Group members

The group currently comprises 15 people: the principal investigator, 1 reseach associate, 7 PhD students, 3 visiting PhD students, 2 master students, and it benefits from the support of 1 research technician. For more infomation click here: 

PDRA

  • Dr. Rebecca Stones (2019 – present), Research Associate, Research area: valorisation of recycled glass for sustainable processes. Project funded by: The Leverhulme Trust. Project partners: Glass Technology Services, University of Newcastle and Leibniz Insitute for Catalysis.

PhD students (alphabetical order)

  • Ghadeer Albalawi (2019 – present), Research area: nano and porous materials for water treatment processes. Project funded by: Tabuk University, Saudi Arabia.
  • Bahhaj Alshammari (2020 – present), Research area: investigation of hydrocarbon oxidation processes by analytical methods development . Project funded by: Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia Cultural Bureau.
  • Baozhai Han (2017 – present), Research area: supported metal nanoparticles for the oxidation of hydrocarbons to ketones. Project funded by: China Scholarship Council and The University of Sheffield.
  • Mohamed Kashbor (2019 – present), Research area: hierarchical zeolites for the isomerization of sugars to platform chemicals. Project funded by: Lybian Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research. 
  • Mengyuan Qian, (2019 – present), Research area: water purification processes for agriculture. Project funded by: UoS Research Institute for Sustainable Food, and Grantham Centre for Sustainable Futures. Project in collaboration with: Department of Civil Engineering at The University of Sheffield. Project partner: Glass Technology Services.
  • Dedi Sutarma (2015 – present), Research area: nematic phases for the isomerisation of sugars to platform chemicals. Project funded by: Indonesia Endowment Fund for Education.
  • Changyan Zhou (2017 – present), Research area: advanced nanomaterials for the abatement of pollutants in water. Project funded by: Grantham Centre for Sustainable Futures. Project in collaboration with: Department of Mechanical Engineering at The University of Sheffield. Project partner: Institute of Technology of Bandung, Indonesia.

Visiting or co-supervised PhD students (alphabetical order)

  • Charlie Adams (2019 – present, student based at the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre, Rotherham, UoS), Reseach area: deposit of carbonaceous products in jet turbines, Project funded by: European Research Council.
  • Hasina Begum (2019 – present, student based at Mechanical Engineering), Research area: synthesis of vibro-acoustic composites, Project funded by: Grantham Centre for Sustainable Futures.
  • Eleanor O’Doherty (2017 – present, student based at Chemical and Biological Engineering), Research area: waste valorisation of organic by-products, Project funded by: Grantham Centre for Sustainable Futures. Project partner: Entomics Biosystems ltd.

MChem and MSc students (academic year 2020/21)

  • Eunpyo Lee. Research area: mathematical modelling of chemical reactions
  • Alexander Mee. Research area: isomerization of sugars in acid media

Pool research technicians

  • Heather Grievson

Former group members (in reverse chronological order)

PDRA

  • (2019) Dr. Venkata Chodimella, Research Associate, Research area: valorisation of recycled glass for sustainable processes. Project funded by: The Leverhulme Trust. 
  • (2018) Dr. Preabjot Singh, EPSRC Doctoral Prize Fellow, Research area: photocatalysts for the selective oxidation of aromatic compounds. Project funded by: EPSRC and The University of Sheffield. 

PhD students

  • (2016 – 2020), James Railton, thesis: “Developing the synthesis of novel TiO2 and Nb2O5 supports and their applications to the selective oxidation of alkanes”. Project funded by: Chemistry Department, The University of Sheffield.
  • (2014-2017) Preabjot Singh, thesis: “Niobium oxide based catalysts for the selective oxidation of hydrocarbons”. Project funded by: EPSRC and The University of Sheffield.

MChem/MSc students

  • (2019/2020) Mubarak Magaji, research area: hydrocarbon oxidation
  • (2019/2020) Joshua Dang, thesis: “Using different oxidation states of silver catalysts to achieve selectivity control in hydrocarbon oxidation”
  • (2018/2019) Jonathan Gregg, thesis: “Development of bimetallic catalysts for the oxidaiton of cyclooctane to cyclooctanone”
  • (2017/2018) Luke Forster, thesis: “Development of novel precious metal catalysts for the production of styrene”
  • (2017/2018) Philippa James, thesis: “Development of heterogeneous catalysts for the isomerisation of glucose to fructose and mannose”
  • (2016/2017) Chloe Baker,  thesis: “Testing of heterogeneous rhodium catalysts for the oxidation of alcohols in a biphasic system”
  • (2016/2017) Jamie Bradley,  thesis: “Novel silver and gold supported nanoparticle catalysts for selective hydrocarbon oxidation”
  • (2016/2017) Conor Wilde,  thesis: “Development of supported rhodium nanoparticles for alcohol oxidation”
  • (2015/2016) Liam Pratt, thesis: “Rhodium on activated carbon catalysts for the oxidation of alcohols”
  • (2014/2015) Ian Firth, thesis: “Rhodium on carbon catalysts as a model system for alcohol oxidation and the development of acoustic impedance methods for microporous materials”
  • (2014/2015) Jack Weston, thesis: “Heterogeneous rhodium based catalysts for the oxidative kinetic resolution of 1-phenylethanol”
  • (2013/2014) Victoria Oakes, thesis: “Hydrochlorination of acetylene by Au, Pd, and Pt chlorides: a study of the reaction mechanism by DFT”