People

Join Us: Stage-4 Projects – PhD Vacancies – Postdoctoral Applicants

Above is our Group Photo, December 2017.

Dr M B Reddy

Postdoctoral Fellow

M. B. Reddy completed his MSc in organic chemistry from NIT Warangal, India in 2016. He then went on to pursue his PhD in the field of Photo- and Electro-catalysis at University of Madras from 2017 to 2022 under the guidance of Dr. R. Anandhan. After his PhD he joined the McGarrigle group in September 2022 with the award of a prestigious IRC Postdoctoral Fellowship. Dr Reddy is working on visible-light-Induced CO₂ fixation to synthesis organic molecules. He published his first paper from the group in Chem. Commun. in 2023.

Joseph Ruddy

Submitted PhD thesis, viva voce examination passed!

Joe completed his BSc in Medicinal Chemistry & Chemical Biology in UCD. He carried out his final year project in the McGarrigle group and he was joint top of his class in his BSc. Joe’s project was in the area of asymmetric organocatalysis and the synthesis of P-stereogenic compounds, funded by an IRC Government of Ireland Postgraduate Scholarship. During his PhD he undertook an industrial placement with APC. He has published his first paper in Chem Sci in 2021 and more papers will come soon.

Peter McDermott

4th year PhD student

Peter completed his BSc in medicinal chemistry and chemical biology at UCD and carried out his final year research project in the McGarrigle group working in the area of organocatalysis. His PhD project is funded by the SFI-EPSRC-funded joint CDT in Sustainable Chemistry between the University of Nottingham and the SFI Centre BEACON and and focuses on catalysis in phosphorus chemistry. His first paper was published in OBC in 2023.

Cáoimhe Niland

4th year PhD student

Cáoimhe completed her BSc in Dublin Institute of Technology (now TU Dublin) and then completed her MSc in University College Dublin where she carried out a project in the Oscarson group in the area of carbohydrate chemistry. She joined the group as a PhD student in 2019 funded by the SFI centre SSPC. She is working on developing novel organocatalytic methodologies.

Kate Donaghy

3rd year PhD student

Katie completed her BSc in Medicinal Chemistry and Chemical Biology in UCD, and did her final year project in our group. That project was on the synthesis of organocatalysts for use in organophosphorus chemistry. She was awarded a prestigious PhD scholarship funded by the Irish Research Council. She is working on new organocatalytic methods in carbohydrate chemistry.

Vanessa Becker

2nd year PhD student

Vanessa completed her BSc in UCD, doing a final year project with the Gilheany group on Grignard chemistry. She has joined the group on a prestigious PhD scholarship funded by the Irish Research Council. In her PhD she is working on new methods in organosulfur chemistry, focusing on new methods for synthesising aromatic heterocyclic targets.

Bodhayan Biswas

1st year PhD student

Bodhayan completed a BS-MS dual programme from IISER Pune and worked there as a project assistant for a few months. He did his master’s research under the supervision of Prof Srinivas Hotha, focusing on the total synthesis of complex oligosaccharides and developing a novel route for synthesis of C’2-modified nucleoside drugs. His PhD project is funded by the SFI-EPSRC-funded joint CDT in Sustainable Chemistry between the University of Nottingham and the SFI Centre BEACON and focuses on improving the sustainability of carbohydrate synthesis.

Oana Popa

1st year PhD student

Oana completed her MSc in Organic Chemistry at Politehnica University of Bucharest, Romania in 2022. She had a summer placement at the University of Angers, France in 2019, where she worked on a project regarding the synthesis of helicenes functionalized with benzothiadiazole moieties. Between September 2021 and January 2022, she was an ERASMUS+ student at the University of Montpellier, France. Before starting her PhD at UCD in January 2023, she was a research assistant at the Institute of Organic and Supramolecular Chemistry “C. D. Nenitescu” in Bucharest, where she worked on optimising a modified Appel reaction for the synthesis of iminosugars. Her current research activity is focused on the stereoselective synthesis of oligosaccharides.

Former Group Members:

Aisling Byrne, Shaun Finan, Zhen Lam, Matthew McCabe

Final Year Undergraduate Research Project Students, 2022-23

Aisling, Shaun, Zhen and Matthew carried out their final year BSc research projects in the group. Their projects are focused in the general area of organic synthesis, including developing new organocatalysts and expanding the scope of sulfur-mediated ligand coupling reactions for the synthesis of bipyridines.

