Melen Research Group
Advancing Main Group Chemistry
Mashael Alharbi (PhD: 2019-)
Mashael is investigating novel triarylborane species as Lewis acid catalysts. Characterisation and quantification of properties such as Acceptor Number will give insight into the ability of these catalysts to affect a system. A library of such compounds will map out a reactivity space for triarylborane molecules that will be able to tailor reaction outcomes.
Recent Publication: Synthesis and Lewis acidity of fluorinated triaryl borates, Dalton Trans., 2023, 52, 1820-1825.
Yara van Ingen (PhD: 2020-)
Yara joined the group in 2020 on an industry project joint with TOK (Japan) and Dr Alberto Roldan Martinez (Cardiff). Yara did her MRes in Catalysis degree at Imperial College London where she worked on paramagnetic Fe complexes for N2 fixation under joint supervision of Dr Andrew Ashley and Dr Maxie Roessler, achieving a distinction and a prize for outstanding performance. She completed her BSc (Cum Laude) at Maastricht University in The Netherlands, completing a project investigating Ti polymerisation catalysts with Dr Burgert Blom and Dr Dario Romano. She is now investigating metal-containing compounds used in the application of semiconductor fabrication for TOK Japan.
Recent Publication: An international study evaluating elemental analysis, ACS Cent. Sci., 2022, 8, 855.
Matthew Heard (PhD: 2020-)
Matt obtained his MChem degree from the University of York with 1st Class Honours. He undertook his Masters project in Canada under the supervision of Dr Fred Menard (University of British Columbia), working on the synthesis of Kainate receptor molecular probes and towards a synthesis of rotundial. Now as a PhD student he is investigating the use of Frustrated Lewis Pairs as metal-free catalysts for organic synthesis and exploring the design of new boron and aluminium Lewis acids.
Recent Publication: Borane catalysed cyclopropenation of arylacetylenes, Chem. Comm., 2021.
Michael Guerzoni (PhD: 2021-)
Michael obtained his bachelor degree in chemistry in 2018 from University of Bologna (Italy) working on the synthesis of peptides and peptidomimetics for drug delivery system under the supervision of prof L. Gentilucci. In 2020, he obtained from the same university a master degree in Synthetic methodologies and Bio-Organic Chemistry (Cum Laude) this time working on the organocatalytic enantioselective synthesis of isoxazoline scaffolds for pharmaceutical applications, under the supervision of A. Tolomelli. As a PhD student in the Melen group, he is working in the field of organoboron catalysis in organic synthesis, as well as in the radical chemistry of Frustrated Radical Pairs in collaboration with Dr. Emma Richards.
Recent Publication: Lewis acid assisted Brønsted acid catalysed decarbonylation of Isocyanates: a combined DFT and experimental study, Chem. Eur. J., 2022, 10.1002/chem.202201422.
Nusaybah Alotaibi (PhD: 2021-)
Nusaybah completed her MSc in King Faisal University, Saudi Arabia, 2019. Her master project involved the pyrolytic synthesis of cobalt-carbon nanocomposites from new cobalt complexes of nitrogen-donor ligands and their application in water treatment. Nusaybah joined the Melen group as a PhD student in 2021, investigating the catalytic reactivities of Lewis acidic boranes in organic transformations.
Recent Publication: Chemo- and regio-selective amidation of indoles with isocyanates using borane Lewis acids, Catal. Sci. Technol., 2022,12, 5982-5990.
Sampurna Das (PhD: 2022-)
Sampurna obtained her MSc. degree from the Indian Institute of Technology Ropar in 2022. She completed her master's project under the supervision of Prof. Indranil Chatterjee. As a master's project, she explored the property of hexafluoroisopropanol (HFIP) also enables regioselective hydroamination in a Markovnikov manner in presence of catalytic Brønsted acid. Now as a Ph.D. student in the Melen group she is investigating Metal-free Catalyst Development using Microwaves.
