Beatriz Brito received her BSc and MSc degrees in Biochemistry from the University of Porto in 2016 and 2018, respectively. She is currently working as a visiting researcher at King's College London while conducting her PhD studies in Biomedical Sciences at the University of Hull and at the International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory (INL), under the direction of Dr Graeme J. Stasiuk, Dr Juan Gallo and Dr Manuel Bañobre. Her research focuses on the synthesis of theranostic platforms that act as dual modal MRI contrast agents.
Rosenildo (Nildo) C. Da Costa obtained his PhD from the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg under the guidance of Professor John A. Gladysz in the fields of synthetic chemistry, organometallics and catalysis. He developed research at the University of Bordeaux, University of Bristol, St Andrews University and Imperial College London. Currently, he carries out research in synthetic and organometallic chemistry at the University of South Wales on the development of transition metal complexes based on Z-class boron-based ligands for the generation and storage of hydrogen. His main interests are in the development of advanced functional materials.
Eszter Fazekas completed her BSc and MSc degrees in pharmaceutical chemical engineering at Budapest University of Technology an Economics (Hungary). She then moved to Scotland to complete her PhD at the University of Edinburgh under the supervision of Dr Jennifer Garden and Prof. Michael Shaver. Her research focussed on the design of iron-based catalysts for polymerisation and CO2 activation reactions. In her current role as research associate in the McIntosh group, she studies the synthesis of multi/polymetallic clusters and their application as catalysts in small molecule activation.
Dr. Alex Hamilton is a Senior Lecturer in Physical Chemistry at Sheffield Hallam University (UK). He obtained his MChem degree from Swansea University and PhD from the University of Bristol, under the supervision of Prof. A. G. Orpen and Prof. J. N. Harvey. He then moved to the ICIQ (Spain) as a PDRA with Prof. C. Bo working on catalytic reaction mechanism elucidation. This was followed by a short teaching fellowship at Massey University (NZ). Research in his group focuses on the application of computational methods and quantum topological analysis to understand catalytic reaction mechanisms and bonding in organometallic complexes.
Ruaraidh McIntosh completed his PhD in carborane chemistry under the supervision of Prof. Alan Welch before moving to America for postdoctoral studies on the copolymerisation of CO2 and epoxides with Prof. Malcolm Chisholm at The Ohio State University. He recently established his own independent research group at Heriot-Watt University where his current research activities are focussed on the utilisation of sustainable feedstocks and studying the chemistry that occurs at the interface of homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis.
Professor Wenjie Mei graduated from Sun Yat-sen University in 2003, and works in Guangdong Pharmaceutical University as a postgraduate tutor. The research field is about metallo-based drug design, DNA-targeted small molecule drug discovery and fluorescence probes and photosensitizer in bio-medicine research.
Gareth R. Owen received his PhD from Imperial College London. He subsequently took a postdoctoral post in the research group of Professor John A. Gladysz, in Germany. There, he was awarded an Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellowship. He later returned to the UK to take up a Centenary Ramsay Memorial Research Fellowship hosted at the University of Bristol. This was followed by a Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Research Fellowship, again, at Bristol. Dr Owen is an Associate Professor in Inorganic Chemisty at the University of South Wales. His main research interests lie in the chemistry of boron-based ligands which act as reversible hydrogen atom shuttles and the investigation of novel methodologies for small molecule activations.
Wenhui Peng graduated from Guangdong Pharmaceutical University with the bachelor of medicine in 2018 and studies for master of public health degree in the same year. With certain clinical and public health experience, she joined Professor Mei's team and began to focus on the relationship between inflammation and tumors by zebrafish models, and has engaged in activity detection and its mechanism research on various new anti-tumor and anti-inflammatory compounds.
Thomas Price received his undergraduate degree from the University of Cambridge (2013), and his MSc from the University of York (2014). He was awarded a PhD from the University of Hull in 2019 on the topic of gallium-68 PET imaging. He is currently working as a PDRA in the Stasiuk group at King's College London researching novel diagnostic and therapeutic tools for stroke in a project funded by the Medical Research Council. Thomas is currently developing dual modal MRI/fluorescent agents using Gd3+.
