News
April 2024: Very pleased to have been able to help out with a tour de force study of lanthanide and actinide N-heterocyclic carbene complexes led by Gaunt and Kaltsoyannis and published in J. Am. Chem. Soc.. in another collaboration between Manchester and Los Alamos National Laboratory. Many congratulations to the team!
February 2024: Our plutonium-carbene work reporting diphosphonio-alkylidene and N-heterocyclic carbene derivatives is published in J. Am. Chem. Soc.. Well worth the wait and congratulations to the team, with effort spanning Manchester and Los Alamos National Laboratory to make it all come together.
December 2023/January 2024: Two Chem. Sci. publications in issue 1 of volume 15. First up a monster review of lanthanide and actinide heavy pictogen chemistry, and second a NMR study proving the presence of some CeIV=C double bonds. Both a long-time in the making but great to see them out to kick-off 2024. Congratulations to all involved in making these happen!
November 2023: Our joint work with Regensburg making U-Sb bonds is published in ChemistryEurope, a new Wiley flagship journal. Congratulations to all involved!
October 2023: Our work on probing actinide covalency using 31P NMR spectroscopy is published in J. Am. Chem. Soc.. Congratulations to all involved!
June 2023: Congratulations to Josef Boronski, who has won the RSC Dalton Emerging Researcher Prize for his PhD work in the group. Well done Josef!
April 2023: Farewell to Jingzhen Du, who takes up a faculty position at Zhengzhou University. It's been a real pleasure to see you develop through a PhD, then PDRA, and now into independence. Best of luck!
April 2023: Farewell to Richard Turnbull who has taken up a PDRA position with Nicola Bell at Glasgow. Good luck with the automation Richard!
January 2023: The d- and f-block silanide work of Gemma Gransbury and Ben Réant is published in Chemical Science. Well done all!
December 2022: Richard Turnbull passes his viva voce with flying colours. Well done Richard!
November 2022: Jingzhen Du's persistence to isolate a stable terminal parent thorium-arsinidene linkage is published in Angew. Chem. Int. Ed.. Congratulations to all involved in another collaborative effort with Manfred Scheer's group at Regensburg.
June 2022: Our neptunium-carbene work describing diphosphonio-alkylidene and N-heterocyclic carbene derivatives is published in J. Am. Chem. Soc.. Congratulations to all involved, a real greater-than-the-sum-of-its-parts effort between the teams at The University of Manchester and Los Alamos National Laboratory.
May 2022: Jonny Cryer passes his viva voce with flying colours. Well done Jonny!
March 2022: Steve Liddle is elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland’s National Academy of Science and Letters. Well done group, past and present, this reflects the work of the Liddle Group over the past 15 years.
March 2022: Michał Dutkiewicz's neptunium mono(oxo) complex is published in Nature Chemistry. Well done to Michał and the hurculean effort of the team spanning The University of Manchester, EU-JRC Karlsruhe (ITU), and Los Alamos National Laboratory for getting it done!
December 2021: Josef Boronski's tri-thorium σ-aromatic cluster is shortlisted by ACS Chemical & Engineering News for their molecules of the year for 2021 vote.
December 2021: Jingzhen Du is awarded a University of Manchester Department of Chemistry Outstanding Achievement Award for his actinide work over the past year. Well done Jingzhen!
October 2021: Josef Boronski's tri-thorium σ-aromatic cluster is published in Nature. Well done Josef and thanks to the interdisciplinary team of co-authors for getting it over the finish line!
September 2021: Jingzhen Du's work experimentally probing the covalency, which it transpires is substantial, of a terminal uranium(VI)-nitride triple bond by 15N NMR spectroscopy is published in Nature Communications. Well done Jingzhen, and many thanks to the magnetometry, computational, and NMR skills of the team for allowing our group to stratch an itch it's had for several years!
