Dr Ben Scrafield (PDRA)

Ben grew up in Sheffield and completed his undergraduate degree at the University of Nottingham. He then joined the CDT in Sustainable Chemistry as a PhD student, under the supervision of Professor Ross Denton. In the Denton group, Ben developed new methods for organophosphorus-catalysed azide reductions and related amine functionalisations. After completing his PhD, Ben then worked as a postdoctoral research associate for Professor Liam Ball. During his time in the Ball group, Ben investigated a range of organobismuth-mediated reactions, including a new, stereoselective method for the synthesis of quaternary amino acids and their derivatives. Ben joined the Lawrence group in July 2025 to work in the areas of biomimetic total synthesis and higher-order cycloadditions.

Tomás Vieira de Castro (PhD Student)

Tomas completed his undergraduate degree in Medicinal and Biological Chemistry at the University of Edinburgh in 2018. He conducted his final year research project in the Lawrence group investigating the mechanism of a complex biomimetic domino reaction sequence. Following the completion of his degree, Tomas moved to Australia to work in the group of Prof. Jonathan George at the University of Adelaide, working towards an MPhil degree in the area of natural product synthesis. Tomas returned to Edinburgh to begin his PhD studies in September 2022.

Tristan Smolarski (PhD Student)

Tristan graduated from his undergraduate studies at the École Nationale Supérieure de Chimie de Mulhouse (ENSCMu) in 2022. During his studies, he joined Spirochem AG to work on the synthesis of complex scaffolds. He then visited the University of Berkeley, California under the supervision of Prof. Richmond Sarpong, where he worked on the synthesis of prostratin.  Tristan joined the Lawrence group to undertake a PhD studying the biomimetic total synthesis of natural products.

Aobo Gu (PhD Student)

Aobo Gu completed his undergraduate degree in chemistry at Sun Yat-sen University in China. During his master’s degree at the University of Birmingham, he conducted a drug screening project on leukaemia under the supervision of Dr Alan Jones. He joined the Lawrence group in 2023, focusing on the total synthesis of biologically active natural products. Outside of the research lab, Aobo enjoys practicing the piano and diving.

Louis Ambridge (PhD Student)

Louis grew up on the Isle of Wight, before starting his undergraduate studies at the University of Bath. In his third year, he completed a year-long placement at Evotec SE, gaining experience in drug design and synthesis. His final year masters project at Bath was completed under the supervision of Dr Alex Cresswell, researching the application of photoredox-HAT catalysis in azacycle formation. Louis joined the Lawrence group in September 2023, co-funded by Syngenta, to work in the area enantioselective synthesis.

Ishita Solanki (PhD Student)

Ishita grew up in Dublin, where she completed her undergraduate Chemistry degree at University College Dublin. During her undergraduate studies she undertook a summer internship with Prof. Patrick Guiry developing the synthesis and application of P,N-ligands. She also spent three months in the R&D department of Henkel, gaining industrial experience researching UV-triggered polymerisation. Her final year research project explored the scope of transaminase triggered reactions under the supervision of Dr Elaine O’Reilly. Ishita joined the Lawrence group in September 2023, working in the area of biomimetic rearrangements.

Rachanon Kongchuay (PhD Student)

Rachanon earned his Bechelor’s degree from Prince of Songkla University, Thailand. During his final year, he conducted research on the synthesis of profluorescent nitroxides for the detection of glucose and vitamin A and E. After that Rachanon was awarded a scholarship from the Thai government to pursue postgraduate studies abroad. He completed an MSc degree at the University of Leicester where he was engaged in a research project on the difluorination of alkenes under the supervision of Dr Alison Stuart. Recently, Rachanon made the decision to enroll in the PhD program at the University of Edinburgh, joining the Lawrence group to focus on the total synthesis of natural products.

Tabea Batch (PhD Student)

Tabea grew up near Geneva, Switzerland and came to Edinburgh to complete her MChem at Heriot-Watt University. She completed her final year project with Dr Graeme Barker working on enantioselective substitutions of 5-benzyl tetrazoles. Tabea then moved to the University of Edinburgh in 2025 to undertake her PhD in the Lawrence group working in the field of enantioselective synthesis. Outside of research, Tabea enjoys knitting and boxing.

Fletcher Sharp (PhD Student)

Fletcher grew up in Sydney, Australia, before starting his undergraduate studies at the University of Edinburgh. In his final year, he carried out a research project at the Australian National University under the supervision of Professor Lara Malins, developing an SPPS-based methodology for the synthesis of alpha-thioether linkages in Enteropeptin A analogues. Fletcher joined the Lawrence group in September 2025 after completing his MChem, and is currently working in collaboration with the King-Smith group on machine learning-guided strategies for total synthesis.

Thomas Tartaglia (PhD Student)

Tom obtained his BSc at the Open University before undertaking an MSc in Advanced Organic Chemistry at the University of East Anglia (UEA). During his MSc, Tom carried out a research project under the supervision of Professor Andy Cammidge, working on the formation of metal complexes of aza-diisoindoles via C-H activation. Tom then moved to the University of Edinburgh in 2025 to undertake his PhD in the Lawrence group working in the field of natural product synthesis. Outside of research, Tom enjoys running, powerlifting, and playing the piano.

