Chris Braddock

Chris BraddockChris Braddock read Chemistry at St Peter's CollegeOxford and graduated with first class honours in 1992. He remained in Oxford to work with John Brown, FRS, for his doctorate which he obtained in January 1996. He was immediately appointed as a Fixed-Term Lecturer at Imperial College where he worked in Professor Tony Barrett's laboratories. In October 1998 he was appointed as a Lecturer in the newly created Synthesis section in the Department of Chemistry and initiated independent research. He was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2005, to Reader in 2008, and to Professor of Organic Chemistry in September 2015.

He was the winner of the Specialised Organic Chemicals Sector Association (SOCSA) 2000 Innovation Prize, the Royal Society of Chemistry Green Chemistry Jerwood Salters' Environment Award 2000, the Institute of Applied Catalysis (iAc) Award 2001 and the Pfizer award for teaching excellence 2002. He was awarded a Faculty of Natural Sciences Award for Excellence in Teaching 2012, FoNS, Imperial College London, 2012, a Rector's Prize for Excellence in Teaching 2012, Imperial College London, 2012 and the President's award for excellence in Pastoral Care 2014, Imperial College London, 2014. He was admitted to Fellow FRSC (Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry) in September 2014, and was the recipient of a Thieme Chemistry Journal award in 2015. 

Find out more about Chris

PhD Students

Albert Shi

Albert Shi

2016-
After graduating from University of Sheffield with a first-class honours BSc degree, Zhensheng (Albert) joined the group as a MRes student in 2015 to look at alternative approaches of generating bromonium ions. He subsequently started his PhD in 2016 to explore olefin metathesis chemistry as supported by the CSC-Imperial scholarship. In his spare time, He enjoys listening to classical music and playing piano.

 

  • "A Relay Strategy Actuates Pre-Existing Trisubstituted Alkenes in Monoterpenoids for Cross-Metathesis with Trisubstituted Alkenes" - DOI

 

Daniel O'Reilly

Daniel O'Reilly

2017-2022
Dan joined the group for his MSci project where he looked at some aspects of bromoallene chemistry. He stayed in the group to start his PhD in October 2017 (DTG funding), where he is exploring the use of adamantyl groupings to kinetically stabilise reactive intermediates. In his spare time, Dan is an avid reader. 

Shijia Zhu

Shijia Zhu

2018-
Shijia completed her BSc and MRes degrees at Imperial, after which she then stayed in the group for her PhD project starting in 2018. In this PhD project, she is currently exploring direct amidations of carboxylic acids. In her spare time, she enjoys cooking and believes that “there is nothing you can’t solve with a good hotpot. If there is, then go have another.”

Tianyou He

Tianyou He

2018-
Tianyou graduated with a first-class honours BSc degree from the University of Liverpool after taken a four-year joint course between China and UK. He susbequently joined the Braddock group to work on the synthesis of polysiphenol derivatives and to test their biological activities as an MRes Chemical Biology student. In 2018 he remained in the group to pursue a PhD degree focusing on the iterative synthesis of terpenoids via metathesis. In his spare time, he enjoys staying in the parks with music (if weather permits) or reading books at home when it's raining.

  • "A Relay Strategy Actuates Pre-Existing Trisubstituted Alkenes in Monoterpenoids for Cross-Metathesis with Trisubstituted Alkenes" - DOI
  • ''(±)-Polysiphenol and Other Analogues via Symmetrical Intermolecular Dimerizations: A Synthetic, Spectroscopic, Structural, and Computational Study'' - DOI

Rabia Qamar

rabis 32019-

After graduating from Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad with a first-class M.Phil. degree, Rabia joined the group to start her PhD as funded by Pakistani government scholarship. Currently, her research focus is to investigate catalytic direct amidations of carboxylic acids. In her spare time, she enjoys listening music and reading.

  • On the Use of Triarylsilanols as Catalysts for Direct Amidation of Carboxylic Acids - DOI

 

Josh Davies

Josh Davies

2019-
Josh re-joins the group in October 2019 on the Synthesis 4.0 CDT to start his PhD.  He has previously worked on Glycosyl Isonitrile and Nucleoside synthesis with the Barrett group during a summer research project. He has also undertaken a MSci project in the Braddock group investigating metathesis chemistry. In his spare time, Josh enjoys singing in the choir and quizzing with his local team, The Mint Imperials.

  • 'Silicon Compounds as Stoichiometric Coupling Reagents for Direct Amidation' - DOI
  • 'Methyltrimethoxysilane (MTM) as a Reagent for Direct Amidation of Carboxylic Acids' - DOI

 

Sean McCarthy

Sean photo2019-
Sean graduated from the University of Kent with a first-class BSc honours degree in Chemistry, working on a final-year project with Dr. Stefano Biagini on ROMP derived fluorescent polymers. Following his undergraduate degree, he undertook a 1-year postgraduate MSc with Prof. Charles Marson at UCL, working on cationic cyclisations yielding sp3 based medicinal scaffolds. Sean joins the group in October 2019 on the synthesis 4.0 CDT jointly supervised with Dr James Wilton-Ely to start his PhD. In his free time, he enjoys travelling, cooking and going to gigs. 

