The Nelson Group

David Nelson

David has been a member of academic staff at Strathclyde since 2014 (as a Chancellor's Fellow and Lecturer) and was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2018 and to Reader in 2023.

2023 - Present: Secretary of the Royal Society of Chemistry Inorganic Reaction Mechanisms Discussion Group committee
2022: Strath Union Teaching Excellence Award: "Digital Innovator"
2021: Royal Society of Chemistry Inorganic Reaction Mechanisms Early Career Award
2020: Thieme Chemistry Journals Awardee
2020 - Present: Editorial Board Member, Communications Chemistry
2019: Buergenstock Conference Junior Scientist Programme Fellowship

David holds an MChem degree from the University of Edinburgh, which included a year at AstraZeneca (Macclesfield) and a research project in the group of the late Professor Hamish McNab. He moved to the University of Strathclyde for his PhD, where he studied reaction mechanisms and structure/reactivity relationships in alkene ring-closing metathesis reactions, under the supervision of Professor Jonathan M. Percy. He then worked with Professor Steven P. Nolan FRSE at the University of St Andrews, studying various late transition metal complexes for a number of applications.

Elliot Johnson Humphrey

Elliot Johnson Humphrey graduated from the University of East Anglia in 2018 with an MChem in Chemistry, which included research in the group of Professor Manfred Bochmann. He then joined the group in October 2018 to start his PhD, funded by a University of Strathclyde Research Excellence Award. His graduate research focussed on the synthesis, characterisation, and reactivity of new low-valent nickel complexes relevant to catalysis.

After his PhD, he completed a short project as a Research Assistant to work towards the commercialisation of some research from his PhD (funded by the University of Strathclyde EPSRC Impact Acceleration Account) and then took up a year-long position to continue commercialisation efforts (from September 2022). He completed the Innovate UK ICURe 'Explore' market discovery programme from November 2022 to March 2023, and is PI on an Scottish Enterprise grant to work towards the spin-out of a new nickel catalysis company in 2024.

Roderick Bunschoten

Roderick studied chemistry at Aventus College and Saxion University of Applied Science in the Netherlands. He then held Research Technician and Research Assistant positions at the University of Glasgow, before carrying out his UKRI/GSK-funded PhD with Professor Glenn Burley at the University of Strathclyde, examining reaction mechanisms in copper catalysis.

Roderick joined the team from August to November 2023 as a Research Associate, benchmarking some new nickel catalysts that will shortly be made available via a new spin-out company. His position was funded by the UKRI EPSRC Impact Acceleration Account (2022-2025) awarded to the University of Strathclyde. He returned in January 2024 to continue his work on catalyst testing, supported by University of Strathclyde Innovation and Industry Engagement funding.

Hayley Russell

Hayley Russell joined us in January 2021 to start her PhD. She is jointly supervised by Dr Andrew Dominey (GSK, Stevenage). The project, funded by the EPSRC and GSK via an ICASE studentship, merges reaction understanding and machine learning techniques to predict selectivity in industrially-important reactions.

Hayley obtained her MChem in Chemistry with Industrial Experience from the University of Edinburgh in 2019, which included a final year project with Dr Michael Cowley. She was a publishing editor at Dalton Transactions, CrystEngComm, and New Journal of Chemistry from 2019 to 2020.

Kieran Redpath

Kieran Redpath joined the team in September 2021 for his PhD, funded by the EPSRC and Syngenta via an ICASE studentship, and co-supervised by Dr Tom Corrie (Syngenta). His project examines the nickel-catalysed reactions of sterically-hindered substrates.

Kieran graduated from the University of Strathclyde in 2021 with an MChem degree in Chemistry with Drug Discovery, which included a year spent at GSK and a final year project in bimetallic chemistry with Professor Rab Mulvey.

Nico McVeigh

Nico joined the team in October 2023 for his PhD, funded by the EPSRC and AstraZeneca via an SRSS SEA studentship. His project will examine the processes by which nickel catalysts are activated.

Nico graduated from the University of St Andrews in 2023 with an MChem degree in Chemistry. His degree included a research project with Dr Gordon Florence in the area of synthetic organic chemistry.

Wes Oultram

Wes joined the team in June 2024 to undertake his PhD, funded by the EPSRC and GSK via an Industrial CASE studentship. His project will examine the processes by which nickel(II) catalysts are reduced during reactions to form active species.

Wes graduated from the University of Manchester in 2023 with an MChem degree in Chemistry, which included a project with Dr Darren Willcox in the area of iron catalysis.

Laura Blanco Cabello

Laura joined the team for summer 2024 to conduct mechanistic studies of nickel-catalysed reductive coupling reactions. She was undertaking her PhD at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid with Professor José Alemán and Dr Alba Collado.

