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The Current Group

Midyear 2025, from left to right: Nina, Bronte, Jason, Rosie, Steph, Jordan, Dan, Jess, Jarell, Zack and Alvin

The group works in supramolecular chemistry. You can find group photos above or below if you want to put a name to a face.

Dan completed his doctoral studies at the University of Otago, before undertaking a Rutherford Fellowship at the University of Canterbury (NZ). He started a DECRA fellowship at the Research School of Chemistry at the Australian National University in Canberra, Australia in 2020, and began a Future Fellowship at the start of 2024. He’s a senior lecturer.

Postdoctoral researchers

Jordan Smith is a postdoctoral fellow (another ex-Otago person!) who splits his time 50:50 between our group and the White group. He is making interlocked architectures.

Rosie Goodwin is also working 50:50 with us and Annie Colebatch and Nick. She has been working with Fe(II) and Zn(II) to make crazy assemblies.

Alvin Li is an independent postdoc working on a collaboration between Trevor Rapson (CSIRO) and Rob Chapman (University of Newcastle) who works out of our space on occasion.

Doctoral students

Zack Avery did his Honours at the University of Canterbury (NZ) and started his PhD studies with us in 2023. He’s using complementary pairings to make complex structures, as well as playing around with some cool platinum(II) stuff.

Jess Algar worked on an undergraduate research project and as a research assistant with us in 2021, then did her Honours project in the group in 2022, winning a University Medal. She took a year out and started a PhD with us in 2024. She’s working on controlling connectivity and conformation in self-assembled systems.

Jason Buchanan is working on a joint PhD project between our group and the Connal group also here at ANU using pairings in metallo-polymers.

Nina Lawson has just finished her Honours project, co-supervised by Nick White, working on subcomponent self-assembly using metal ions and hydrazones, and is now back doing her PhD.

Steph Jones did an Honours project with us in 2023. She is now back for more punishment working on her doctoral project on large supramolecules.

Honours students

Bronte-Rae McCutcheon did an undergraduate project with us in 2024 and is now doing her Honours project on some supramolecular self-assembly methodologies.

Undergraduate project students

Jarell Cubarrubia is about to begin an undergraduate project in the laboratory, working on some new types of metallo-supramolecular assembly.

Past Members

Postdoctoral researchers

  • James Findlay (2021) – now working R&D in Melbourne

Honours students

  • James Phillips (2023) – went on to a PhD in drug discovery in Biology, ANU
  • Jacob Gome (2024) – currently doing a PhD in Chemistry with the Severin Group, EPFL
  • Yo Yau (2024) – now a Nuclear Technical Regulatory Officer within the Nuclear-Powered Submarine Regulatory Design

Undergraduate project students

  • Kya Lamarra (2023)
  • Liz Elphick (2024)
  • Tim Nguyen (2025)
  • Chi Canty (2025)

Past Photos

The group in early 2025, looking suave and sophisticated. From the left: Rosie, Chi, Nina, Zack, Dan, Jordan, Jess and Tim.
Preston group hit the 2024 chem ball! Top row from left: Jordan, Dan. Jacob and Zack. On the bottom we have Nina, Jess and Yo.
Group photo, early 2024: ‘The caught fish pose’. From the left: Yo, Zack, Nina, Jason, Dan, Jess, Jacob, Liz and Alvin.
The group at Chemball 2023: from the left we have Steph, Jess, Dan and Nina, with James and Yoyo in front. Zack was working and couldn’t make it, so here he is in his orange ‘benzene’ lab coat so he doesn’t feel left out.
Photo from 2023: Zack, Dan, James, Kya, Yo and Steph. Bonus point for spotting Cam from the White group somewhere.
2022: Dan’s natural athleticism allows him to jump much higher than Jess (left) or Jacob (right)