Sam Liu (Undergraduate Project Student)

Sam is carrying out his fifth-year MChem project in the Lawrence Group, working on the biomimetic total synthesis of a complex alkaloid. Sam has previously gained experience in the semi-synthesis of carbapenems as part of the ESRA (Edinburgh Scientific Research Associate) program under the supervision of Dr Uwe Schneider. Sam has also investigated noncovalent interactions—particularly cation–π interactions—using molecular balances in Prof. Scott Cockroft’s group. Outside of the lab, Sam enjoys playing badminton and feasting on authentic food with friends.

You Jin (Undergraduate Project Student)

You Jin grew up in Anhui, China, before starting his undergraduate studies at the University of Edinburgh. He joined the Lawrence Group in September 2025 to finish his final year project, which is related focused on biomimetic total synthesis. You Jin previously undertook an internship at the University of Science and Technology of China, working on membrane-based selective electrodialysis for mono-/multivalent ion separation. Outside of the lab, You enjoys listening to music and exploring delicious restaurants.

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Alumni Research Groups

David Jones, University College Cork

Nicholas Green, University of Otago

Past PhD and PDRA Members

Dr Chih-Chung Tseng (Postdoctoral Fellow 2024-2025)

Dr Adam Lockyer (PhD Student, 2021-2025)

Dr Kimberley Dodds (PhD Student, 2021-2025)

Dr David Jones (Postdoctoral Fellow 2020-2024)

Dr Vera Demertzidou (Postdoctoral Fellow 2021-2023)

Dr Steven Bennett (Postdoctoral Fellow 2021-2023)

Dr François Richard (Postdoctoral Fellow 2021-2023)

Dr Andrew Tiberia (PhD Student 2018-2023)

Dr Jacob Bestwick (PhD Student 2018-2022)

Dr Jake Stuart (PhD Student 2018-2022)

Dr Helen Jones (PhD Student 2017-2021)

Dr Catherine McKenna (PhD Student 2017-2021)

Dr Joshua Homer (Postdoctoral Fellow 2018-2021)

Dr Katherine Law (Postdoctoral Fellow 2018-2020)

Dr Robert Godfrey (PhD Student 2014-2019, Postdoctoral Fellow 2019-2020)

Dr Peter DaBell (PhD Student 2015-2019)

Dr Marie Thomson (PhD Student 2015-2018)

Dr Irene De Silvestro (PhD Student 2014-2017)

Dr Nicholas Green (Postdoctoral Research Fellow 2016-2017)

Dr Patrick Brown (PhD Student 2013-2016)

Past Undergraduate Students and Visitors

Aurora Bossoni (Visiting Student 2025 – University of Eastern Piedmont)

Emma Scheidegger (MSc Project Student 2025)

Thomas Crawford (Undergraduate Summer Student 2025)

Katelyn Howard (Visiting Student 2025 – MIT)

Nojus Osinskas (Undergraduate Summer Student 2024)

Eduard Balaguer (Visiting Student 2024 – Universitat de Barcelona)

Bjarne Schulz (Visiting Student 2023 – TU Berlin)

Ryan Tan (MSc Project Student 2023)

Ivan Zlatkov (Undergraduate Summer Student 2023)

Cameron Anderson (Undergraduate Summer Student 2023)

Allison Findlay (Undergraduate Project Student 2022-2023)

Maxwell Etherington (Visiting Student 2023 – Australian National University)

Kacper Patej (Undergraduate Summer Student 2022)

Ben Coles (MSc Project Student 2022)

Caspar Lamborelle (Visiting Student 2022 – TU Berlin)

Lorna Minty (Undergraduate Project Student 2021-2022)

Annika Wegner-Repke (Undergraduate Project Student 2021-2022)

Shane Barrett Kavanagh (Visiting Student 2021 – Trinity College Dublin)

Lewis Halsall (MSc Project Student 2021)

Rosie Street-Jeakings (Research Student 2018-2020)

Mária Štiblariková (Visiting PhD Student 2020-2021 – Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava)

Panagiotis Kalomenopoulos (Undergraduate Project Student 2020-2021)

Baekman Kim (Undergraduate Project Student 2020-2021)

Sujlesh Sharma (MSc Project Student 2020)

Eilidh Matheson (Undergraduate Project Student 2019-2020)

Kristian Chambers (Undergraduate Project Student 2019-2020)

Naruhiro Gondo (Visiting Student 2019 – Kyoto University)

Elliot Davenport (Undergraduate Project Student 2018-2019)

Charlotte O’Donnell (Undergraduate Project Student 2018-2019)

Chenfei He (Undergraduate Project Student 2018-2019)

Farjana Afroj (MSc Project Student 2019)

Victor Borba (Visiting Student 2019 – University of Ottawa)

Fraser Milne (Undergraduate Summer Student 2019)

Jake Stuart (Undergraduate Project Student 2017-2018)

Maciej Kucharski (Undergraduate Project Student 2017-2018)

Tomas Vieira De Castro (Undergraduate Project Student 2017-2018)

Ioanna Nakou (MSc Project Student 2017)

Koen Rietdijk (Undergraduate Project Student 2016-2017)

Catherine Connolly (Undergraduate Project Student 2016-2017)

Rhiann Ankers (Undergraduate Project Student 2015-2016)

Connie Buettner (Undergraduate Project Student 2015-2016)

Duncan MacDonald (Undergraduate Project Student 2015-2016)

Rebecca Burns (Undergraduate Project Student 2014-2015)

Becky Gerrard (Undergraduate Project Student 2014-2015)

Kiera Mehigan (Undergraduate Project Student 2014-2015)