Henry O’Dowd Nolan and Hao Noda

Summer Research Students, MSc and BSc

Henry (‘Harry’) and Hao carried out research projects in the group in summer 2022, as MSc research projects and as a BSc summer intern, respectively. They worked on synthetic carbohydrate chemistry and organosulfur chemistry, two strong themes in the group. Henry moved to a job in Henkel, Dublin on graduation.

Gaffney Kapito

PhD graduate

Gaffney completed his BSc in UCD where he carried out his final year research project in the Dawson group. Gaffney previously carried out a summer internship in the McGarrigle group. His PhD research concerned carbohydrate chemistry and was sponsored by SFI. He was president of the UCD Chemistry Society for 2018-19. He has presented his research at conferences organised by the Royal Society of Chemistry and the American Chemical Society. Following his successful thesis defence he moved to a job in the pharmaceutical industry in ThermoFisher in Cork.

Katie Rundle, Peter Martyn, Aoibhinn Downes and Davin Cronly

Final Year Undergraduate Research Project Students, 2021-22

Katie, Peter, Aoibhinn and Davin carried out their final year BSc research projects in the group. Their projects focused in the general area of organic synthesis, including new synthetic glycosylation methods, new methods for automation in synthetic carbohydrate chemistry, use of more sustainable solvents and developing new organocatalysts.

Dr Alex Horan

PhD Graduate

Alex completed her BSc in UCD and carried out her final year research project in the McGarrigle group, where she worked on carbohydrate chemistry. She is now developing new synthetic methods using sulfonium salt chemistry. She was awarded an Irish Research Council Scholarship for her PhD studies. Alex was the secretary of the UCD Chemistry Society for 2018-19. The first two papers from her PhD were published in Org. Lett., followed by one in Chem. Commun. and one in OBC. There are a still few more in the pipeline. Following her successful thesis defence she moved to a job in the pharmaceutical industry in ThermoFisher in Cork.

Dr Dionissia Pepe

PhD Graduate

Dionissia completed her Diploma and MSc in the University of Patras, Greece. She was also a placement student in the University Paul Sabatier in Toulouse during her MSc. Some of her work on bioconjugates was published in J Org Chem 2016, 81, 4353. Dionissia is now carrying out research in synthetic carbohydrate chemistry sponsored by SFI. Her first paper from her PhD was published in Chem Sci in 2021 and more will follow soon. Dionissia was a committee member of the UCD Chemistry Society for 2018-19. She was awarded a poster prize for her research at the CSCB symposium in 2018. She carried out an industrial placement in Syngenta in Switzerland in Summer 2021 and on graduation moved to a postdoctoral position in Switzerland.

Zoe and Colin Byrne

Final Year Undergraduate Research Project Students, 2020-21

Zoe and Colin (not related!) carried out their final year BSc research projects in the group in the midst of the pandemic. Their projects were developing new methods for automation in synthetic carbohydrate chemistry, and developing new organocatalytic methods. Zoe progressed to a PhD in the Guiry group in UCD on graduation.

Dr Ande Chennaiah

Postdoctoral Fellow

Ande finished his MSc in organic chemistry in Osmania university, India in 2012. He then went on to pursue his PhD in the field of carbohydrate chemistry at Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur from July 2013 to January 2019 under the guidance of Prof. Y. D. Vankar. This productive spell gave rise to a significant number of publications. After his PhD he joined the McGarrigle group in February 2019. His research in his first stint was sponsored by Science Foundation Ireland. He was then awarded a prestigious IRC Postdoctoral Fellowship. Following his postdoctoral work in the group he moved to a postdoctoral position in the world renowned group of David Crich (USA) in January 2021.

Dr Vincent Duong

PhD graduate

Vinny completed his BSc in University College Dublin where he completed his final year research project with Dr Matthias Tacke. He was awarded a prestigious NUI Travelling Studentship in Chemistry. This has enabled Vinny to carry out research in the University of Bristol with Prof Varinder Aggarwal FRS during his PhD in UCD. As a recipient of an NUI award in 1916, Vincent also received a De Valera Medal, honouring former NUI Chancellor, Éamon de Valera, to commemorate the centenary of the 1916 Rising. He was a member of the ChemSoc committee for 2017-18. He was awarded several poster prizes for his research. To-date he has published a book chapter and research papers in Angew Chem and two in Org Lett, with more publications to come. Following his PhD he moved to a postdoctoral position with ERC-Awardee Prof Daniele Leonori in Manchester.