  • 'Strategies for Sustainable Palladium Catalysis' - DOI
  • 'From Waste to Green Applications: The Use of Recovered Gold and Palladium in Catalysis' - DOI

Tania de Felice

Tania photo2019-

Tania recently completed her MChem degree at Loughborough University, where she developed a strong interest in the area of catalysis. She spent her final year conducting research on the development of a new catalyst for the cracking of methane to produce hydrogen, to be used as an energy source. She is now pursuing a PhD with the joint supervision of Dr Rob Davies which focuses on gaining a deeper understanding of the copper-catalyst system in the modified Ullman reaction. In her spare time, she enjoys reading, playing piano and trying out new restaurants! 


Ziye Yang

Ziye

2020-

Ziye graduated from the University of Liverpool with first-class honours BSc degree and joined the group as a MRes student in Chemical Biology in 2018. His early research experience has mainly focused on organic synthesis, and his spare time goes into classical music and amateur chemistry experiments. He graduated from his MRes in September 2019, and rejoined the group to start his PhD in March 2020.

  • ''(±)-Polysiphenol and Other Analogues via Symmetrical Intermolecular Dimerizations: A Synthetic, Spectroscopic, Structural, and Computational Study'' - DOI

 

Ben Lancaster

Ben image2021-

Ben joined the group in January 2021 as a member of the Synthesis 4.0 CDT under joint supervision with Dr Christopher Tighe. His PhD focusses on the optimisation and kinetics of asymmetric intermolecular halofunctionalisation reactions. Before joining the group, he completed an MChem degree at the University of Durham and an MRes at Imperial College London. His research interests include synthesis, organocatalysis and chemometrics. In his free time, he enjoys PC gaming, racquet sports and competition reality shows.

  • ''Surmounting Byproduct Inhibition in an Intermolecular Catalytic Asymmetric Alkene Bromoesterification Reaction as Revealed by Kinetic Profiling'' - DOI

MRes Students

Yujie Ma

Yujie

2021-2022

Yujie graduated from the University of Nottingham in 2021 with first-class Honours BSc degree in chemistry, worked on Suzuki-based cross-coupling with Dr Barbara Villa Marcos as the final-year project. In October 2021 she joined the Braddock group as a MRes student with a focus on asymmetric bromonium ion chemistry. Her research interests include natural product synthesis, asymmetric synthesis and organometallics. In her spare time, she enjoys watching films, growing flowers and studying apologetics.

 

Jason Poon

Jason2021-2022

Jason graduated from the Chinese University of Hong Kong and worked on palladium-catalysed cross-coupling reactions with Professor Michael Fuk Yee Kwong as the final year project. He is currently working on transforming recovered palladium as active Suzuki Coupling  catalysts.  In his spare time, he enjoys playing badminton and travelling.

Nikolaos Mylonas

Nik2021-2022

Nikolaos graduated from the University of Reading in 2021 with a first-class honours degree in Chemistry, studying the reactivity of halometallate ionic liquids with Dr Kevin Lovelock as his final year project. His MRes, which is supervised by Prof. Braddock and Dr Wilton-Ely, focuses on the conversion of waste into palladium catalysts for the Nobel winning Heck reaction. In his free time, he enjoys watching his football team, going on trips, and cooking. 

 

MSci Students

Alaric Chan

2022-2023

Alaric joins the group for his final year MSci project on the enantiospecific synthesis of natural marine compound Peyssonol A. He has an interest in the pharmaceutical industry and drug discovery. In his spare time, he enjoys playing poker, watching F1 and reading. 

Lucy Clift

2022-2023 

Lucy joins the for her final year MSci Project on investigating a new approach to triggering polyene cyclisation. She has a keen interest in the pharmaceutical industry. In her spare time, Lucy enjoys playing netball and painting

Jiayin Shi

2022-2023 

Jiayin joins the group for her final year MSci project. She has a strong interest in organic chemistry in general and specifically the total synthesis of natural products. She enjoys painting and play board games with friends in her spare time.

BSc Students

Zhi'ang Chen

2021

ZhiangZhi'ang joins the group for his final year BSc project on the synthesis and resolution of stereoisomeric compounds from a bromonium ion-assisted epoxide ring-opening reaction. He has also previously worked on the synthesis and discovery of small-molecule coronavirus Mpro inhibitors. In his spare time, he enjoys travelling, music, and perfumery.