Author biographies

Ramaraj Ayyappan was born and raised in Nilakottai, Tamilnadu, India. I completed a PhD in the area of small molecule activation working under the auspicious guidance of Prof. Balaji R. Jagirdar, IISc, Bangalore. I subsequently gained experience through two post-doctoral stays, one at the historical LCC-CNRS, Toulouse and the second at University of South Wales in the Sustainable Environment Research Centre, Pontypridd. Currently, I am working as an assistant professor at IISER-TVM, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India. My research work focuses on the development of tailored transition-metal complexes for challenging chemical transformations towards sustainability.

Benjamin N. Bhawal undertook both his undergraduate and postgraduate studies at the University of Cambridge, completing his PhD under the supervision of Prof. Steven Ley. Subsequently, he undertook postdoctoral work with Prof. Fabien Gagosz at École Polytechnique and Prof. Bill Morandi at both the Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung and ETH Zürich. He started his independent research career at the University of Edinburgh as the recipient of a Christina Miller Research Fellowship and currently holds a Chancellor’s Fellowship.

Maria Distressa G. Billacura studied towards her Bachelor’s degree in chemistry at Mindanao State University (MSU)-Main Campus (Marawi City, Philippines) and thereafter completed a Master’s degree at MSU-Iligan Institute of Technology (MSU-IIT, Iligan City, Philippines). She obtained her PhD in 2023 at Sheffield Hallam University (UK), under the guidance of Prof. Bricklebank, Dr Whiteoak and Dr Forbes. After completion of her doctoral studies, she returned to the Philippines, obtaining a Lecturer position. Currently, she serves as an Associate Professor in the Chemistry Department at MSU-IIT. Her research interests focus on CO₂ utilisation and functionalisation of CO₂-based compounds.

Deepthy Devassy obtained her Bachelor’s degree from St. Joseph’s College, Irinjalakuda, and her Master’s degree from the NIT, Meghalaya, in 2021. As a former Junior Research Fellow (JRF) funded by UGC DAAD, she worked on the project ‘Chemical Innovations for Sustainable Future’ under Dr Debayan Sarkar at NIT Rourkela. Currently, Deepthy is continuing her research journey as a JRF at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Thiruvananthapuram, under the guidance of Dr Ramaraj Ayyapan funded by SERB. Her research focuses on the development of phosphine-amine ligands for hydrogenation reactions.

Aditya Dey earned his BSc degree at the University of Calcutta, Kolkata in 2020 and then went on to complete his MSc degree in Chemistry at the Rajabazar Science College, Kolkata in 2022. Since July 2023, he has been a PhD student at IIT Madras under the supervision of Dr Arnab Rit. Aditya’s research interests revolve around the synthesis of multifunctional N-heterocyclic carbene ligand-derived transition metal complexes and investigating their catalytic activities.

Felipe Fantuzzi is a Lecturer in Chemistry at the University of Kent (UK). He obtained his BSc, MSc, and PhD from the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, under the guidance of Prof. Marco Nascimento and Dr Thiago Cardozo. He then undertook PDRA stays at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg, the latter as an Alexander von Humboldt fellow with Professors Holger Braunschweig and Bernd Engels. Research in Felipe’s group focuses on computational quantum chemistry and multiscale modelling to explore the electronic structure, bonding, and reactivity of main-group and organometallic compounds.

Sergio Fernández, born and raised in Oviedo (Asturias, Spain), earned his Bachelor’s degree in chemistry at the University of Oviedo in 2016. Joining the Selective Organic Synthesis Group (SOS) under the supervision Prof. Ballesteros and Dr Santamaría, he studied novel gold-catalyzed reactions using unsaturated organosilylated molecules. During this time, he performed a short stay at Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung (Germany) in Dr Josep Cornellà’s group. After obtaining his PhD in 2022, he transitioned to Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) as a Ramón Areces and later UKRI-MSCA postdoctoral fellow, mentored by Dr Oriol Planas.

Benjamin S. Grills graduated with an MChem from Cardiff University in 2022. He spent a year on an industrial placement at PCI Pharma Services before working in the Fallis group for his Masters research project. His PhD project is a collaboration between the Bhawal and Garden groups designing and synthesising heterobimetallic complexes and exploring their reactivity as catalysts for organic synthesis.

Laura A. Grose completed her MChem degree at The University of Southampton in 2020 with a research placement at The University of Otago, New Zealand. She is now in her final year of postgraduate studies under the supervision of Dr Darren Willcox at The University of Manchester. Her research interest is the development of iron-complexes for cooperative catalysis.

Alex Hamilton studied MChem Chemistry at Swansea University (UK) and obtained his PhD in Computational and Structural Chemistry from University of Bristol in 2010 (Profs Orpen and Harvey), followed by postdoctoral positions at ICIQ (Spain) and Massey University (NZ). In 2014 he joined Sheffield Hallam University as a Lecturer in Physical Chemistry, with promotion to Senior Lecturer in 2016. His research group focuses on the application of computational chemistry methods to understand reaction mechanisms in homogeneous transition metal catalysis. Current research interests revolve around CO₂ utilisation and C–H activation, with different computational chemistry and machine learning approaches.

Cassiem Joseph graduated from Stellenbosch University in 2021 under the guidance of Prof. Selwyn Mapolie and Prof. Andrew Swarts. He is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the University of the Witwatersrand under the supervision of Prof. Swarts, where his focus lies in catalyst design and the utilization of organometallic compounds in catalysis, specifically in hydrogen storage and release processes. Additionally, his keen interest extends to exploring the potential of these compounds as anti-cancer and anti-bacterial agents.