Jiayi Qian graduated from the Wuhan Institute of Technology with a bachelor's degree in engineering in 2018. Now studying for a master's degree in medicinal chemistry at Guangdong Pharmaceutical University. She participated in the research of Professor Mei's team on the anti-tumor effect and mechanism of metal complexes.
Paul A. Scattergood is a synthetic inorganic chemist with a background and strong interest in the photophysical study of transition metal complexes. He obtained his MChem degree from the University of Sheffield (2010) before undertaking doctoral studies (PhD, 2014) with Prof. Julia Weinstein on photoinduced electron transfer (PET) in Pt(II) complexes and the excited state IR quantum controlled switching of PET outcomes. He moved to the University of Huddersfield in 2014, conducting postdoctoral studies in the group of Prof. Paul Elliott investigating the photochemical and photophysical properties of 1,2,3-triazole-containing complexes of Ru(II), Os(II) and Ir(III). Moving to a Research Fellow post in 2018, his interests now lie in the synthesis and photophysical study of complexes of the Earth-abundant transition metal elements.
Jing Shu graduated from Huanghe University of Science and Technology in 2017, currently studying for a master's degree at Guangdong Pharmaceutical University. Mainly engaged in the research on the synthesis of tumor-targeting drug molecules and their mechanisms of action. Published articles have focused on recognizing and stabilizing miR-21 by chiral ruthenium (II) complexes.
Graeme J. Stasiuk received his MChem (2006) and PhD (2010) degrees from the University of Leicester. Following a year at the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) in Grenoble, he joined Professor Nick Long's group at Imperial College, London in 2011 as a PDRA. In 2014 he was appointed as a Lecturer in Molecular Imaging at the University of Hull. In 2020 he moved his research group to the Department of Imaging Chemistry and Biology at King's College London. His research focuses on the design, synthesis and validation of molecular imaging agents for all modalities.
Simon D. Thomas obtained his BSc in Chemistry from the University of South Wales and his MSc in Catalysis from Cardiff University. He first joined the Dr. Owen's research group at the University of South Wales in 2016. He is currently in the write up stages of his PhD project which focuses on the synthesis and coordination of mono substituted borohydride ligands.
Dr. Christopher Whiteoak is a researcher at the Universidad de Alcalá de Henares (Spain). He obtained his MChem degree from the University of York (UK) and his PhD from Imperial College London (UK; Prof. V. C. Gibson FRS and Dr. G. J. P. Britovsek). After PDRA positions in Lyon (France), ICIQ and Girona (both Spain), he returned to the UK to take up a Lectureship in Inorganic Chemistry at Sheffield Hallam University. His research focuses on the development of practical C–H bond functionalisation protocols for the preparation of heterocycles and also the use of CO2 as a renewable chemical feedstock.
Luke A. Wilkinson obtained his MChem from the University of East Anglia and then undertook a PhD with Nathan Patmore, at the Universities of Sheffield and Huddersfield, exploring novel charge transfer mechanisms between dimetal paddlewheel complexes. He then took up a PDRA position at Durham University with James Walton on the reactivity of (η6arene)M complexes, followed by a PDRA at Imperial College with Nicholas Long on the synthesis of molecular electronic components for thermoelectric applications. Luke is now a Leverhulme Trust Early Career Research Fellow at the University of York where he is constructing dimolybdenum-porphyrin dyads for solar harvesting applications.
Qiong Wu graduated from Guangdong Pharmaceutical University with a masters degree for Medicinal Chemistry in 2013 and received her Doctorate (2016) in cell biology with Professor Yangqiu Li and Professor Wenjie Mei, and her postdoctoral position (2016-to date) in biomedical applications with Professor Wenjie Zheng at Jinan University. Her research focuses on the anticancer activity and mechanism of arene ruthenium complexes.