Kate Donaghy, Conor O’Shea and Laurentia Berzan

Final Year Undergraduate Research Project Students, 2019-20

Katie, Conor and Laura carried out their final year BSc research projects in the group. The projects were 33% of their final year degrees in Medicinal Chemistry & Chemical Biology. Katie and Conor developed some novel organocatalysts, while Laura worked on some synthetic carbohydrate chemistry. Katie and Conor progressed to PhD positions after graduation, while Laura went on to study to be a medical doctor.

Dr Imlirenla Pongener

PhD Graduate

Imlirenla completed her BSc from Christ University, Bangalore, India. She moved to Ireland to do an MSc in Chemistry in UCD during which she carried out a research project on organocatalysis. She is from Nagaland, India and joined the group as a PhD student in 2015. She served on the UCD Chemistry Society committee for 2016-17. She has published two papers in Chem. Sci. and one in Org Biomol Chem as part of her PhD. Following a postdoctoral period in the group she moved to a postdoctoral position in the Miller group in Keele.

Dr Róisín McCarthy

PhD Graduate

Róisín completed her BSc in University College Cork where she completed her final year research project with Prof Anita Maguire. She joined the group as a PhD student in 2015. Among her many interests are Squash and Gaelic sports – she is on the UCD Squash team and was in the Lidl GAA advert on TV! She served on the UCD Chemistry Society committee for 2016-17. She has received several prizes for presentations on her research. Following her PhD she moved to a job in the pharmaceutical industry in her native Cork.

Peter McDermott and Zohair Ansari

Final Year Undergraduate Research Project Students, 2018-19

Zohair and Peter carried out their final year BSc research projects in the group. The projects were an important part of their degrees in Chemistry, and Medicinal Chemistry & Chemical Biology, respectively. Their research focused on organocatalysis and the development of new synthetic methodology in organophosphorus chemistry. Peter joined the group as a PhD student on graduation.

Dr Martin Ó Fearraigh

PhD Graduate

Martin graduated with a BSc in Chemistry from UCD in 2014. He did a summer internship in the group of Dr Grace Morgan before carrying out his final year research project in the McGarrigle group. He was awarded an Irish Research Council scholarship for his PhD studies. His work on isothiocineole was published in Synthesis in 2018, and his first organocatalysis paper was published in OBC. More of his work on organocatalysis and phosphorus chemistry will be published in the future. He hails from Donegal and is a native Irish speaker. He was the secretary for the UCD Chemistry Society (ChemSoc) for 2015-16. After completing his PhD Martin move to a job in Pfizer in Cork.

Nathan Allen

Researcher

Nathan obtained a MChem from Cardiff University and followed that with a Masters at the University of York (with Dr R Douthwaite). He was the president of Cardiff University Students’ Union Chemistry Society during his time there. He was awarded a UCD Research Demonstratorship. Part of his research was published in a paper in Chem. Sci. on an improved organocatalytic glycosylation.

Ana Sozanschi

Summer Internship 2018

Ana returned to the group for a Summer placement in the Summer of 2018. She was awarded a bursary from the RSC for the placement. She did excellent work on aspects of our organocatalytic glycosylations during her placement. Following graduation she moved to a PhD position in Oxford.

Alan Buckley, Nathan Feely, Cian Reid, Joseph Ruddy

Final Year Undergraduate Research Project Students, 2017-18

Alan, Nathan, Cian and Joseph carried out their final year BSc research projects in the group. They obtained BSc degrees in Chemistry, or Chemistry with Environmental & Sustainable Chemistry, or Medicinal Chemistry & Chemical Biology. Their research topics ranged from synthetic carbohydrate chemistry, organocatalysis, and the development of new organic synthetic methodology. Joe, Cian and Nathan have moved to PhD positions in the School of Chemistry on graduation.

Dr Avene Colgan

PhD graduate

Avene obtained a BSc in Medicinal Chemistry & Chemical Biology from UCD. She carried out her final year project in the McGarrigle group and was awarded the Dervilla Donnelly medal as the top student in her BSc examinations. She presented her findings at the National Undergraduate Research Meeting in Maynooth in Spring 2013. Her PhD research on catalysis is funded by a Postgraduate Scholarship from the Irish Research Council. She was a Committee member for the UCD Chemistry Society (ChemSoc) for 2014-2015. Her first paper was published in J Org Chem in 2016 (doi:10.1021/acs.joc.6b01914) and concerned catalyst poisons in thiourea-catalysed glycosylations. This was followed by a paper in Chem. Sci. on an improved glycosylation methodology. A further paper in J.Org.Chem. was published in 2021 in collaboration with the Schreiner group. She was awarded a BOC Gases bursary in 2017 as one of the best PhD students in the School of Chemistry. After leaving the group she moved to a postdoc in the group of Robert Phipps in the University of Cambridge.

