Group

Stephen Thomas

Stephen Thomas was born in Toronto, Canada, and completed his GCSEs at Court Fields Community School and A-levels at Richard Huish College in the South West of England. After completing his MChem at Cardiff University working with Prof. Nick Tomkinson, he moved to Churchill College, University of Cambridge for a PhD with Dr Stuart Warren. Postdoctoral work with Prof. Dr Andreas Pfaltz at the University of Basel, Switzerland, was shortly followed by a move to the University of Bristol to join Prof. Varinder Aggarwal FRS as his group Research Officer. In 2012 Stephen moved to the University of Edinburgh as a  Chancellor’s Research Fellow. In 2014 he was awarded a Royal Society University Research Fellowship. Stephen and the group have been awarded the 2016 RSC Hickinbottom Award, a Thieme Journal Award, a Pfizer Green Chemistry Research Award, the 2021 Merck, Sharp and Dohme Award, and a 2022 Blavatnik Award finalist.

Sarah McOnie

Sarah is from Nova Scotia, Canada and obtained her PhD from the University of Western Ontario under the supervision of Dr Kim Baines. Her research focused on small molecule activation and catalysis by low valent group 14 compounds. Sarah recently joined the Thomas group and will be working on boron-catalysed transformations.

Neil Scott

Originally from Edinburgh, Neil gained an MChem degree from the University of Edinburgh in 2015 then moved briefly into industry, working with Sphere Fluidics in Cambridge on picodroplet-based microfluidic systems for biotechnological applications. In 2016, Neil moved to York for a PhD exploring speciation and mechanism in Pd-catalysed cross-coupling, working with Prof. Ian Fairlamb. Subsequently, in 2021, Neil joined Dr Chris Spicer’s group at York, working on bioorthogonal applications of the carbonylative Suzuki reaction. Neil then worked on a series of projects in the Fairlamb group including investigating catalyst activation mechanisms of a new Pd catalyst (with Johnson Matthey) and catalytic applications of complexes of palladium nitrate. In 2024 Neil returned to Edinburgh to work with Prof Stephen Thomas on transition metal-mediated C–H bond activation for sustainable catalysis.

Joe Cockcroft

Joe grew up in Ashford, Kent and obtained his MChem degree from the University of York. He undertook an industrial placement at the Centre of Process Innovation formulating electrically conductive adhesives for flexible micro-electronics under the supervision of Dr. Glenn Hurst and Dr. Peter Karadakov. He also undertook a summer project making bismuth vanadate photocatalysts to selectively mediate chemical reactions under the supervision of Dr. Richard Douthwaite. Joe recently joined the Thomas and Garden groups at the University of Edinburgh (in conjunction with Johnson Matthey) with the goal of sustainable C-H functionalisation.

Julie MacLeod

Julie is from the Isle of Lewis, home of the popular Stornoway Black Pudding. She obtained her MChem at Heriot-Watt University which involved a year-long placement at Johnson Matthey (Macfarlan Smith), Edinburgh. She also completed a summer placement at BASF Pharma, Isle of Lewis. As part of the Lee Group at Heriot-Watt, she completed her final-year project which focussed on Minisci-Type C-H functionalisation of heteroaromatic compounds. Julie joins the Thomas group in September 2022 to start her PhD funded by the Royal Society.

Abigayle Boyce

Abigayle grew up in Kilbarchan, Renfrewshire and obtained her MChem from Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh. In 2022 she undertook a RSC funded summer studentship within the Mansell group (HWU) where she worked on NHC chelating ligands. She continued in the Mansell group for her MChem research project working on Rh catalysts for the C-H activation of alkanes. Abigayle joined the Thomas group (UoE) in September 2023 to begin her PhD funded by Syngenta.

Nathan McRae

Nathan grew up in Findhorn, Morayshire in the north of Scotland. He recieved his MSci in Chemistry from the University of Glasgow in 2023. This included a year long placement in industry with Bayer Crop Science in Germany with Dr Alexander Sudau focusing on small molecule synthesis. He also completed a two semester long MSci project with Professor David Lennon (UoG), focusing on heterogenously catalysed nitrobenzene reduction to aniline. Nathan joined the Thomas group in September 2023 to begin his PhD funded by AstraZeneca and the EPSRC.

Elisa Mathieu

Elisa grew up in Cork, Ireland and completed her Bachelor’s degree at Trinity College Dublin. Her final-year project involved the development of redox-active lanthanide-based metal-organic frameworks for water oxidation catalysis, under the supervision of Professor Schmitt. In 2024, she undertook a summer project developing electrochemical sensors for PFAS detection in river water at the Tyndall National Institute, Cork. Elisa joined the Thomas group in September 2025 to begin her PhD funded by AstraZeneca. 

Joshua Darlow

Joshua grew up in South Leverton, Nottinghamshire and obtained his MChem degree from Lancaster University in 2025. Under the supervision of Dr Vilius Franckevičius, his final year research project focussed on the development of the Pd catalysed intramolecular asymmetric allylic amination reaction as a new route to enantioenriched 2,2-disubstituted azetidines. Joshua joined the Thomas group in September 2025 to begin his PhD funded by GSK and the EPSRC.