Organic Chemistry

The organic chemists in York have international recognition for the development of contemporary innovative synthetic and self-assembly approaches to organic systems and fundamental and mechanistic investigations into their behaviour.

Working collaboratively across a broad range of science from synthetic, catalytic and analytical chemistry through to materials and medicines, we aim to translate this into diverse applications aligned with strategic research themes. Our expertise covers University research themes in Health and Wellbeing, Environmental Sustainability and Resilience and Technologies for the Future.

Our research is conducted in state-of-the-art, modern research laboratories and is well supported with a range of instrumentation. We have a strong community spirit and often incorporate cutting-edge research into our highly-rated teaching and outreach activities.

We work in three key areas:

Synthesis and Medicinal Chemistry
Supramolecular Soft-Smart Materials
Catalysis and Mechanistic Physical Organic Chemistry

Staff

Name	Expertise
Alyssa-Jennifer Avestro	Multi-Dimensionally Conjugated Supra(Macro)Molecular Materials
Victor Chechik	Nanoscale chemistry, free radicals, EPR spectroscopy
Paul A Clark	Natural Products, Medicinal Chemistry and Origins of Life
Ian Fairlamb	Catalysis and Synthetic Chemistry: Reactivity, Mechanism and Application
Michael James	Charge-Transfer Complexes in Organic Synthesis
Peter O'Brien	Development of New Methods in Synthesis and Medicinal Chemistry
Anne Routledge	Bio-organic, Solid-phase and Green Chemistry
David K Smith	Supramolecular and Nanoscale Chemistry
Chris Spicer	Biomaterials and tissue engineering
Richard J K Taylor	Total Synthesis and Development of New Synthetic Methodology
William Unsworth	Novel methods to synthesise functionalised molecules: macrocycles, spirocycles, heterocycles and natural products

PhD projects

Explore the PhD projects currently offered by the Department of Chemistry.

Browse PhD projects