Shaw (MChem, 2022) Aneesa Ahmad (PDRA, 2022) Zeshen Wang (MSc, 2020-2021) Edward Chapman (MSc, 2020-2021) James Lloyd (PhD, 2021-2021) Samuel Boobier (PhD, 2017-2021) Joseph Sheppard (PhD, 2016-2020) Katie Beckwith (MChem, 2021) Megan St John-Perry (MChem, 2021) Sannia Farooque (PDRA, 2019-2021) Connor Sherwin (MChem, 2020) Antonia Feilden (MChem, 2020) Robin Adderley (MSc in Chemical Engineering, 2019) Jay Soni (MSc in Chemical Engineering, 2019) Thomas Dent (PhD, 2015-2019) Blanca Ivonne Vergara Arenas (Visiting PhD, UAMM, 2017) Erwin Maters (MChem 2017, Leeds) Sophie Robinson (MChem 2017, Leeds) Rachel Nicholls (PDRA, PhD 2013-2017) Grant Sherborne (PhD 2013-2017) Michael Chapman (PhD 2013-2016) Manuel Cervantes (visting student 2017) Rupert Laslett (MChem 2016, Leeds) Benjamin Kyffin (PhD 2015-2016) William Reynolds (PDRA 2014). Luke Power (MSc in Chemical Engineering 2017) James Miller (MChem 2015, Leeds) Lucas Homar (MChem 2014, Leeds) Ratanang F. Serefentse (MEng 2012, Leeds) Orugbani Solomon Eli (MSc 2014, Leeds) Olamide Shokunbi (MEng 2014) David Hahn (Erasmus 2011, Imperial College) Yarseen Shafi: MSc student in Chemical Engineering at University of Leeds in 2013. Patrick Foley: Clothworkers funded summer student at University of Leeds in 2013. Thomas McDevitt: MChem student at Imperial College London in 2011-2012. Simon Kaufhold (Erasmus/MChem 2011-2012) Filip Šebest: UROP student at Imperial College London in 2012. Clément Mauger Jourdan: UROP student at Imperial College London in 2011. Clément came from Ecole Normale Supérieure Paris. Sammy Chan: UROP student at Imperial College London in 2011. Sammy came from University of Cambridge. Janie Anka-Lufford: UROP student at Imperial College London in 2012.