Summer 2024 (l-r): Elif Zeynep Erten, Ahmad Babtain, Chen Huang, Kholil Rahman, Ondrej Fellner, Jack Baldwin, David Mills, Hannah Redmill, Jack Emerson-King, Sophie Corner.
Current members
Postdoctoral researchers
Postdoctoral researchers
Dr Jack "Jek" Emerson-King (2019 - present)
Originally from sunny Worthing, Jek is slowly coming to terms with the Manchester climate, though somehow still doesn't own a raincoat, umbrella, or any waterproof shoes.
He obtained his MChem and PhD from the University of Warwick, the latter in the Chaplin Group doing things with rhodium and iridium phosphine complexes. He then proceeded to abandon radially expansive valence orbitals for a Post Doc in the Mills Group, working mostly with lanthanide silylamide complexes. Jek is still here, now back in the d-block exploring low-valent metallocene chemistry.
Outside the lab Jek can typically be found walking somewhere briskly, dividing ABV by GBP in a tap room, or planted in front of a computer with far too much RGB; playing poker, chess, or some sort of RTS game. For reasons that are entirely inconsistent, he has an irrational dislike of both double-barrelled surnames and three-letter acronyms.
He obtained his MChem and PhD from the University of Warwick, the latter in the Chaplin Group doing things with rhodium and iridium phosphine complexes. He then proceeded to abandon radially expansive valence orbitals for a Post Doc in the Mills Group, working mostly with lanthanide silylamide complexes. Jek is still here, now back in the d-block exploring low-valent metallocene chemistry.
Outside the lab Jek can typically be found walking somewhere briskly, dividing ABV by GBP in a tap room, or planted in front of a computer with far too much RGB; playing poker, chess, or some sort of RTS game. For reasons that are entirely inconsistent, he has an irrational dislike of both double-barrelled surnames and three-letter acronyms.
Jack Baldwin (2020-present)
Jack (not to be confused with the other Jack) originally comes from a little town called Beverley, just north of Hull in East Yorkshire. As well as trying to adjust to the much wetter weather Manchester experiences, he is still trying to figure out where everything is in the city.
Discovering that he shared his name with a famous chemist, Jack knew that Chemistry was the route to go. He completed his MChem degree at Newcastle University doing his final year project with Dr. Keith Izod which involved working with bulky phosphine ligands. Jack moved to The University of Manchester to undertake his PhD in the synthesis of low coordinate f-element complexes. He has stayed in the group as a PDRA following completion of his PhD.
You'll often find Jack playing video games from the likes of Pokemon, Zelda and Mario to Tomb Raider, Spyro and Crash Bandicoot. He is also an avid binger of all things Netflix with comedy box sets being the usual go to choice and is usually found with a glass of wine in hand.
Contact: 3.056/3.058 Department of Chemistry, [email protected]
Discovering that he shared his name with a famous chemist, Jack knew that Chemistry was the route to go. He completed his MChem degree at Newcastle University doing his final year project with Dr. Keith Izod which involved working with bulky phosphine ligands. Jack moved to The University of Manchester to undertake his PhD in the synthesis of low coordinate f-element complexes. He has stayed in the group as a PDRA following completion of his PhD.
You'll often find Jack playing video games from the likes of Pokemon, Zelda and Mario to Tomb Raider, Spyro and Crash Bandicoot. He is also an avid binger of all things Netflix with comedy box sets being the usual go to choice and is usually found with a glass of wine in hand.
Contact: 3.056/3.058 Department of Chemistry, [email protected]
PhD students
Samilli Vasconcelos (2024-2029)
Sam was born in Brazil, moved to Portugal as a teen and to the UK for university. She did her MChem in the University of Huddersfield, where she took her research placement year under the supervision of Prof. Nathan Patmore on quadruply bonded dimolybdenum paddlewheel complexes, a summer project with Prof. Paul Elliott and final year MChem project with Prof. Craig Rice. She moved to Manchester to do a PhD monitoring f-block small molecule activation by single crystal X-ray diffraction.
Sam spends most of her free time wondering why she keeps moving to places with increasingly worse weather conditions. She also "cooks", watches most things on streaming (whilst playing spider solitaire) and pretends to enjoy going to the gym.
Contact: 3.056/3.058 Department of Chemistry, [email protected]
Sam spends most of her free time wondering why she keeps moving to places with increasingly worse weather conditions. She also "cooks", watches most things on streaming (whilst playing spider solitaire) and pretends to enjoy going to the gym.
