Group Alumni
PDRA and PGR alumni

Dr Valentina Abet (PDRA) received her Ph.D. from the University of Alcalá (Spain, 2012), studying radical arylation reactions on pyridine derivatives. She then moved to France where she worked as a postdoctoral researcher on organic, supramolecular and medicinal chemistry projects at the CNRS and the Institut Curie. After three years in industry (Redx Oncology, United Kingdom), she joined the group in September 2017. Valentina left for a permanent position in industry in Dec 2018.

Dr Chris Jones (PDRA) graduated from Durham University with a PhD in Chemistry (2017), specialising in the design and synthesis of supramolecular gels. He completed a PDRA project at Queen’s University Belfast investigating pharmaceutical hydrate crystallisation in mixed solvents. His research on the assembly of macrocycles and cages in flow, and was jointly funded by EPSRC and the Royal Society. Chris took up an industrial position in Feb 2021.

Dr Megan Carr (PhD) completed her MChem degree at the University of Liverpool. Her 3rd and 4th year projects involved novel polymer synthesis in the Rannard group. She also completed an Analytical Chemistry Trust funded summer studentship studying 2D NMR for pka measurements in 2017 with Dr Jonathan Iggo. Her PhD (2023), co-supervised by Prof Steve Rannard, investigated polymer synthesis under continuous flow conditions using both free radical and controlled radical polymerisation methods with the intent to use these materials in flow assisted nanoparticle production. Megan is currently Technical Support Officer in the MIF technical support team.

Dr Prachi Gupta (Visiting PDRA) completed her master's in Chemistry from Delhi, India, in 2015. Soon after she joined PhD program at Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER)-Pune, India where she worked on synthesis and redox study of antiaromatic macrocycles under the guidance of Prof. V.G. Anand and received her degree in 2022. During her final year of PhD. she worked as an exchange student in Prof. Miquel A. Pericàs’s research group at Catalan Institute of Chemical Research (ICIQ)-Tarragona, Spain. Afterwards she worked as a postdoctoral researcher for five months at ESPCI, Paris. Currently she is working on cage chemistry in Slater group. In her spare time, she loves to experiment with her cooking or travel places.
Undergraduate and MSc alumni

Charlotte completed her 3 year BSc in medicinal chemistry in June 2021 where her final year project involved the synthesis of piperidin-2-one derivatives and their application in antibacterial treatment. She completed her PGSC003 research project focusing on flow synthesis of macrocycles as part of her MSc programme.

Katie carried out a 3rd year MChem project to write a review: "Enabling Technology in Supramolecular Chemistry", which has been submitted for publication in a special collection: International Women in Supramolecular Chemistry. Katie also carried out an EPSRC Vacation Bursary in our lab, collaborating with the Rannard Group on continuous nanoprecipitation methods.

Michael worked on a collaborative project between the Slater group and Stephen Moss in Analytical Services in Summer 2021.

Dan worked on a collaborative summer project between the Slater Group and CageCapture.

Eleanor is a 3rd Year MChem student who undertook a Summer Research Internship titled ‘Inclusion and Diversity in the Chemical Sciences’. This covers a wide range of equality and diversity related work including the Student Success Innovation Project, to assess ethnicity based degree awarding gaps in the department and the development of an ED&I focussed induction activity for 1st Year students as part of Welcome Week activities.

Mollie Williams, Nicole Laurence, Adam Tollitt