Dr Gary Bradshaw

PhD graduate

Gary obtained his undergraduate degree from Trinity College Dublin. During his degree he carried out an industrial placement at Schering-Plough (Rathdrum, Wicklow) [now MSD] and did his research project under the guidance of Dr Enda Bergin. This research on a copper-catalysed Petasis reaction was published in J Org Chem 2012, 77, 4445 (DOI: 10.1021/jo3003503). During his PhD Gary worked on catalytic glycosylations. The key results from his thesis were published in Chem. Sci. His research was funded by Science Foundation Ireland under a SIRG grant awarded to Eoghan. He was the vice-president of the UCD Chemistry Society (ChemSoc) for 2013-2014. After completion of his PhD he moved to a postdoc in Anita Mattson’s group in Worcester, USA.

Isabel Rivero-Garcia

Industrial Visitor, 2017

Isabel was on secondment with the group as part of an EU-funded collaboration (3DNet). Isabel has worked in Gadea GF for 5 years, mostly in the R&D Dpt., but also in the Validations Dpt, where she spent almost a year validating methods and analyzing the final products and starting materials. Her work has focused on Steroids Chemistry and she has expertise in crystallizing these kind of products and developing methods for UPLC and HPLC.

Ana Sozanschi, Jammah Pugsulingan, Kevin Agnew

Summer Internships 2017

Ana, Jammah and Kevin joined us for Summer placements in the Summer of 2017. They started their final year of their BSc degrees at UCD and TCD in September 2017.

Thomas Conway

MSc Research Project, Summer 2017

Thomas carried out his research project in the group as part of his MSc in UCD. Thomas carried out research in the area of sulfur ylide chemistry. He is a big fan of St. Patrick’s Athletic.

Fiona Clarke, Alexandra Horan and Saranna Kavanagh

Final Year Undergraduate Research Project Students, 2016-17

Fiona, Alex, and Saranna carried out their final year research projects for their degrees of BSc in Medicinal Chemistry & Chemical Biology or BSc in Chemistry, respectively. Their research involved developing novel methodologies for the synthesis of carbohydrates (including some with therapeutic potential).

Jorge Combarros

Industrial Visiting Researcher, 2017

Jorge joined the group on secondment from Gadea Grupo Farmacéutico as part of an EU-funded collaboration (3DNet) that seeks to develop new treatments for diseases of the eye. He is a research scientist at Gadea with more than 10 years experience. He started there in the R&D department working on the chemistry of steroids, but is currently in the Technical Services department. He is an expert in the development of analytical methods in HPLC and GC.

Isabel Klein

Visiting Student, Spring 2017

Isabel was a visiting student at UCD for Semester 2 of the 2016-17. She was in her 3rd year studying chemistry at Barnard College of Columbia University in New York City. She carried out a research experience in the group in the area of carbohydrate chemistry.

Gaffney Kapito

Summer Internship 2016

Gaffney worked on the development of methodology for the synthesis of novel hetereocycles with us in the Summer of 2016. He starts the final year of his BSc degree at UCD in September 2016.

Orla Patton, David Farrar and Mark Reihill

Final Year Undergraduate Research Project Students 2015-16

Orla, David and Mark carried out their final year research projects in the group. Orla developed new methodologies for carbohydrate chemistry while Mark and David synthesised molecules with potential biological activity as part of our ongoing project with the Kennedy group in SBBS and Gadea Grupo Farmacéutico. David is doing an MSc in Biotechnology next, while Orla and Mark are starting PhD projects in UCD in 2016.

Jorge López

Industrial Visiting Researcher, 2015

Jorge studied Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Zaragoza (Spain). His work and professional interests have been focused in the Pharma industry, particularly in process optimization; he says “It is really amazing how little changes may lead to big differences in industrial scale manufacturing.” Jorge joined the group on secondment from Gadea Grupo Farmacéutico as part of an EU collaboration (3DNet) that seeks to develop new treatments for diseases of the eye.