When not in the laboratory, she was learning the many idioms of the English language, and Glasgow 'patter' in particular.

Alexander Bell

Alex spent his fourth year working for Viatris, and then joined the team for a summer project in 2024. He was awarded a Royal Society of Chemistry Vacation Bursary to look at how model reactions can be transferred from palladium catalysis to nickel catalysis.

Olivia Devlin

Olivia completed a final year project on iron catalysis.
 

Ryan Oliver

Ryan completed a final year project on the competition between halogen abstraction and oxidative addition in the context of nickel catalysis.
 

Daniel Santos Stone

Daniel completed a final year project on the study of hydroboration regioselectivity within the secondary coordination sphere of transition metal complexes.
 

Maksim Makarov

Maksim completed a final year project on the activation of iridium borylation catalysts.
 

Cameron Scott

Cameron completed a final year project on the use of greener solvents for C-H activation.
 

Eric Simpson

Eric completed a final year project in which he examined the reactivity of a dinickel(II) complex that arises during cross-coupling reactions of 2-pyridyl substrates. He is now a medicinal chemist at the Drug Discovery Unit at the University of Dundee.

Dr Daria Timofeeva

Daria worked on the quantification and analysis of selectivity in iridium-catalysed hydrogen isotope exchange reactions.

William Donohoe

William undertook a project in the group as part of the fourth year of his MChem degree, on the synthesis and characterisation of 2-pyridyl-bridged dinickel(II) complexes.

Jennifer Durward

Jennifer completed her final year project in the team, and used DFT calculations to model oxidative addition to nickel(0) complexes.

Douglas Robinson

Douglas completed his final year project in the team, and used DFT calculations to rationalise selectivity in C-H activation reactions. He is now undertaking a PhD with Dr Fraser Scott at the University of Strathclyde.

Dr Megan Greaves

Megan's PhD was funded by AstraZeneca and the EPSRC, and co-supervised by Dr Tom Ronson at AstraZeneca. She examined the reactions of various substrates with model nickel(0) complexes. She is now a postdoctoral researcher with Professor Steven Buchwald at MIT.

Dr Alasdair Cooper

Alasdair's PhD was funded by Syngenta and the EPSRC, and co-supervised by Dr Paul Burton at Syngenta. His PhD concerned the study of functional group tolerance in nickel-catalysed cross-coupling reactions. Alasdair is now an independent musician.

Craig Jardine

Craig completed his final year project in the team, and examined the reactions of trifluoroborate substrates under nickel catalysis. He is now training as a patent attorney after spending some time working in industry.

Barbara Bielonko

Barbara undertook a summer placement in the group in 2019, and worked on the cross-coupling of arylboron reagents using nickel catalysis. She is now an R&D Chemist at Paragon Inks.

Dr Etienne Brouillet

Etienne completed his MChem and PhD at the University of Strathclyde, working with Dr Stuart Robertson on new molecular inorganic materials for energy storage. He then stayed on at Strathclyde for a Carnegie Trust funded project with Dr Robertson and Professor Serena Corr (then University of Glasgow). Etienne worked on a short project in our team in collaboration with an industrial partner, funded by the EPSRC Impact Acceleration Account. Etienne then took up a position as an Application Scientist with Thermal Hazard Technologies in Milton Keynes. He is currently a Project Scientist at Cambrex in Edinburgh.

Hamzah Durrani

Hamzah joined the group in 2018 for his final year project on the functional group scope of nickel catalysis. After his degree, he took up a position at KPMG.

Kirstie Gallagher

Kirstie completed her final year project within the team, studying the use of various organoboron reagents in nickel catalysis. After her degree, she took up a position at Morgan Stanley.

Kaarel Hunt

Kaarel carried out a summer placement in 2015, where he investigated applications of nickel-catalysed cross-coupling in the synthesis of bi(hetero)aryl compounds. After an industrial placement year, he spent a year doing national service in the Estonian army, before returning to Strathclyde to complete his degree. He rejoined the group in October 2018, and studied selectivity in ruthenium-catalysed C-H functionalisation reactions during his final year project. After completing his degree he took up a PhD position in Estonia.

María Redondo Álvarez

María completed her degree at the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid in 2019, and joined us for a three month Erasmus+ placement to work on nickel catalysis during the summer.

Dr Susanna Wood

Susie graduated from the University of Strathclyde in 2015 with an MChem in Chemistry with Drug Discovery. She started a GSK-funded PhD in October 2015, studying mechanistic aspects of fluorination reactions with Professor Jonathan Percy. She joined the Nelson group in January 2017. After her PhD, she undertook a short research placement with Armin Ofial in Munich, before taking up a position at Syngenta in Grangemouth in summer 2019. She returned to the University of Strathclyde in 2021 as a Research Associate with Dr Nick Tomkinson, working on a collaborative project with GSK.