Contact: 3.056/3.058 Department of Chemistry, [email protected]
Kholil Rahman (2024-2028)
Kholil has lived in the Greater Manchester area since 2009 and completed his MChem at the University of Manchester. His 4th year project focused on establishing magneto structural relationship of hypothetical dysprosium complexes, under the supervision of Prof Nicholas Chilton. Now he is starting his PhD in Manchester, trying to understand the electronic structure of novel transition metal complexes, in a joint project under the supervision of Prof Nicholas Chilton, Prof David Mills and Dr Meagan Oakley.
Outside of Chemistry, Kholil is always trying to go to the gym more consistently or join the University's cricket team, but he hasn’t figured out how to do either. You might also see him with work of classic literature in his hand, but please don’t ask him if has ever finished one.
Contact: 3.056/3.058 Department of Chemistry, [email protected]
Outside of Chemistry, Kholil is always trying to go to the gym more consistently or join the University's cricket team, but he hasn’t figured out how to do either. You might also see him with work of classic literature in his hand, but please don’t ask him if has ever finished one.
Contact: 3.056/3.058 Department of Chemistry, [email protected]
Hannah Redmill (2022-2026)
Hannah is originally from Lincoln in the Midlands. In 2021/22, she worked on her final year MChem research project on group 2 metallocene complexes with CAAC ligands under the supervision of former group member, Dr Fabrizio Ortu, at the University of Leicester. Hannah has now moved to the University of Manchester to undertake her PhD in f-element heavy pnictogen complexes.
Being new to Manchester Hannah is still trying to not get lost trying to find everything in the city and acclimatising to the adverse weather conditions. Outside of Chemistry, Hannah pretends to be interested in keeping fit by running and playing tennis rather badly as well as watching it. She also enjoys trying new food recipes, finding different spots for a walk in Manchester, and watching live music.
Contact: 3.056/3.058 Department of Chemistry, [email protected]
Being new to Manchester Hannah is still trying to not get lost trying to find everything in the city and acclimatising to the adverse weather conditions. Outside of Chemistry, Hannah pretends to be interested in keeping fit by running and playing tennis rather badly as well as watching it. She also enjoys trying new food recipes, finding different spots for a walk in Manchester, and watching live music.
Contact: 3.056/3.058 Department of Chemistry, [email protected]
MChem students
Guillermo Garcia-Figueras Mateos (2024-2025)
Guillermo "Gui" is originally from Jerez de la Frontera, a city found in the south of Spain. After completing his third year project on uniquely substituted NHC ligands on catalysts under the supervision of Dr Alan Brisdon and a summer project with Dr Conrad Goodwin, he has decided to return back to the world of f-element synthetic chemistry for his masters project.
Gui is often found at a pub or enjoying a meal from hidden gems around Manchester with the company of his friends. In his downtime, he also likes to de-stress by bouldering at climbing gyms or taking hours-long naps.
MSc students
Ahmad Babtain (2024-)
Ahmad was born in Makkah, Saudi Arabia, but managed to live in 7 different cities before entering his 20s. He did his bachelor’s at King Fahd’s University of Petroleum and Minerals, which has the longest university name in the world, where he conducted research on graphene and semi-conductor nanomaterials, mainly iron and molybdenum oxides. He then did his MSc at the university of Manchester where he undertook a biochemistry project, studying the central metabolism of P. Putida and E. Coli using genetically encoded biosensors. Ahmad is currently investigating lanthanide organometallic catalysts as a part of an MPhil degree in the Mills group.
Outside the lab, Ahmad enjoys cooking -if you define cooking as throwing random things in a pot and calling it a stew- and collecting old books. Ahmad loves going to used book sales to find and buy books printed >100 years ago that won’t crumble when he tries to read them. One of his dreams is to add a 19th century print of Alice in Wonderland and through the looking glass, his favourite escapism books, to his collection (he believes that finding one online is cheating).
Outside the lab, Ahmad enjoys cooking -if you define cooking as throwing random things in a pot and calling it a stew- and collecting old books. Ahmad loves going to used book sales to find and buy books printed >100 years ago that won’t crumble when he tries to read them. One of his dreams is to add a 19th century print of Alice in Wonderland and through the looking glass, his favourite escapism books, to his collection (he believes that finding one online is cheating).
Visiting and placement students
MSc students