September 2021: Jingzhen Du is awarded a Chinese Government Award for Outstanding Self-financed Students Abroad from the China Scholarship Council for his work in the group as a President's Doctoral Scholar. This highly competitive prize is awarded annually to independently funded students for "a record of outstanding accomplishments during their PhD in any discipline" and is the highest award given to graduate students studying outside China. Huge achievement Jingzhen, many congratulations and richly deserved!
September 2021: Josef Boronski passes his viva voce with flying colours. Well done Josef!
August 2021: Jingzhen's work on uranium(IV) disproportionation is published in Nature Communications. Well done Jingzhen!
July 2021: Ben Réant's work on using 29Si NMR spectroscopy to probe s- and f-block metal(II)-silanide covaleny is published in J. Am. Chem. Soc.. Well done Ben and the whole team for making this possible!
June 2021: John Seed's work on anomalous magnetism of uranium(IV)-oxo and -imido complexes, supported by beautiful computational work from the Chilton group, is published in Chem. Well done all!
May 2021: Josef Boronski wins a Junior Research Fellowship at St John's College, University of Oxford. Many congratulations Josef, richly deserved!
April 2021: Ben Réant passes his viva voce in style. Well done Ben!
April 2021: Jingzhen's work on synthesising a diphosphorus uranium complex is published in J. Am. Chem. Soc.. Well done Jingzhen!
April 2021: Farewell to Lisa Vondung, who takes up a Junior Group Leader position at the University of Göttingen. Best wishes and luck Lisa!
March 2021: Lewis' epic work on a family of dysprosium-methanediides is published in Chemical Science. Well done Lewis!
January 2021: Josef Boronski is awarded a University of Manchester Department of Chemistry Outstanding Achievement Award for his actinide-cyclobutadienyl work. Well done Josef!
January 2021: Jingzhen's work on reductive cycloaddition of 2-phosphaethynolate is published in Angewandte Chemie. Well done Jingzhen!
October 2020: Ben Réant's review of f-element silicon and heavy tetrel chemistry is published in Chemical Science. Well done Ben!
September 2020: The arsonium-ylide and uranium-carbene chemistry of John Seed, Helen Sharpe, and Harry Futcher, is published in Angewandte Chemie. Well done all!
August 2020: Josef Boronski wins a best talk award at The University of Manchester Department of Chemistry Postgraduate Research Conference. Well done Josef!
July 2020: Josef Boronski's work on thorium cyclobutadienyl chemistry is published in Chemical Science. Well done Josef!
June 2020: Lewis Thomas-Hargreaves passes his viva voce with flying colours. Well done Lewis!
June 2020: Steve Liddle is awarded the RSC Tilden Prize, reflecting the dedication and skill of the group.
January 2020: Lucile Chatelain's work on uranium-nitride hydrogenolysis is published in Nature Communications. Well done Lucile!
January 2020: Josef Boronski's work on a cyclobutadienyl uranium pianostool complex is published in Angewandte Chemie. Well done Josef!
December 2019: Steve Liddle is awarded an Alexander von Humboldt Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award. Well done group, the prize reflects the work of the group over the years.
December 2019: Jingzhen Du passes his viva voce with flying colours. Well done Jingzhen!
November 2019: Joe Ostrowski passes his viva voce with flying colours. Well done Joe!
September 2019: Lisa Vondung is awarded an ACS Inorganic Chemistry poster prize at the WiFo Aachen GDCh Science Forum. Well done Lisa!
September 2019: Georgina Hatton passes her viva voce with flying colours. Well done Georgina!
September 2019: Rosie Magnall passes her viva voce with flying colours. Well done Rosie!
September 2019: Jingzhen's transient thorium-nitride work which reveals pushing-from-below for thorium is published in Nature Communications. Well done Jingzhen!
September 2019: The end of an era, as Erli Lu moves on to a Newcastle University Academic Fellowship - best wishes and luck Erli!
August 2019: Erli Lu's uranium(V)-dinitrogen complex published in Nature Chemistry. Well done to Erli and everyone else who made it possible!