Catalina Parga

Summer Internship 2015

Catalina carried out research into the synthesis of novel heterocycles with us in the summer of 2015. She started the final year of her degree at UCD in September 2015.

Mairead Boland and Amy Maguire

Final Year Undergraduates in UCD, 2014-2015

Amy and Mairead carried out their final year research projects in the group. Mairead did research in the area of carbohydrate chemistry and Amy researched organocatalytic reactions. They are both from county Wexford, and after graduation progressed to PhD research in TCD and UCD, respectively. Some of Mairead’s research was in included in a paper in Chem. Sci. on an improved glycosylation methodology.

Andrew Ledley

Visiting Student, 2015

Andrew was a Junior year undergraduate Chemistry student from the University of Notre Dame in South Bend Indiana, USA. He spent the Spring semester in UCD and as part of his studies he undertook a project in our group working on some carbohydrate chemistry.

Sandra Semmler

Erasmus+ Visiting Researcher, 2014

Sandra carried out a 3-month research project in the group while on Erasmus exchange from the University of Hamburg, where she is studying for an MSc with Prof Dr Bernd Meyer. She worked on stereoselective glycosylations while in Dublin.

Ronan Crowley

MSc, 2014

Ronan obtained his BSc from the University of Limerick. He carried out a research project in the group as part of his MSc studies in UCD.

Ava McDonald

Summer Internship, 2014

Ava was a 3rd year undergraduate chemistry student in UCD when she was awarded an RSC-sponsored Undergraduate Research Bursary to carry out a research placement in the group this Summer. She initiated a new project within the group which was then carried on by Sandra Semmler.

Martin Ó Fearraigh, Jeff Glynn, Sarah Mallen

Final Year Undergraduates in UCD, 2013-2014

Martin, Jeff and Sarah carried out their final year research projects on organocatalysis in the group. Martin and Sarah moved to research positions in UCD and UL, respectively, after graduation.

Amity Wipson and Josh Bindon

Visiting Students in UCD, 2013/2014

Josh and Amity carried out short research projects in the group as part of their study abroad programme in Fall 2013 and Spring 2014, respectively. They are both students from the University of Notre Dame, USA.

Raffael Wende

Visiting Researcher, 2014

Raffael carried out research in UCD as part of an EU-funded Short Term Scientific Mission as part of the COST action ORCA (CM0905). This is part of a collaboration between the McGarrigle and Schreiner groups. Raffael is a PhD student in the Schreiner group in Giessen in Germany.

Carole Etcheverry

Visiting Summer Intern.

Carole is carryied out an internship June-August 2013. She is a student from the National Graduate School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering of Clermont-Ferrand, in France. Her research was in the area of carbohydrate chemistry.

Avene Colgan and Chigozie Achara

Final year undergraduates in UCD, 2012-2013.

Avene and Chigozie carried out their final year research projects in the group. They conducted further studies into the thiourea-catalysed glycosylation that was the subject of a paper in Angew Chem in 2012. Avene is currently doing a PhD in the group funded by the Irish Research Council. Chigozie went on to do a pgDip in Medicinal Chemistry in Strathclyde.

Dr Edward Balmond

PhD, 2014, University of Bristol (jointly supervised with Dr M Carmen Galan)

Bristol Chemical Synthesis DTC

Ed has 5 publications to-date from his PhD research (2 in Angew Chem Int Ed, one each in Org Lett, Synlett, and eEncyclopedia for Reagents in Organic Synthesis). Following his PhD he took up a postdoctoral position with Prof Jared Shaw in University of Cailfornia, Davis.

External Collaborations

Prof Peter R Schreiner

(University of Giessen)

Schreiner Group Website

Dr M Carmen Galan

(University of Bristol)

Galan Group Website

Dr Craig P Butts

(University of Bristol)

Butts Group Website

Prof Varinder K Aggarwal

(University of Bristol)

Aggarwal Group Website

Pradip Songara

Final year PhD student in Aggarwal Group

Bristol Chemical Synthesis DTC

M Chem, University of Reading, UK, 2012

Johnathan Matlock

PhD in Aggarwal Group, 2015.

Bristol Chemical Synthesis DTC

M Chem, University of York, UK, 2010

Johnathan has 4 publications from his PhD to-date (1 each in Org Lett, J Org Chem, Chem Eur J, and eEncyclopedia for Reagents in Organic Synthesis). Following his PhD he took up a postdoctoral fellowship with Prof Jonathan Clayden.

Prof Paul Pringle