Frances Bugden

Frances carried out a summer project between the second and third years of her MChem degree in Chemistry with Drug Discovery, during which time she synthesised a number of nickel complexes and prepared some bidentate NHC ligands. She returned for summer 2018, working on a GSK-funded project in the area of iron catalysis. After completing her degree, Frances started a PhD at the University of Warwick in 2020 with Dr Mark Greehalgh.

Dr Gillian Laidlaw

Gillian completed a summer placement between the third and fourth years of her MChem degree in Chemistry with Drug Discovery, funded by a Carnegie Trust Vacation Scholarship. Her project concerned the study of structure/activity relationships in nickel catalysis. She then spent a year at Bayer near Frankfurt, before returning to Strathclyde for her final year. For her final year project she worked on the synthesis, characterisation, and application of a new NHC ligand. She then undertook her PhD at the University of Lancaster with Dr Vill Franckevicius, and now works at the University of Glasgow.

Dr David Leonard

David joined the group for his final year project, which applied 'robustness screens' to nickel-catalysed cross-coupling reactions. David completed his PhD with Kathrin Junge at the Leibniz Institute of Catalysis in Rostock, and now works at GSK as a Process Chemist.

Abigail Larsen

Abbey was an undergraduate student at Carroll University (Wisconsin) and joined us for a summer placement. Abbey worked on the synthesis of new NHCs and their applications in organometallic chemistry and catalysis.

Dr James Sanderson

James graduated from Heriot-Watt University with an MChem in Chemistry. He was based at GSK (Stevenage) and studied iron-catalysed cross-coupling reactions, co-supervised by Dr Andrew Dominey (GSK). He began his PhD with Professor Jonathan Percy and joined the Nelson group in January 2017. James then worked as a senior synthetic chemist at Charles River Laboratories in Harlow, before taking up a postdoctoral position at the University of Newcastle with Professor Mark Waring, and then returning to Charles River. He is now working as a Senior Scientist at LifeArc.

Cora Keen

Cora undertook her final year research project in the team, applying new NHC-nickel complexes to cross-coupling catalysis. After a brief spell in industry, she returned to the University of Strathclyde for an MSc in Industrial Biotechnology in 2018. She now works in the alcoholic drinks industry.

Jamie McIntyre

Jamie joined the team after completing his MChem degree at the University of Strathclyde. He worked on understanding selectivity in ruthenium-catalysed C-H activation reactions during his graduate research degree. He is now a Manager at Deloitte Digital in London.

Nomaan Nabi

Nomaan completed a summer project in the area of palladium catalysis during summer 2016, funded by a Royal Society of Chemistry Undergraduate Research Bursary. After completing his degree, he moved to University College London to work towards his PhD.

Allison Tomczyk

Allison joined the team during summer 2017, and studied the selectivity of nickel-catalysed cross-coupling reactions. She returned to the USA to complete her degree at Carroll University (Wisconsin) and is now undertaking her PhD at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee.

Dr Sonia Bajo

Sonia joined the team after completing her PhD with Professor Miguel Esteruelas at the University of Zaragoza. She studied the oxidative addition reactions of model nickel(0) complexes during her time at Strathclyde. She then returned to Zaragoza to work on an industry-funded project, before taking up postdoctoral positions with Dr Jesus Campos (Seville) and Professor Guy Bertrand (UC San Diego).

Irene Mayoral Soler

Irene worked within the team during summer 2016, studing the mechanism of ruthenium-catalysed C-H activation reactions. She completed her Masters in Catalysis and Molecular Modelling at the University of Girona and is now a high school teacher.

Dr Paul Shaw

Paul completed a final year project in the team, where he prepared and studied a new bulky N-heterocyclic carbene ligand. He then completed a PhD with Professor Billy Kerr, before taking up a position as a Senior Scientific Officer at the Beatson Institute in Glasgow.

Craig Valenti

Craig completed a literature project as part of his final year work, in the area of nickel(I) chemistry. After graduating, he moved to the University of Glasgow to undertake teacher training.

Dr Laura McDougall

Laura worked on new nickel catalysts during summer 2015, funded by a Carnegie Trust Vacation Scholarship. After her degree, she undertook a PhD with Professor Andrew Jamieson at the University of Glasgow. She is now a Senior Scientist at Almac.

Johnathon Yau

Johnathon undertook a research placement in the team from September 2014 until June 2015, where he prepared and tested a number of new NHC-nickel complexes for cross-coupling catalysis.

Craig Bradley

Craig completed his final year project in the team, examining nickel-catalysed reactions.

Daniel Byron

Daniel completed his final year project in the team, profiling ruthenium-catalysed C-H activation reactions.