July 2019: Rosie Magnall's bent and reduced 2-phosphaethynolate uranium work is published in Angewandte Chemie. Well done Rosie!
June 2019: Former group member Fabrizio Ortu moves on to a lectureship at University of Leicester - best wishes and luck Fabs!
May 2019: Laurence Doyle's titanium-magnesium-mediated dinitrogen splitting to nitride, Frustrated Lewis Pair splitting of dihydrogen and subsequent nitride hydrogenation to produce ammonia is published in Angewandte Chemie. Well done Laurence!
April 2019: Hat trick! Research from the Liddle Group is highlighted in three elements (Th, U, and As) of the Nature Research periodic table jointly celebrating 150 years of the periodic table and research published in Nature and Nature Research journals (https://www.nature.com/immersive/d42859-019-00001-7/index.html#link).
March 2019: Our work comparing transient dithorium-nitrides that activate C-H bonds to stable diuanium-nitride analogues is published in Chemical Science. Well done Jingzhen Du, Dave King, Lucile Chatelain, and Erli Lu!
February 2019: Work probing the structure-directing role of f-orbitals by Erli Lu is published in Nature Communications. Well done Erli!
December 2018: Tom Rookes passes his viva voce with flying colours. Well done Tom!
November 2018: John Seed passes his viva voce with flying colours just after returning to the group as a PDRA. Well done John!
November 2018: Philip Cobb passes his viva voce with flying colours just after returning to the group as a PDRA. Well done Philip!
November 2018: Helen Sharpe departs for a career in the finance sector. All the best Helen!
October 2018: Welcome to Dr Lisa Vondung on a prestigious Leopoldina fellowship.
September 2018: Rosie Magnall and Ben Reant win poster prizes at the RSC-CRSI UK-India Symposium on Advances in Inorganic Chemistry. Well done Rosie and Ben!
August 2018: Farewell to Lucile Chatelain, who takes up a Maitre de Conference position at the University of Brest CNRS INC. Best wishes and luck Lucile!
July 2018: Liz Wildman departs for her dream job in the pet food development industry. All the best Liz!
June 2018: John Seed wins best talk prize at the Norther Dalton Meeting in Leeds. Well done John!
June 2018: Josef Boronski wins a poster prize at the Northern Dalton Meeting in Leeds. Well done Joseph!
June 2018: John Seed wins a best talk award at The University of Manchester School of Chemistry Postgraduate Research Conference. Well done John!
June 2018: Georgina Hatton wins a best talk award at The University of Manchester School of Chemistry Postgraduate Research Conference. Well done Georgina!
May 2018: The uranium(III)-carbene complexes of Ash Wooles and Dave Mills are published in Nature Communications. Well done Ash and Dave!
May 2018: Erli Lu's super-short U-Rh bond complex is published in Angewandte Chemie. Well done Erli!
May 2018: The collective catalytic dinitrogen reduction to ammonia chemistry of Laurence Doyle, Ashley Wooles, and Lucy Jenkins is published in Angewandte Chemie. Well done all!
May 2018: Liz Wildman wins a School of Chemistry Outstanding Achievement Award. Well done Liz!
April 2018: Erli Lu's and Josef Boronski's silyl-phosphino-carbene complexes of uranium(IV) work is published in Angewandte Chemie. Well done Erli and Joseph!
January 2018: The collective heavy-metal chemistry of uranium and thorium with phosphorus, arsenic, antimony, and bismuth from Tom Rookes, Liz Wildman, and Ben Gardner is published in Angewandte Chemie. Well done all!
January 2018: Matt Gregson departs for a job in industrial radiochemistry. All the best Matt!
December 2017: The collective experimental and computational effort of Ben Gardner, Christos, Kefalidis, Erli Lu, Dipti Patel, Floriana Tuna, and Ashley Wooles is published in Nature Communications. Well done all!