Ola Gorecka (2023-)
Ola received her 1st class MChem degree in Medicinal Chemistry with Pharmacology from the University of Liverpool in 2023. She completed her 3rd-year project working on the prediction of gel properties using machine learning under the supervision of Prof. Neil Berry and her master's project on the synthesis of proline-derived N-oxides via N-alkylation of hydroxylamine with Dr. Ian O'Neil. Ola joined Melen group in the summer of 2023 to work on a project funded by GEO specialty chemicals after which she began her Ph.D. studies focusing on the application of main group Lewis acids in organic synthesis.
Taylor Wilde (2023-)
Taylor joined the Melen group in 2023 after completing her MChem Chemistry with Drug Discovery degree at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow. In her Masters project, she worked under Dr Catherine Weetman synthesising hemi labile alkoxytethered NHC aluminium complexes and explored their catalytic profile and ability to activate small molecules. As a PhD student, Taylor is investigating sustainable catalysis for clean growth – CO2 activation using FLP’s as part of the prosperity partnership funded by BP.
Indium (2014-) and Arian (2022-)
Indium (born 2006) and Arian (Arian is Welsh for "Silver") (born 2022) are Norwegian Fjord horses. Their interests lie in anything food-related (hay, carrots, mints).
A horse walks into a bar. “Hey,” says the barman. “Yes please,” says the horse.
PhD Students:
Melen Research Group members
The Boss:
Professor Rebecca L. Melen
2004-2012 University of Cambridge, UK (PhD, MA, MSci, BA)
2012-2013 University of Toronto, Canada (postdoc)
2013-2014 Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg, Germany (Humboldt fellow)
2014-2017 Cardiff University, UK (Lecturer)
2017-2019 Cardiff University, UK (Senior Lecturer)
2019-2021 Cardiff University, UK (Reader)
2021- Cardiff University, UK (Professor)
Honorary Group Members:
Postdocs:
Dr Sanjukta Pahar (PDF: 2022-)
Dr Sanjukta Pahar completed her PhD from CSIR-National Chemical Laboratory, Pune (CSIR-NCL) India under the supervision of Dr. Sakya S. Sen in 2022 with a skillful specialization on “Low-valent and low co-ordinated main group compounds and their reactivity and applications” and immediately joined the group in 2022. She did her M.Sc. in Chemistry from IIT Madras in 2015 and completed her B.Sc. at Asutosh College under the University of Calcutta. She previously worked with the group as “Newton Bhabha internship” student for 4 months on “C–C cross-coupling reaction using B(C6F5)3 as an efficient catalyst to afford selective N-substituted pyrazole derivatives”. Her recent research mainly focuses on the radical-assisted frustrated Lewis pair chemistry.
Dr Milan Pramanik (PDF: 2022-)
Dr Milan Pramanik is from West Bengal, India. He obtained his MSc from IIT Madras, India in 2016. In 2022, he completed Ph.D. at NISER Bhubaneswar (HBNI) under the guidance of Prof. Prasenjit Mal, where he worked on the use of Non-Covalent Interactions and Visible Light Photo Catalysis in Organic Synthesis. In December, 2022, he joined as postdoctoral research associate with Prof. Rebecca Melen at Cardiff University where he will be involved in developing Frustrated Lewis Pair as Visible Light Photo Catalysis for Organic Synthesis.
Dr Rasool Babaahmadi (PDF: 2022-)
Rasool received his MSc in 2015 in Iran, where he conducted a computational study on the cycloisomerisation reactions of allene compounds catalysed by Au(I) using DFT methods. He was an analytical chemist at FSK oil & gas company for three years in onshore and offshore labs (2014-2017). In 2018, he moved to Australia to pursue his PhD at the University of Tasmania, where his project was focused on development and optimisation of gold, borane, and bismuth catalytic reactions under the supervision of Prof. Brian Yates and A/Prof Alireza Ariafard. In 2021, he received the Executive Dean's Award for exceptional performance. He was awarded the Royal Society-Newton International Fellowship and joined the research groups of Professors Rebecca Melen and Thomas Wirth in September 2022. Rasool is currently exploring the activation of diazo-compounds with boranes in flow, using both experimental and computational approaches.
