Dr Alastair J. J. Lennox
The PI of our group is interested in fundamental reactivity and mechanism in organic chemistry, and exploiting modern innovative technologies, such electrochemistry, to develop new synthetic reactions with a strong focus on sustainability and practicality.
For more information see: CV, Awards, Presentations, Google Scholar, Academic Tree, ORCID
Postdoctoral Researchers
Dr. Atul Chaturvedi
Atul graduated with an Msc in Chemistry from the University of Delhi in 2012 and then moved to the CSIR Central Drug Research Institute to pursue his PhD under the supervision of Dr. Namrata Rastogi. His worked focused on metal-free annulations and visible light photo-redox catalysis. Atul then joined the group of Prof. Chandra M. R. Volla at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay as an institutional postdoctoral fellow where he explored transition metal-catalysed C-C and C-Heteroatom bond forming reactions. In 2022 Atul joined the Lennox Lab to investigate fluorination protocols.
Dr. Zhenhao (George) Zhong
George graduated with a BSc in Chemistry in a 3+1 joint programme between Nanjing Tech University and the University of Sheffield in 2019. Then he completed his MRes and PhD degrees at Imperial College London under the supervision of Prof. James A. Bull. His work focused on the synthesis of sulfoximines with reactive functionalities. In 2024 George joined the Lennox Lab to investigate the synthesis of fluorine-functionalised quinones via electrochemical fluorination.
Dr. Mohamed Elsherbini
Mohamed graduated with a BSc in chemistry from Mansoura University, Egypt and returned in 2014 to complete his PhD under the supervision of Professors Hanafi Zoorob and Wafaa Hamama on the synthesis of biologically active selenium-containing heterocycles. He was then appointed as a chemistry lecturer at the Saudi Mining Polytechnic before moving to Cardiff in 2016 to join the group of Professor Thomas Wirth to study hypervalent iodine chemistry and enabling technologies in organic synthesis. They later worked in collaboration with Professor Rudolf Allemann to develop preparations of artemisnin under flow conditions. Following this he moved to the University of Huddersfield in 2019 to join Dr Wesley Moran and work on the electrochemical synthesis of iodine compounds. In 2022 Mohamed joined the Lennox Lab to explore new methods for selective electrochemical fluorination.
Dr. Alexi Sedikides
Alexi graduated from Cardiff University with an MChem before joining the Lennox Lab to do his PhD. His work focussed on developing alkyne fluorination protocols in collaboration with UCB. Upon completion he returned to the Lennox Lab for postdoctoral studies.
Samuel Deeks
Sam carried out his MSci project in the Faul lab at the University of Bristol. His PhD project was in developing new materials and reactor designs in collaboration with the Faul group. Upon completion he returned to the Lennox Lab for postdoctoral studies.
PhD Students
Andrew Lacey
2020
Andrew joins the Lennox group after finishing his MChem degree at the University of Warwick. He will conduct computational and experimental investigations into new electrochemical fluorination strategies.
Mickaël Avanthay
2020
Mickaël completed his undergraduate studies at ETH Zürich and then completed the AstraZeneca R&D graduate program in Sweden before joining the Lennox Lab to investigate reductive electrochemical methods.
Sarah Coppock
2021
Sarah joins the Lennox Lab from the Bristol TECS CDT after completing her MChem at Keele University. She is currently working on electrochemical fluorination methodology in collaboration with AstraZeneca.
Charlotte Smith
2021
Charlotte completed her undergraduate degree in Medicinal and Pharmaceutical Chemistry at Loughborough University . She joins the Lennox Lab to develop new photoredox catalysts.
Stephen Sweeting
2021
Stephen joins the Lennox Lab having completed his undergraduate degree at the University of Bristol. He completed summer placements and his final year project in the Hall group. Stephen will be developing electrochemical fluorination protocols.
Luke Ward
2022
Luke completed his MChem at the University of Cardiff where he spent a placement year at Hoffmann La Roche in Basel. Luke then worked at Nanopharm before joining the Lennox Lab where he will focus on developing electrochemical fluorination methodology.
Harvey Randle
2023
Harvey graduated from St. Anne's College, University of Oxford in 2022. During his final year research project, he worked with Prof. Jeremy Robertson investigating oxonium Diels-Alder reactions of 2 and 3-alkyl substituted cyclopentenones. He joins the Lennox Lab from the TECS CDT to explore fluorination reactions using hypervalent iodine reagents.
Anthony Abel
2023
Anthony graduated from the University of Leicester in 2021 where he worked with Dr Alexander Pulis on B(C6F5)3-catalysed reactions of anilines with alkenes for his final year project. He then completed a PGCE at Queens' College, University of Cambridge before joining the Lennox Lab via the TECS CDT to explore fluorination methodology.
Tom O'Brien
2023
Tom completed his MSci at the University of Bristol in 2022, where during his research project he worked on the direct amination of boronic esters in the Aggarwal group. He went on to complete multiple placements in the Lennox Lab and is now doing his PhD in the group where he will be investigating electrode materials for organic electrosynthesis.
Charu Bansal
2023
Charu completed her M.Sc. from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, India. During her final year, she joined Prof. Sundargopal Ghosh's Lab and worked on activation of small molecules. She has joined the Lennox lab in 2023 to explore C-H fluorination methods.
Undergraduate Students
Max stone joined the group in 2024 and is currently exploring fluorination reactions utilising hypervalent iodine reagents.
Jack Salt joined the group in 2024 and is currently working on fluoride shuttling utilising Metallocene and PFAS.