November 2017: Mark Jackson passes his PhD viva voce with flying colours. Well done Mark!
November 2017: Liz Wildman passes her PhD viva voce with flying colours. Well done Liz!
October 2017: Thomas Rookes and John Seed give cracking talks on their uranium-phosphido and f-element mesoionic carbene chemistry, respectively, at Tage der Seltenen Erden Terrae Rarae Conference in Tubingen, and Joe Ostrowski wins a poster prize there too. Well done everyone!
September 2017: New YouTube project called CAMERA highlighting research at Manchester Chemistry launched: see: http://bit.ly/2yqFyOm and #UoMCAMERA.
September 2017: John Seed's work on rare earth and uranium mesionic carbenes is published in Angewandte Chemie. Well done John!
August 2017: The diuranium chalcogenide synthetic efforts of Ben Gardner and Dave King combined with magnetism measurement and modelling from Floriana Tuna and Nick Chilton are published in Chem. Sci.. Well done folks!
August 2017: Tom Rookes' work with Ben Gardner on diuranium-phosphido complexes published in Angewandte Chemie. Well done Tom and Ben!
July 2017: Steve Liddle publishes a preview in Chem. on Thomas Albrecht-Schmitt's superb Robin-Day Class II Plutonium chemistry.
June 2017: Terminal parent zirconium phosphinidene work by Hannah Stafford, a 4th year MChem project student, published in Angewandte Chemie. Well done Hannah!
June 2017: Liz Wildman wins a best talk award at The University of Manchester School of Chemistry Postgraduate Research Conference. Well done Liz!
June 2017: John Seed wins a poster prize at The University of Manchester School of Chemistry Postgraduate Research Conference. Well done John!
March 2017: Liz Wildman's work on thorium-arsenic chemistry published in Nature Communications. Well done Liz!
February 2017: Matt Gregson and Erli Lu's work suggesting the inverse-trans-influence may be a more broadly applicable principle than previously though is published in Nature Communications. Well done to you both and the inter-disciplinary team that made it a reality!
January 2017: Alex Ayres passes his PhD viva voce. Well done Alex!
December 2016: The uranium-nitride synthetic efforts of Dave King, Peter Cleaves, Ashley Wooles, and Ben Gardner combined with a tour de force of modelling and measurement from Nick Chilton and Floriana Tuna are published in Nature Communications. Well done folks!
December 2016: The end of an era: Ben Gardner moves onto pastures new and a job with Johnson Matthey. Thanks for some amazing science over the years and best of luck with your future endeavours!
November 2016: Steve Liddle and Nik Kaltsoyannis publish a Catalysis article in the new journal Chem along with commentaries from Robin Taylor (NNL) and Sue Ion (NIRAB Chair).
October 2016: Peter Cleaves passes his PhD viva voce. Well done Peter!
September 2016: Liz Wildman's work on thorium-phosphorus chemistry published in Nature Communications. Well done Liz!
June 2016: Liz Wildman wins a poster prize at the RSC Northern Dalton Meeting. Well done Liz!
June 2016: Thomas Rookes wins a poster prize at The University of Manchester School of Chemistry Postgraduate Research Conference. Well done Tom!
April 2016: Matt Gregson and Erli Lu's work on similar covalency in cerium(IV)- and uranium(IV)-carbenes is published in Chem. Sci.. Well done Matt and Erli!
April 2016: Joint work with Andy Gaunt at Los Alamos National Laboratory on neptunium and plutonium triamidoamine complexes published in Chem. Commun.. Our first neptunium and plutonium paper!
January 2016: Jingzhen Du from the Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry awarded a University of Manchester President's Doctoral Scholarship to start a PhD in October 2016 in the group. Well done Jingzhen! Richly deserved!
January 2016: Matt Gregson's world recording breaking dysprosium bis(carbene) single molecule magnet published in Chem. Sci.. Well done Matt and the rest of the team for producing a tour de force of synthesis, spectroscopy, magnetism, and calculations!
