DPhil Students
Year 1
Elsa is a first year DPhil Student on the IMAT CDT, and she will be working, jointly with Matthew Langton’s group, on degradable multi-block polymers for transmembrane transportation and drug delivery. Originally from France, she graduated from the chemistry department of the Ecole Normale Superieure Paris-Saclay in 2025, with a double bachelor’s degree in physics-chemistry from Paris-Saclay University and a MSc in green chemistry from the University of Strasbourg. Her academic interests centre on sustainable chemistry, particularly biobased monomers and polymers, reflecting her ecological commitment. Outside the lab, you will often find her practising various sports, exploring the world through slow travel, or experimenting in the kitchen.
Elsa Brudy Rigollet
David grew up in Sheffield and completed his MChem at the University of Oxford in 2024. His Master’s project was supervised by Prof. Charlotte Williams and focused on the chemical recycling of polycarbonates. He is now a DPhil student on the IMAT CDT, interested in developing sustainable polymers through a combination of experimental and machine learning methods. Outside of work, his hobbies include knitting, bouldering, and reading.
David Ning
Year 2
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!
Rosie Thorogood
Freya Butler
Kate graduated with an MChem from the University of Oxford in 2024. Her final year research project was under the supervision of Prof. Charlotte Williams, focussed on functional, rigid polyester networks with dynamic cross-linking. She also completed a summer project in 2023 characterising graphene at ISIS Neutron and Muon Source. During Kate's DPhil she is continuing to research functional materials, particularly in the context of vitrimers and adhesives.
Katherine Morton
Year 3
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.
Kira Mulcahy
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.
Balazs Striker
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.
Bonny Gao
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.
Baliana Shani
Year 4
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.
Kanyapat Yiamsawat
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.
Mantas Drelingas
