POWNER LAB - Key Persons
I was born in Baghlan, Afghanistan, but as a child I grew up in Peshawar, Pakistan. I arrived in the UK in 2008 and went to school in north west London. I then went to the University of Reading to study for an MChem degree. My final year project was on the synthesis of photocaged neurotransmitters, supervised by Dr Christopher Smith. During my Undergraduate studies I also undertook another 8-week summer research project, metal-free aryne mediated C-H bond activation, under the supervision of Dr Christopher jones, at QMUL. For this I was awarded the "RSC Summer UGBursary 2019". During my undergraduate studies, I was also awarded the organic practical and Edward Guggenheim prize. I am now working on prebiotic peptide ligation for my PhD in mwp group. In my free time I enjoy cooking, running, and going to the gym.
After growing up near Dundee (Scotland), Andrew moved southwards to undertake his MChem at the University of Edinburgh, graduating in 2020. While at Edinburgh he undertook projects in the Lloyd-Jones, Cockroft and Thomas groups, work in the latter of which on iron-catalysed B₂pin₂ deuterogenolysis has been published. His final year MChem project on nickel-catalysed Heck reactions was performed under the supervision of Prof. Snyder at the University of Chicago. His work in the Powner group is currently focused on prebiotic cobalt catalysed reactions. In his spare time he would go to the pub or think about where he might next go on holiday, but instead he stays home and watches Netflix, reads the news obsessively, cooks, eats, and sleeps. It's like Groundhog Day (a film Andrew hasn't seen), but less funny.
My name is Arran, and I come from a village called Angmering in West Sussex. I did a four year integrated masters in Natural Sciences at Cambridge, specialising in Chemistry. I was at Christ's College, which was attended by Charles Darwin; here I am pictured sitting in his chair. Throughout my undergrad, I was interested in how chemical processes gave rise to living systems. This led me to focus on organic chemistry and its application to biology, and then to apply for a PhD in the Powner Lab. In my spare time, I enjoy reading, hiking, cooking, and the occasional trip to the pub.
Benji completed his undergraduate studies in Natural Sciences at the University of Cambridge, undertaking summer research projects in the Nitschke group and the Stoltz group (Caltech). He completed his MSci at Cambridge in 2019 in the Gaunt group, investigating activity-based protein profiling warheads.
Daniel has been a research fellow at UCL since 2017. After completing his masters project on self-assembled anion-binding copper complexes in the Nitschke group at the University of Cambridge, he worked as a visiting researcher in the Fulton group at the University of Newcastle studying thermoresponsive polymers. Daniel then moved to the Larrosa group at the University of Manchester, where he investigated the role of silver in palladium-catalysed C-H activation.
I am a postdoctoral research fellow at the UCL, and my research revolves around tackling the origin of life problem by using nucleotide specific catalyst. I have conducted my doctoral study at the University of Freiburg. My PhD work involved the design and development of synthetic technologies to access phosphorus-containing compounds for the biological application efficiently and straightforwardly. I have held a dual master's degree from the University of Delhi, India and Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Japan. During my master's thesis, I work on the synthesis of novel biodegradable polymers as well as studying optoelectronic property of the polymer films.
Hi, I'm Jasper and I come from Plymouth in the sunny southwest. After studying for my undergraduate degree at the University of Nottingham, I moved to London to complete a MRes in Organic Chemistry at UCL in the Anderson group. My research involves prebiotic peptide ligations using UV light and exploring photochemistry. Outside of the lab I like to travel, go to the pub, hike in the mountains, bake lots and dabble in music.
Originally from Guimarães, Portugal, I'm a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Early Stage Researcher doing a PhD in peptide catalysed triose glycolysis. Before moving to the UK, I did an undergraduate in Medicinal Chemistry at UTAD, a masters in Pharmaceutical Chemistry at FFUP and an internship as a Medicinal Chemistry trainee at Bial. I've experienced 4 years of multidisciplinary research in Medicinal Chemistry, with a strong focus on Organic Chemistry.