November 2015: Ben Gardner's diuranium HAsAsH work published in Angew. Chem. Int. Ed.. Well done Ben!
November 2015: Steve receives his RSC Corday Morgan Prize at the RSC Prize Dinner and Ceremony at Manchester Cathedral. Well done group, the prize of course reflects the research you've all done!
October 2015: Steve and the group relocate to the School of Chemistry at The University of Manchester. Farewell to postdoc Dipti Patel and Nottingham, it's been an exciting and very enjoyable time at a great city and university, but fresh challenges await us at Manchester.
July 2015: Matt Gregson passes his PhD viva voce. Well done Matt!
June 2015: Ben Gardner's uranium-arsenide, -arsinidene, and -arsenido paper published in Nature Chemistry and highlighted in Chemistry World. Well done Ben!
June 2015: Ben Gardner's diuranium cyclo-P5 work published in Angew. Chem. Int. Ed.. Well done Ben!
May 2015: Wiley-VCH book edited by Steve Liddle - Molecular Metal-Metal Bonds: Compounds, Synthesis, Properties - now out. Many thanks to all those who contributed to it!
April 2015: Erli Lu wins a poster prize at the EUFEN4 research conference in Lisbon. Well done Erli!
January 2015: Andy Cornish passes his PhD viva voce. Well done Andy!
November 2014: Lyndsay Soutar passes her PhD viva voce. Well done Lyndsay!
September 2014: Peter Cleaves' and Dave King's reductive carbonylation of uranium(V) and (VI) nitrides by carbon monoxide paper published in Angew. Chem. Int. Ed.. Well done Peter and Dave!
August 2014: Erli Lu's thorium ketimide paper publised in Angew. Chem. Int. Ed.. Well done Erli!
August 2014: Dave King heads off to pastures new and a job at Rolls Royce. Thanks for all the nitride work Dave and best of luck with your future endeavours!
July 2014: Steve Liddle is the subject of an Author Highlight article for 10 Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. publications from the group in five years. Well done group!
June 2014: Erli Lu's uranium(VI) carbene imido oxo paper published in Angew. Chem. Int. Ed.. Well done Erli!
May 2014: Ben Gardner's and Peter Cleaves' role of 5f-orbital participation in uranium and thorium cyclometallation chemistry published in Chem. Sci.. Well done Ben and Peter!
April 2014: Dipti Patel wins a poster prize at the EUFEN3 research conference in Nuremburg. Well done Dipti!
April 2014: Ben Gardner's parent terminal uranium phosphinidene complex is published in Angew. Chem. Int. Ed.. Well done Ben!
April 2014: Dave King's parent terminal uranium imido complex is published in J. Am. Chem. Soc.. Well done Dave!
December 2013: Dipti Patel's white phosphorus activation by a diuranium(V) tetra-anion arene complex to give the first molecular actinide [P7]3- Zintl cluster is published in Angew. Chem. Int. Ed.. Well done Dipti!
December 2013: Matt Gregson and Erli Lu's cerium(IV)-carbene work is published in Angew. Chem. Int. Ed.. Well done Matt and Erli!
October 2013: Dave King successfully defends his uranium-nitride work in his PhD viva voce. Well done Dave!
August 2013: Dipti Patel's uranium cyclobutadienyl and diphosphacyclobutadienyl work published in Nature Communications. Well done Dipti!
June 2013: Ben Gardner wins the Turner prize for the best 2012 Inorganic PhD Thesis at Nottingham. Well done Ben!
June 2013: Dave King's uranium(VI)-nitride work published in Nature Chemistry and highlighted in Chemical Engineering News, Chemistry World, Nature Chemistry News and Views, and Editors' Choice in Science. Well done Dave!
April 2013: Oliver Cooper passes his PhD viva voce without a hitch and is now set to postdoc with Marinella Mazzanti at Grenoble CEA. Well done Oliver!
