Members

Dr Felix Plasser

Felix completed his PhD in 2012 in Vienna with Prof. Hans Lischka. Subsequently, he spent two years in Heidelberg with Prof. Andreas Dreuw. He returned to Vienna in 2015 for his second postdoc with Prof. Leticia González. In 2018 he was appointed as Lecturer in Physical and Computational Chemistry at Loughborough University. He was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2023.

When not at work he enjoys running, hiking, and paddle boarding.

Staff page – ORCID – WoS – Google Scholar

Dr James Mattock

James completed his PhD in the group of Dr Alfredo Vargas at the University of Sussex in 2018 (focus on small molecule DFT on molecules with esoteric electronic states). Subsequently he worked as a postdoc at the University of Portsmouth in the group of Prof. Paul Cox (focus on periodic DFT and Molecular Mechanics/Dynamics designing materials for MTO).

Co-supervision with Dr Kenny Jolley.

Project: Materials modelling and crystal structure prediction.

Dong Xing

Dong obtained his BSc from the University of Reading, where he studied a novel Rhenium quinone complex with Prof. Frantisek Hartl in 2021. In 2022, he finished his MSc project, a computational study on a flavin-based enzymatic uracil monooxygenation, under the supervision of Prof. Sam Hay in Manchester. In April 2023 he joined the group as a PhD student.

Outside chemistry, he enjoys cooking, raising dogs and watching animation.

Project: Exploration of excited-state aromaticity for the development of new photoactive molecules.

Umatur Rehman

Umatur got her M.Phil degree from Government College University Faisalabad, where she studied the mechanism of selected Diels-Alder reactions by using DFT, under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Asim Mansha. She joined the group as a PhD student in October 2023. She is motivated to learn computational chemistry and explore its applications in a range of fields for the betterment of humanity.

Project: Optimisation of luminescent Europium complexes used as biosensors.

James Turner

James completed his MChem at Loughborough University doing his Masters project with Felix, studying the electronic transfer properties of photo-redox catalysts derived from macrocycles. He is now part of the Sustainable Hydrogen CDT where he will continue his study into the splitting of water for hydrogen production using conjugated macrocycles.

In his spare time James likes to play football and tennis.

Project: Photochemical water splitting based on charge accumulation in macrocycles

Sayan Ghosh

Sayan obtained his Integrated Bachelor’s-Master’s Degree with Major in Chemistry from Indian Association For The Cultivation Of Science, Kolkata, India. In 2024, he finished his master’s project entitled “Investigations on the excited state dynamics in photochemical phenomena using  multi-reference techniques and aromatic quantifiers”, under the supervision of Prof. Ankan Paul. In October 2024, he joined the group as a PhD student.

In his spare time, Sayan loves to play football, cricket and likes travelling

Project: Exploration of new paradigms in photochemistry: multiresonant molecules and aggregation.