DPhils

Ella Ogilvy

Ella grew up in Glasgow and completed an MChem, graduating in 2021 from the University of Edinburgh. During her time in Edinburgh, she was a summer student in the group of Prof. Guy Lloyd-Jones working on the synthesis of fluorinated photo-switches. Her final year was spent at ETH Zürich under the supervision of Prof. Peter Chen working on experimental gas-phase and DFT methods to investigate Cu-catalysed C-H carboxylations using CO2. Prior to this, in 2018, she worked in the lab of Prof. Hermann Wegner at Justus-Liebig University, Giessen synthesising phthalazine derivatives for use in redox flow batteries. Ella joined the Gouverneur group in October 2021 to begin her DPhil in Organic Chemistry. When not in the lab, Ella enjoys playing in orchestras, baking, and hiking. 

Gabija Poskaite

Gabija grew up in Vilnius, Lithuania and completed her MChem degree at the University of Southampton in 2021. During the summer of 2019 Gabija worked on synthesis of fluorinated carbohydrates under the supervision of Prof. Bruno Linclau, which led to her final year project on SRI-FESTA (selective-reverse INEPT fluorine-edited selective TOCSY acquisition) NMR utilisation for equilibrating mixtures of significant relevance in medicinal chemistry and chemical biology. She joined the Gouverneur group in October 2021. Gabija’s hobbies include exploring specialty coffee, playing board games and contract bridge.

Xiaoyun Wang

Xiaoyun (Claire) completed her BSc in Chemistry at Imperial College London. She did her BSc project under the supervision of Prof. Oscar Ces on Giant Unilamellar Vesicles. In October 2019, she joined the VG group to start her DPhil in Organic Chemistry. Claire enjoys music and plays the violin. She performs, teaches and plays the violin in orchestras.

Caleb Doyle

Caleb grew up in Liverpool and completed his MSci in Chemistry at the University of Nottingham, graduating in 2022. His final year project, under the supervision of Dr James Dowden, focused on developing a concise synthesis to a novel opioid scaffold. Caleb also completed a year-long industry placement at GW Pharmaceuticals in 2020/21, synthesising cannabinoids with potential anti-epileptic activity. He extended his placement to work in the botanical branch of GW, developing novel cannabis extraction techniques. Caleb joined the Gouverneur group in August 2022 to begin his DPhil in Organic Chemistry. In his free time, Caleb enjoys woodcarving, cooking, and repairing and restoring tools, antiques, and other curios.

Yongyi Guo

Yongyi completed her BEng in Applied Chemistry at Shanghai University in 2020. Her bachelor’s project was about the synthesis of perfluoroalkylated heterocyclic derivatives under the supervision of Prof. Weiguo Cao. During her master’s degree at the University of Edinburgh, she took the research project on the synthesis of hexafluoroisopropanol derivatives by Ruppert-Prakash reagent under the supervision of Dr Andrés García Domínguez and Prof. Guy Lloyd-Jones. Yongyi will join the VG group to begin her DPhil in Organic Chemistry in January 2022. In her spare time, she enjoys cooking, travelling, hiking and reading.

Job Struijs

Job completed his bachelor's and master's degree at the Eindhoven University of Technology. Before starting his master thesis, Job completed a summer exchange programme working on the synthesis, chain-end modification, and characterization of well-defined poly(acrylic acid)s in the groups of Prof. Craig J. Hawker and Prof. Javier Read de Alaniz (UCSB) in collaboration with Dow Chemical. His master thesis research was competed in Prof. Emiel Hensen’s group, and concerned low-concentration and low-temperature CO2 hydrogenation on reducible oxide supports. Besides chemistry, he enjoys meeting friends, playing the saxophone, mountain biking and playing tennis or squash.

Nicolas Charalambous

After 2 years of military service, Nicolas completed his bachelor's degree in chemistry at the university of St Andrews. There, he joined the group of Prof. Rebecca Goss, working on a novel detection method of halogenated amino acids utilising fluorescent probes. Following work as a spectroscopist for a year, he undertook a traineeship at the German Oncology Centre in his native Cyprus, where he developed a keen interest in positron emission tomography and radiopharmaceutical chemistry. He returned to St Andrews for his master's degree under Prof. David O'Hagan, focusing on the development of novel ¹⁸F-fluorinated A_2A adenosine receptor agonists for PET imaging. In 2023 he joined the Gouverneur group as a DPhil student to further pursue his interest in radiolabelling. Outside the lab, Nicolas can be found at a tennis court or teaching a cooking class. 

Zian Wang

Zian grew up in China and completed his BA and MSc degrees at the University of Cambridge. During the summer of 2022, Zian worked on the photoredox synthesis of tetrahydro-naphthyridines under the supervision of Prof Matthew Gaunt. He remained in the same research group for his Master's project, working towards primary amine homologation via deaminative radical generation. Zian joined the Gouverneur group in October 2023 to begin his DPhil in Organic Chemistry. In his spare time, Zian enjoys orchestral music, travelling, and reading.

Columbus Layton

Columbus did his MChem at Oxford as an undergraduate at Jesus College. He completed his Part II in 2024 in the Gouverneur group. He returned to the group later that year to begin his DPhil, still working on sustainable chemistry, moving down the road to Magdalen College. In his free time, he can be found by the river, (still) rowing for Jesus College Boat Club. He also enjoys dancing salsa, cooking, and baking desserts for his friends. 

Maddison Lovell

Maddison is from Bath, Somerset and received her MChem degree from the University of St Andrews. This included an external placement year at GSK, Stevenage, working as a synthetic chemist in the chemical modalities department. Maddison was supervised by Prof. Allan Watson for her final year masters project, working on the development of an asymmetric photocatalytic cross coupling using styrene boronic acids. After this, Maddison stayed in the Watson group for a summer placement, working on Chan-Lam couplings of benzoxaboroles. Maddison joined the SBM CDT in 2023, and completed her first rotation in the Willis group. In her spare time, Maddison enjoys going to the gym, cooking and spending time with friends.

Adam Sikorjak

Adam grew up in Slovakia but moved to the UK in 2020 to study Chemistry at the University of Oxford (St John's College) where he graduated with First Class Honours in 2024. After several summer internships at the University of Bristol (the Lennox lab and Galan group), GSK and HelloBio, he joined the Gouverneur group as Part II student. Outside of chemistry, he usually spends weekends at home gardening, reading, and baking. He also enjoys photography of animals.