DPhil Students

Rosie graduated from Oxford with and MChem in 2024, after completing her final year research project, on the development of catalysts for the ring-opening copolymerisations of epoxide and carbon dioxide, in the group. Her future work continues to look into catalyst development and optimisation, as well as catalysis to produce functional materials. When not in the lab, Rosie is a triathlete and loves long weekend rides and runs across Oxfordshire!

Kira graduated from the University of Edinburgh with an MChem in 2023. For her final year project, she worked at F. Hoffmann-La Roche, in Basel, where she developed a new analytical method for characterising the hydrate landscapes of pharmaceutical compounds. In summer 2021, she completed a Faraday internship following which she published a critical review on ‘Debondable Adhesives and their use in Recycling’. Kira is now a first year DPhil student, and her work focuses on the synthesis of amphiphilic, bio-based and degradable polymers for use in formulations. In her spare time, Kira enjoys hiking and is always on the lookout for a good bakery.

Balázs grew up in Hungary and completed his MSci Chemistry degree with a Year in Industry at Imperial College London. His master’s project, under the supervision of Prof. Mark Crimmin, focused on developing main group complexes for organofluorine recycling. As part of his undergraduate he has also completed a 12-month industrial placement at Vertex Pharmaceuticals in synthetic medicinal chemistry. Balázs is now a third year Inorganic Chemistry DPhil student and his research project focuses on engineering polymers from carbon dioxide using advanced switchable catalysis. When not in the lab, Balázs can usually be found outdoors doing parkour, hiking or enjoying a cycle ride.

Bonny graduated from the University of St Andrews with an MChem in 2022. Her final year research project focussed on developing manganese catalysed dehydrogenative coupling reactions for the synthesis of polyurea under the supervision of Dr Amit Kumar. As part of her degree, she also did an industrial placement year at Johnson Matthey where she investigated homogeneous catalysts for ester hydrogenation. Bonny is now a student on the OxICFM CDT working on the synthesis of high selectivity and activity catalysts to deliver sustainable elastics.

Baliana obtained her B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Sustainable Chemistry and Technologies at Ca’ Foscari University in Venice and graduated with distinction in March 2022. Her Master’s project focused on the synthesis and characterization of nanomaterials for photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants in water.  Baliana is a second-year student on the OxICFM CDT and her project, co-supervised by Prof. Ludmilla Steier, focuses on carbon dioxide photo-hydrogenation to value-added chemicals. She will develop stable photocatalysts that can help elucidate the mechanism of photocatalytic CO₂ reduction and in the second stage, improve the solar-to-chemical conversion efficiencies.

Kanyapat is from Thailand and graduated with a Master’s degree from Kasetsart University under the supervision of Dr. Pitak Chuawong. He Master's project focused on the investigation of the relationship between substrate properties and regioselectivity to better understand the mechanism of the palladium-catalyzed heteroannulation, the Larock reaction. Kanyapat is now working on single-ion conducting electrolytes by in situ polymerization. 

Mantas joined Williams group in October 2022. Originally from Lithuania, he completed his undergraduate degree in England at the University of Warwick. During his Master’s project, he worked on the formulation of elastomeric 3D printing resins for vitrimer components in soft robotics under the supervision of Dr Chaoying Wan and Prof David Haddleton. He gained valuable industry experience as part of his industrial placement working at TE Connectivity Energy business unit as a materials engineer. Mantas' current research focuses on developing sustainable and degradable polymers with hydrophilic properties via ring-opening (co)polymerisation.