Alumni

Martin joined the group in 2023 to work on photocatalytic materials. He then moved to the Swiss Light Source in Villigen.
Email:mvappleby1@sheffield.ac.uk

Alex joined the group in the summer 2020. He worked on graphene and graphene-based materials, with the hope of fine-tuning them for sensing purposes. His project was part of the Signal in the Soil; a UK-USA initiative whose aim was to improve our understanding and management of our soils and find ways to preserve it.
Email: a.auty@sheffield.ac.uk

Sayantan joined the group in March 2018. His main project was to investigate the photo-physics of single porphyrins and metal-oxides thin films.
He left Sheffield for a second postdoc at UCL, followed by a scientist position at RAL.
We wish him all the best in his career!

Benedict Smith was awarded his MSc with distinction in green chemistry and sustainable industrial technology by the University of York in 2020. In the same year, he begins study for his PhD at the University of Sheffield co-supervised by Dr Adrien Chauvet and Dr Jonathan Foster. His research is a joint synthetic and spectroscopic study of the enhancement of the selectivity of graphene-based sensors by the addition of metal organic nanosheets for the realtime detection of phosphate and other small molecules in soil.
We wish you all the best!

Nikki joined the group in 2020 for her PhD with Dr Natalia Martsinovich and Dr Adrien Chauvet. She is currently working on graphene and graphene-based materials, with the hope of fine-tuning them for sensing purposes. Her project fits within the larger Signal in the Soil. The ultimate aim of this UK-USA collaboration is to improve our understanding and management of our soils and find ways to preserve it for our future generations.
Nikki secured a position at Concretene, a startup based in Manchester, as the graphene expert scientist.
Whishing you all the best!

Arthur joined the group in October 2017. He was working on the ultrafast transient spectroscopy (Helios) set up. The main project was to investigate the photo-physics of single porphyrins and metal-oxides thin films.
He was then awarded a 3-month KE Scholarship to work with MetalloBio.
Arthur then left the group to do a postdoc at Cardiff, and secured a scientist position at RAL.
We wish him all the best in his career!

Her computational Chemistry work on mineral adsorption then included some experimental aspects which brough her to Dr. Chauvet’s group.
We wish him all the best in her career!

Lucy joined the group in 2024 to work on characterising quinine-based antimalarial drugs.
Email: lwhitmore1@sheffield.ac.uk

Hamza joined the group in 2023 to work on synthesising and characterising novel non-precious metal carbon-based catalysts for hydrogen production via water electrolysis.
Email: hkalmarhabi1@sheffield.ac.uk

Ibtisam joined the group in 2023 to work on photo-acid molecules. The goal of her project was to better understand the spectral properties of this unique class of molecules. Her work is expected to enable us to spectroscopically study proton transfers.
Email: iisalzahrani1@sheffield.ac.uk

Imogen joined the group in 2022 to explore the photophysical properties of porphyrins.
Email:ijpkitchen1@sheffield.ac.uk

Isobel joined the group in 2021 and was working on series of Zn-OEP that have various degrees of oxidations; the goal was to evaluate the tunability of their inter system crossing and triplet lifetimes.
Email:imeikle1@sheffield.ac.uk

Ding joined the group in 2021 to work on novel graphene-based material.
We wish him all the best in his career!

Huan joined the group in 2021. While at Sheffield, he studied photo-induced proton transfers in various compounds.
We wish him all the best in his career!

Charlotte joined the group in 2020 for her Master project. She was working with quinine and quinine derivatives, with the hope of elucidating the mysteries behind their anti-malarial properties… The ultimately goal of her project is to help develop more effective drugs.
We wish her all the best in her career!

Chloe joined the group in 2019. She was working with metal-oxides (TiO2, CuxO, FeOx) thin films to explore the underlying electronic processes that are at the origin of their antibacterial properties.
We wish her all the best in her career!

Josh joined the group in 2019. He was working with graphitic carbon nitrides; a novel class of material that deserve to be better understood because of its potential applications as catalyst. Josh was also building a more convenient sample holder that will facilitate his studies.
We wish him all the best in his career!

Chenyu joined the group in 2019. He was working on metal-oxides (TiO2) thin films.
We wish him all the best in his career!

Joe joined the group in September 2018. He work on imaging wheat and tomato plants using OCT. The objective of the project was to investigate the growth of fungus in space and time using this non-invasive technique, as well as to monitor any morphological responses of the plant to stress.
We wish him all the best in his career!

Holly joined the group in September 2018. She was investigating the ultrafast dynamics of Chl a when excited at unusual wavelength. The objective of the project was to check if different excitation lead to noticeable changes in yield and lifetimes of the different excited states; and thus to understand the early relaxation pathways.
We wish her all the best in her career!

  Shuangyue joined the group in October 2017. She worked in collaboration with Steve Matcher’s group on Optical Coherence Tomography, and applied the technique to see through plants.
We wish her all the best in her career!

   Holly joined the group in September 2017. She characterised single synthetic porphyrins using the ultrafast transient spectroscopy (Helios) set up. We wish her all the best in her career!

   Jake joined the group in September 2017. He characterised copper and iron oxides thin films that have anti-bacterial properties. The goal was to understand how these metal oxides form singlet oxygen under UV-light exposure. The project was succesfull and will hopefully lead to a publication.
We wish him all the best in his career!

   Zak joined the group in September 2017. He characterised single synthetic porphyrins using the ultrafast transient spectroscopy (Helios) set up.
We wish him all the best in his career!

   Tom has obtained his master degree from The University of Sheffield in 2017. He performed, in collaboration with Steve, the first ultrafast transient experiment of the group. Hi goal was to investigate the relaxation pathways of Chl a and H2-OEP, two model porphyrin in natural and artificial photosynthesis. He also built Sheffield’s first model of the micro-fluidic flow cell. Congratulation and our best wishes for your next position.

   Steve has obtained his master degree from The University of Sheffield in 2017. He joined the group to further developed the frame-by-frame analysis. He successfully applied it to the Chl a he took in the laser lab. He also made and tested the first generation on miniature magnetic stirrer bar using a home-made magnetic plastic.
Good job Steve and all the best in you career!

   Liam has obtained his master degree from The University of Sheffield in May 2017. During his project he developed a frame-by-frame analysis to resolve the non-exponential relaxation components of photo-excited heme-proteins.
Excellent work! We wish him all the best for his future adventures! If you wish to contact him please email him at liam_banerji@yahoo.co.uk

AnnaMaria joined the Chauvet group in 2022, under the Sheffield Undergraduate Research (SURE) scheme. Her project consisted in investigating intra- and intermolecular proton transfers using spectroscopy.
Email:amcharalambous1@sheffield.ac.uk

Rouven joined the group in 2021 as an Erasmus student from Germany. He worked on novel antimalarial drugs… to see which ones undergo photo-induced proton transfers.
Rouven obtained his Bachelor in Chemistry at the Heidelberg Univeristy (2020), where he was also doing his Master in Chemistry… interested in physical and theoretical chemistry, especially regarding about spectroscopy.
We wish him all the best in his career!

   Will joined the group in November 2017. He worked on developing an alternative fitting method for ultrafast transient data.
We wish him all the best in his career!