April 2013: Dave King awarded the University of Nottingham Dean Moore Scholarship. Well done Dave!
April 2013: Dave King's uranium(V)-mono-oxo single molecule magnet work published in Angew. Chem. Int. Ed.. Well done Dave!
February 2013: Dave Mills' uranium(III) single molecule magnet work published in Angew. Chem. Int. Ed.. Well done Dave!
August 2012: Dave King's uranium-nitride triple bond published in Science and highlighted by Chemical Engineering News, Chemistry World, Chemistry in Australia, CORDIS, TCE, Laboratory News, Science Bulletin, EPSRC, Oilprice, New Energy and Fuel, Labmate. Well done Dave!
July 2012: Dave Mills appointed to a Lectureship at Manchester University. Many congratulations Dave, richly deserved!
July 2012: Steve Liddle and Dave Mills give 9 public demonstration lectures at the Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition.
June 2012: Ben Gardner, Sarah Robinson, and Ash Wooles all pass their PhD viva voces with flying colours. Well done all three of you!
June 2012: Dave Mills and Ollie Cooper's work on the first organometallic uranyl(V) and uranium(VI) carbene complexes published in J. Am. Chem. Soc.. Well done chaps!
June 2012: Steve receives his RSC Radiochemistry group Bill Newton Prize at the RSC Radiochemistry/Energy Group meeting.
June 2012: Ben Gardner's synthetic cycle for reductive homologation and functionalisation of carbon monoxide published in Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. USA and highlighted in Chemical Engineering News and Chemistry in Australia. Well done Ben!
April 2012: Steve receives his RSC Sir Edward Frankland award at the RSC Dalton Division Conference. Well done group!
December 2011: Marie Curie IIF fund Erli Lu to work in the Liddle group for two years. Well done Erli!
October 2011: Ben Gardner's work on photolytic uranium cleave-and-capture chemistry published in Angew. Chem. Int. Ed.. Well done Ben!
October 2011: Dipti Patel's uranium(V) 10π-toluene tetraanion arene complex and a new route to uranium-metal bonds published in Angew. Chem. Int. Ed.. Well done Dipti!
June 2011: Dave Mills' diuranium single molecule maget published in Nature Chemistry and highlighted in The Engineer, London Press Service, Futurity, and Deutsche Welle Radio. Well done Dave!
June 2011: Dave King awarded Hubberstey Poster Prize. Well done Dave!
February 2011: Ollie Cooper's first uranium(V) carbene complex published in Angew. Chem. Int. Ed.. Well done Oliver!
October 2010: David Mills' regioselective C-H activation and sequential C-C and C-O bond formation chemistry of ketones promoted by an yttrium carbene published in J. Am. Chem. Soc. and highlighted in Nature Chemistry. Well done Dave!
August 2010: Oliver Cooper's distorted trans-planar four-coordinate methane work published in Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. and highlighted in Chemistry World, Nature Chemistry online highlights, and prominently in a two page feature article on unusual carbon geometries and bonding in Chemical Engineering News. Well done Oliver!
June 2010: Sarah Robinson and Ashely Wooles awarded Hubberstey Poster Prizes. Well done both of you!
August 2009: Ben Gardners unusual double dephenylation of tetraphenylborate published in J. Am. Chem. Soc.. Well done Ben!
May 2009: Ben Gardner's Uranium-rhenium bond published as a 'Hot Article' in Chem. Commun. and highlighted in Chemistry World. Well done Ben!
March 2009: David Mills wins a RSC Dalton Division bursary to attend the SACI/RSCINORG2009 conference at Bloemfontein, South Africa and present a lecture.
January 2009: Steve Liddle's uranium-gallium bond published in Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. and highlighted in Chem. Eng. News, Chemistry World, and Chemistry in Australia.
October 2008: IChemE and host Chris Barrie award the Periodic Videos Team the 2008 Petronas Award for Excellence in Education and Training.