Ryan D. Lewis graduated with a BSc in Chemistry from Sheffield Hallam University in 2021. He subsequently joined the Hamilton group to study towards a PhD in Computational Chemistry. His research focusses on the application of density functional theory based computational methods and machine learning approaches to understand reaction mechanisms for group 13 catalysed CO₂ utilisation.

Oriol Planas, born in La Jonquera (Catalunya, Spain), earned his PhD at the University of Girona in 2018 under the guidance of Dr Xavi Ribas and Dr Anna Company, unravelling the intricacies of cobalt-catalysed C–H activations. He then joined Dr Josep Cornellà’s group (Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung) in Germany as an MSCA Postdoctoral Fellow. There, he developed redox catalytic methods exploiting the ability of bismuth to undergo organometallic events. In November 2021, he was appointed as a Lecturer in Organic Chemistry at Queen Mary University of London, where he develops organometallic catalysts based on earth-abundant d- and p-block elements.

Ariharasudhan Rajendran completed a Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry at the Gandhigram Rural Institute and a Master’s degree from NIT, Rourkela. He is currently pursuing a PhD at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Thiruvananthapuram under the guidance of Dr Ramaraj Ayyappan. His research focuses on the development of phosphorus–nitrogen and carbene ligands for the activation of small molecules, showcasing a keen interest in advancing the field of organometallic chemistry.

Ian Riddlestone obtained his MChem degree from Newcastle University and his DPhil from the University of Oxford. After a post-doctoral position at the University of Bath with Prof. Michael Whittlesey he then obtained both Alexander von Humboldt and Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies Fellowships to work in the group of Prof. Ingo Krossing at the University of Freiburg. Ian was appointed as a lecturer in Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Surrey in 2019 and his research is focused on using cooperativity to develop new catalysts based on cheap and sustainable elements.

Arnab Rit graduated from IIT Kharagpur. He then pursued his Dr rer. net. in Organometallic Chemistry at WWU Muenster, Germany under the guidance of Prof. F. E. Hahn in 2011. Later, he worked as a post-doctoral researcher at RWTH Aachen, Germany in the group of Prof. Jun Okuda. He was also a Marie Curie post-doctoral fellow at the University of Oxford in the group of Prof. Simon Aldridge. In December 2015, he joined IIT Madras as an Assistant Professor, subsequently being promoted to Associate Professor. His research work mainly focuses on different aspects of organometallic chemistry, including catalyst development for applications in organic transformations, and mechanistic investigations.

Cauê P. Souza is a PhD student in Chemistry at the University of Kent (UK) under the supervision of Dr Felipe Fantuzzi. He obtained his BSc and MSc from the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, under the guidance of Dr Thiago Cardozo. He has experience in quantum chemistry, focusing on the photophysical properties of molecular systems for light-harvesting applications and photoredox catalysis using TDDFT and ADC(2) methods. His PhD project involves multiscale modelling of photo-assisted chemical vapour deposition, using a combination of quantum chemistry and irradiation-driven molecular dynamics simulations, in collaboration with the MBN Research Center in Germany.

Andrew Swarts is currently employed as an Associate Professor of Inorganic Chemistry within the School of Chemistry, University of the Witwatersrand. He obtained his PhD degree under the supervision of Prof. Selwyn Mapolie from Stellenbosch University in 2014. His doctoral studies focused on organometallic synthesis and catalysis. The Swarts Research Group’s current research interests revolve around the theme: Catalysis for Sustainability. Within this, his group develops catalytic protocols which employ earth-abundant metals under benign reaction conditions for the preparation of a variety of high-value chemical commodities and applications in energy.

Chandra Shekhar Tiwari completed his integrated BSc, BEd degree in 2016 at the Regional Institute of Education, Bhubaneswar. After that, he received his MSc in Chemistry from Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology (VNIT), Nagpur in 2018. He then joined IIT Madras in 2018 as a PhD student under the mentorship of Dr Arnab Rit. His research interests include synthesizing multifunctional N-heterocyclic carbene ligand-derived transition metal complexes and investigating their catalytic activities.

Christopher J. Whiteoak studied chemistry at the University of York (UK) and earned his PhD in 2010 (Profs Gibson and Britovsek, Imperial College London, UK). After postdoctoral positions in France (Dr Boisson, CPE-Lyon) and Spain (Prof. Kleij, ICIQ and Dr Ribas, Universität de Girona), he returned to the UK (Sheffield Hallam University) as a Lecturer. In 2020 he joined the SOSCATCOM research group at the Universidad de Alcalá (Spain) (Talent Attraction fellowship, Comunidad de Madrid). His current research interests include the synthesis of heterocyclic compounds through a C–H bond functionalization approach and the synthetic valorisation of bio-derived compounds and CO₂.

Darren Willcox is a lecturer in inorganic chemistry at the University of Manchester, UK. He obtained his PhD in chemistry from the University of Nottingham in 2014 with Prof. Simon Woodward. Upon completion of his PhD, he moved to the University of Cambridge as a post-doctoral fellow under the supervision of Prof. Matthew Gaunt, followed by a second post-doctoral position in 2019 at Cardiff University with Prof. Rebecca Melen. In 2019 Darren started his independent position at the University of Manchester, where his group focuses on 3d metal complexes containing Z-type ligands for catalysis.