Group Members
Prof Anna Slater
PI, Royal Society University Research Fellow, Professor of Chemistry
Anna graduated from the University of Nottingham with a PhD in Supramolecular Chemistry (2011). After PDRA positions in porphyrins and molecular materials Anna was appointed as a Royal Society-EPSRC Dorothy Hodgkin Fellow in 2016 and a RS URF in 2021. She was promoted to a Personal Chair in Oct 22. Her research interests span flow chemistry, materials science, supramolecular self-assembly, and enabling technology for process control.
Dr Firdaus Parveen
Research Coordinator and Flow Centre Manager
Dr Firdaus Parveen received her Master's degree in Chemistry (2011) and Doctorate in Chemical Engineering (2017) from Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, India. She was awarded a prestigious Shastri Indo Canadian research award in 2017 to work at USASK, Canada. She has also worked as an Assistant Professor at University of Delhi, India from 2017-18. She joined Imperial College of London as Research Associate in 2019 and worked with Prof Mimi Hii (ICL), Prof Klaus (ICL) and Prof J. Blacker (Leeds). She has gained advanced experience of continuous flow chemistry, building flow set ups, robotic reactions, liquid and gas phase reactions, heterogenous catalysis, catalysts development and their characterization, high and low pressure reactions. She believes in work life balance and would like to visit new places and explore nature.
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Amine Melanie
Research Project Manager
​Amine has taken up a position between the Cooper and Slater groups to manage the UKAEA funded project on the synthesis of porous substrates for challenging separations.
Amine graduated with a BSc (Hons) in Microbiology from the University of Leeds in 2003. After initially working in the pharmaceutical industry, Amine joined Liverpool John Moores University to deliver a Knowledge Transfer Partnership in Microbiology and Water and Environmental Engineering between the university and a company based in Preston. Amine then moved on to Lancaster University and the University of Central Lancashire where he was managing various types of knowledge exchange programmes, mainly focusing on research and student employability.
Dr Alex Padgham
Postdoctoral Research Associate
Alex completed his MChem with a Year in Industry (GSK) at the University of Sussex (2011) and graduated from Imperial College London with a PhD in Organic Chemistry (2018). His first PDRA position was in the group of Dr Marcus Baumann at University College Dublin, working in collaboration with Pfizer Ireland to explore the use of flow chemistry in API synthesis. Currently he is working as a PDRA in the Slater group, further expanding on the use of new and continuous technologies in chemistry.
Dr Abbie Scholes
Postdoctoral Research Associate
Abbie completed her MChem at the University of Liverpool, where her final year project focussed on the synthesis of functionalised piperazines as β-turn mimetics. Her PhD (2023), funded by the Royal Society and co-supervised by Dr Becky Greenaway and Prof Slater, focussed on the synthesis of functionalised imine macrocycles and exploring how enabling technologies can be used to refine and control complicated dynamic mixtures. Now, Abbie has taken up a position joint between the Slater and Cooper Groups on the synthesis of porous substrates for challenging separations.
Dr Prachi Gupta
Postdoctoral Research Associate
​Prachi 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.
Dr Liqun Guo
Postdoctoral Research Associate
Dr. Liqun Guo received her master degree (2018) from Lanzhou University, majored in organic total synthesis. She completed her PhD (2023) which was co-supervised by Prof. Paul O'Neill and Prof. Neil Berry in University of Liverpool, majored in medicinal chemistry. She focused on developing a series of novel cyclophilin D inhibitors for treatment of acute pancreatitis. Her first PDRA job was in the group of Michael Turner, at University of Manchester, working on building a flow process for production of a sustainable fuel. Now, Liqun is working as a PDRA in Slater's group, continuing to explore the area of flow chemistry.
Dr Jasmine Catlow
Postdoctoral Research Associate
​Jaz completed her MChem at the University of Sheffield (2020), with a final year project focussing on reaction development and optimisation for Chan Lam etherification. She remained at the University of Sheffield for her PhD under the supervision of Dr Ben Partridge and Dr Grant Hill. Her PhD project focused on the reactions, synthesis and computational studies of synthetic building blocks, for which she organised a placement at AstraZeneca. Jaz has now taken up a position in the Slater Group, working on a joint project with Dr Adam Clayton, Prof Richard Bourne, and Prof Alexei Lapkin. This project will focus on autonomous optimisation in continuous flow for pharmaceutical development, with Jaz taking her first steps into learning flow chemistry! In her spare time, Jaz loves to read, crochet, swim, and explore local cafes.
