Lewis Thomas-Hargreaves
Start Date: March 2026
Lewis completed his MChem in Chemistry with Study in Industry at the University of Sheffield in 2016, spending his third year working in the refractory industry at Vesuvius Plc. For his Master’s project, he joined the group of Dr Peter Portius, focusing on the synthesis of high‑nitrogen energetic compounds and their coordination to group 14 elements. He then made the long journey to the University of Manchester to pursue a PhD in organometallic lanthanide and actinide chemistry for small‑molecule‑magnet applications in the group of Prof. Steve Liddle.
In the summer of 2020, Lewis moved to the small and delightful town of Marburg, Germany, to work on organometallic beryllium chemistry in the group of Dr Magnus Buchner. In 2022 he ventured to Leipzig and – after briefly dipping his toes into the chemical industry – became the Group and Analytics Manager in the biochemistry research group of Prof. Martin Weissenborn in Halle (Saale). He returned to his hometown of London in March 2026 to join the Boronski group as a postdoctoral researcher and dive back into the world of organometallic beryllium chemistry.