Three new cross-EaStCHEM PhD students have started in October 2025, working on projects that draw on expertise from across the EaStCHEM partner schools. EaStCHEM studentships are collaborative PhD studentships that are co-supervised with at least one supervisor from each of the two EaStCHEM partner chemistry schools. Read an introduction to the new students and their projects below! Aayush Anand Aayush Anand has started his PhD in the research groups of Dr Amit Kumar (St. Andrews), and Dr Jennifer Garden (Edinburgh). Aayush's PhD research is at the interface of organometallic catalysis and materials chemistry, aiming to develop new synthetic routes to convert CO2 to valuable polymers, for example, polyurethanes, using multiple catalytic approaches that are made possible through the EaStCHEM collaboration. I am thrilled to see this collaboration take shape—it is an exciting opportunity for both our teams at EaStCHEM to work at the forefront of sustainable catalysis and materials research. Dr Amit Kumar Zac Bub Project title: Enhancing the reactivity of BF3 for drug discovery and synthesis.Et2O-BF3 is a ubiquitous reagent in synthesis, however, Et2O coordination significantly passivates the reactivity of BF3. This project will develop simple methods to make L-BF3 (L= weak base) direct from bench stable [BF4]- salts. We will utilise these new L-BF3 in-situ to make novel BO-based heterocycles and useful borylated compounds via efficient and operationally simple approaches. “BO” containing heterocycles are a growth area for the pharmaceutical industry (e.g., Taniborbactam/Xeruroborbactam), however current synthetic routes are limited and inefficient and there is a large area of BO heterocycle space completely unexplored as their bioactivity is a recent (< 15yr) discovery. This is a new collaboration between University of Edinburgh academics (Profs. Ingleson/Thomas) and Prof. Watson at the University of St Andrews. It combines Ingleson/Thomas’ expertise in boron Lewis acids/borylation with Watson’s expertise in boron heterocycles and biological applications of BO-containing heterocycles. I have thoroughly enjoyed the start of my Chemistry PhD at the University of Edinburgh. I have found all the staff and students to be extremely supportive, and I am excited to delve into some really interesting chemistry over the next 3.5 years. I am very grateful to EaStCHEM for this opportunity. Zac Bub Matthew Wallace Matthew’s project is called ‘Synthesis of Persistent Organic Radicals for Quantum Technology’ and is a new collaboration between Dr Iain Wright (Edinburgh) and Dr Bela Bode (St Andrews). Organic radicals are promising candidates for use as qubits – the quantum equivalent of the commonly encountered binary bit. However, organic radicals are normally highly reactive species so we have to use specific molecular structures to reduce their reactivity and make them useful new materials for quantum technology applications. New persistent organic radicals will be synthesised at Edinburgh and then studied using advanced electron paramagnetic spectroscopy tools at St Andrews. I’m delighted to be embarking on a new collaborative project with Bela Bode at St Andrews. This work will benefit hugely from the complementary expertise and rich variety of resources which could only be made possible by the EaStCHEM partnership. The project has gotten off to a good start and we are excited to see where the chemistry takes us. Dr Iain Wright Tags Research Publication date 02 Nov, 2025
