Last week’s PGR Symposium showcased the hard work, dedication and creativity of our PhD and MRes students. It was inspiring to see the whole School come together for three days of research talks, poster presentations and plenty of opportunities to connect over well-earned pizza and beer. Congratulations to Olly, Rory, Jamie, Dan and Simon who presented their research. The event sparked interesting suggestions and even led to the start of a new collaboration. Most importantly, it highlighted the strength of chemistry research at Nottingham and our supportive community spirit.

Thank you to the organisers, Stephen, David and Huw for putting on another great event. We’re already looking forward to next year.

This summer, Miriam will be joining the BBC Radio Science Unit for a Media Fellowship. Get in touch in September if you have any cool chemistry/science stories to pitch!
A big thank you to the Association of British Science Writers for the fellowship opportunity, and the University of Nottingham for their support.

Congratulations on a successful viva, Dr. Charlotte McIvor!

Charlotte made important contributions to our understanding of hypervalent iodine chemistry during her PhD, spearheading the development of new alkylating and fluorialkylating agents. Her organisation and team working skills were also a great help running the lab and made us well-connected to other research groups in the department.

Thank you to Alastair Lennox and Rob Stockman for examining Charlotte’s thesis.

Yesterday’s Dan Eley Symposium was a joyful celebration of the cutting-edge research and supportive community in our school. Thank you to the Postdoc Forum (including our very own Izzy) for organising an excellent event.

Ishbel and Rory presented posters of their latest research. Congratulations to Ishbel for winning one of the poster prizes!

The group attended the RSC Organic Chemistry Midlands Meeting at the University of Sheffield yesterday, where Izzy and Martyna presented their PhD work. This meeting is always a great opportunity to catch up with old friends and make new ones.

Thanks to Ben Partridge and his team for organising a great day!

Congratulations on a successful PhD viva, Dr. George Cadman!

George developed C-F activation and fluoride recycling strategies during a truly interdisciplinary EPSRC / Research Ireland CDT project supervised by Debbie Kays, Pete Licence, Andrew Marr and Miriam. He is now applying his sills to exciting new fluorination challenges at FluoRok. All the best in this new adventure, George!

Thank you to Matt Hopkinson and Ross Denton for putting George through his paces in what sounded like an enjoyable viva.

The 3rd Postdoctoral Symposium of the RSC’s Heterocyclic and Synthesis Group (HSG) will be held online at 11:00-16:00 (British Summer Time) on Monday 18th May 2026.

The event will feature seven lectures from postdoctoral researchers, as well as a plenary lecture from Dr Beatrice Collins, University of Bristol (www.collinsresearch.org).

We invite all organic chemistry postdocs interested in giving a talk to submit an abstract at https://www.rsc.org/events/find-an-event/3rd-postdoctoral-symposium-(virtual)-heterocyclic-and-synthesis-group by May 4th.

To support promising early career researchers, two prizes will be awarded for best talks, with the HSG covering registration and reasonable travel costs for the prize-winners to attend the 2026 Gregynog Synthesis Workshop.

Attendance is free and open to all, but registration via the GoToWebinar event page is essential.

A big thank you to the organising team of this year’s University of Nottingham Women in STEM Conference on International Women’s Day (including our very own Ishbel Cooke)! The team put together an excellent event that struck the perfect balance of discussing the challenges women still face in STEM careers today, while also celebrating our successes and the science we all do and love.

Are you interested in exploring the synthesis and stability of new hypervalent iodine reagents for organic synthesis? If so, join our group for a one-year MRes position starting in October 2026! Informal applications (CV and short cover letter/email) are accepted until Friday 20th Feb. Interviews will be organised in the week commencing 2nd March.

More information on the University of Nottingham chemistry MRes programme (including eligibility and fees) can be found here: https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/pgstudy/course/research/chemistry-mres

The University of Nottingham (ranked among the Top 20 universities in the UK and in the world’s Top 100 according to the QS World University Rankings 2026) is offering fully funded PhD scholarship to Chinese nationals through the China Scholarship Council Research Excellence Scholarships (click here for more information). If you are eligible for this scholarship and interested in a hypervalent iodine PhD in the O’Duill group, please contact miriam.oduill(at)nottingham.ac.uk by January 13th.