Matilde Palo
Start Date: October 2025
Matilde is a PhD student in the Boronski Group. She was born and raised in a small town in northern Italy but moved to Manchester for her GCSEs and A-Levels. She completed her MChem degree at the University of Oxford, where, in her final year, she researched mechanisms of iron-catalysed cross-couplings with Prof. M. Neidig. During her undergraduate studies, she carried out a summer internship in Prof. L. Vondung’s group (University of Hamburg), where she researched the applications of uranium nanoparticles in precursor synthesis. Her current research interests lie in beryllium-metal complexes, and small-molecule activation catalysed by beryllium and its compounds.
Charlotte Cavanagh
Start Date: October 2026
Charlotte is a PhD student in the Boronski group. She was raised in Hertfordshire before completing her MChem at Durham University. During her final year, she moved to sunny Spain to study at the University of Barcelona, working within the cyclometallation group. She worked with Dr J. Albert on the synthesis of cyclopalladated imines for applications as precatalysts in Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling reactions. She is currently interested in C–H functionalisation using polymetallic complexes.
Hugo Saint
Start Date: October 2026
Hugo is a PhD student in the Boronski group. He completed his undergraduate degree at St John’s College, University of Oxford. His master’s research project was conducted under the supervision of Prof. Simon Aldridge FRS and involved the study of transition metal boryl complexes. At Imperial, Hugo is investigating the synthesis, bonding, and reactivity of species with Be–Be bonds.