Nov 2025 – Andy had a great time attending and speaking at the 10th Brazilian Conference on Natural Products in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais. Andy also had the pleasure of delivering an advanced course on pericyclic reactions and stereoselective synthesis to students at the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG). Thank you Prof. Luiz Claudio de Almeida Barbosa and Prof. Lucia Pinheiro Santos Pimenta for their warm hospitality!

June 2025 – We had a great time at our summer retreat on the Northumberland Coast, alongside our new colleagues from the King-Smith Group. Glamping, BBQ, castles, beach walks, fish and chips, swimming in the sea (well just Aobo was brave enough!), pub quiz, seals and puffins! Thank you Louis for organising such a great trip.

June 2025 – Several group members (Aobo, Ishita, Louis, Rachanon, Tomas and Tristan) presented their research at the recent 2025 Joseph Black Conference. It was great to see the group’s research being presented in such high quality posters and talks. Hearty congratulations to Tomas and Aobo who were both awarded prizes!

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May 2025 – Our paper describing the quinol–enedione rearrangement is currently listed as the most read article in Organic Letters in the last 30 days.

April 2025 – Our paper describing the first total synthesis of brevianamide S is currently listed as the most read article in Organic Letters in the last 30 days.

March 2025 – The Lawrence Group is recruiting, we have a PDRA position and two PhD studentships available. One is on the topic of “Biomimetic Total Synthesis of Natural Products” and the other is a collaborative project jointly supervised with Dr Emma King-Smith (King-Smith Group) on “Machine Learning-Guided Synthetic Strategies for Natural Product Synthesis“. Application deadline for the PDRA position is 18 April and both PhD studentships have an application deadline of 4 April 2025.

March 2025 – The group have been awarded a Leverhulme Trust Research Grant for our work on “Biomimetic Non-Canonical Cycloadditions in the Synthesis of Complex Alkaloids”.

February 2025 – On the 25^th of February Ishita (PhD student) took part in the “I Belong in Chemistry: Women Who Inspire” an event celebrating women of colour in chemistry. Eight speakers from industry and academia at various stages of their career shared their experiences discussing their unique journeys, the challenges they faced, and the lesson they learned. Staff and students from across the University of Edinburgh attended as well as students from local high schools. Well done Ishita!

February 2025 – Ishita Solanki (PhD student), alongside Niamh Gurrin (PhD student, Bell Group), visited Burnbrae Primary School on the 25^th of September 2024 to engage students with various aspects of science. Different illusions and magic tricks were used to introduce the concepts of polymerisation and surface tension. We hope the students enjoyed the show, well done Ishita!

January 2025 – Dr Vera Demertzidou, who was previously a postdoctoral researcher in the group (2021–2023), has created a fantastic Synthesis Workshop Research Spotlight video on our new approach to enantioconvergent reactions (Original publication: Nat. Chem. 2024, 16, 1177–1183.).

December 2024 – Adam was selected as one of the forty students to present their posters at the RSC 2024 Organic Chemistry Poster Symposium. Congratulations Adam you did a great job!

November 2024 – The group had a great time at our Christmas group symposium and dinner! We had a group symposium, where everyone delivered a presentation, followed by pottery painting, dinner and a few drinks. A particularly big thank you to Ishita for organising!

October 2024 – Adam was awarded the runner up prize for his poster presentation at the 5th GSK Synthetic Organic Chemistry Postgraduate Symposium. Many congratulations!

June 2024 – Adam, Tomás and Tristan delivered excellent presentations at the recent Joseph Black Conference (University of Edinburgh) and RSC Scottish Section Perkin Meeting (University of Dundee). Congratulations to Adam and Tomás for winning prizes for their presentations; Best Oral Presentation in the ‘Synthesis and Catalysis’ section at the Joseph Black Conference and Best Poster Prize at the Perkin Meeting, respectively.

December 2023 – The group had a great time at our Christmas Extravaganza! We had a group conference, where everyone delivered a presentation. This was followed by a Christmas chemistry-themed quiz, organised by Tomas (great job Tomas!). Then we headed into central Edinburgh for some crazy golf (Kimberley 26 [wow!], Bjarne 28, Tomas 28, Louis 31, Tristan 34, Andy 38, Ishita 38, Aobo 39, Adam 53 [ouch!]) and then dinner (where Aobo treated us to some fantastic impromptu piano). What a great way to finish the year!

October 2023 – Andy recently attended the 20th Annual Meeting of the STS Forum in Kyoto, Japan. Andy was nominated by the New York Academy of Sciences to attend the associated Young Leaders Program, which was funded by the JSPS (Japan Society for the Promotion of Science). The STS Forum was founded in 2004 with the mission of creating a global network and platform for open discussions to promote progress in science and technology. The forum brings together key leaders from the scientific, political, and business sectors to discuss the promise and complex challenges of science and technology within the globalized world.

September 2023 – Adam was awarded the prize for best poster at the RSC Heterocyclic and Synthesis Group 37^th Postgraduate Symposium. Well done Adam!

September 2023 – Andy delivered his Inaugural Lecture as Chair of Organic Synthesis at the University of Edinburgh.

August 2023 – Congratulations to Ryan Tan who has been awarded TWO prizes for his performance during his MSc Medicinal and Biological Chemistry degree. Ryan was awarded the prize for best oral presentation and the prize for best performance in the taught component. Ryan completed a research project on the total synthesis of a complex marine natural product under the supervision of Adam. Congratulations Ryan and Adam!

May 2023 – Adam was awarded the prize for best poster in the Synthesis and Catalysis section at the Joseph Black Conference today. Well done Adam!

January 2023 – Andy has been named as a Chemistry Finalist for the 2023 Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists in the United Kingdom for “Elegant and efficient total syntheses of naturally-occurring, bio-active molecules that hold promise for the development of treatments for various diseases”. It is a great honour and a fantastic recognition of the dedication, hard-work and creativity of all the incredible chemists that have worked in the Lawrence Group at Edinburgh.

January 2023 – Tomás’ previous work with Professor Jonathan George (University of Adelaide) has been published in Chemical Science. We were delighted that Tomás was able to complete his work on this project in Edinburgh, as he couldn’t return to Australia during the COVID pandemic. Congratulations Tomás, a spectacular one-step total synthesis of peshawaraquinone!

September 2022 – Congratulations to Shane who has been awarded ‘The Cocker Prize’ at Trinity College Dublin! This prestigious prize was founded in 1949 by a gift from Sir William W. Cocker. Shane was awarded the prize for his outstanding performance in his Capstone research project, which he conducted in our group working under the supervision of David and Jacob.

August 2022 – The group celebrates Ben receiving the ‘Prize for Best Presentation’ at the MSc Medicinal and Biological Chemistry final oral presentations.

July 2022 – Congratulations to Kimberley for winning two medals for Scotland in the 2022 European Bowls Championships! Kimberely secured a BRONZE medal in the ladies triples and a GOLD medal in the ladies fours. The group is incredibly proud of Kimberley’s sporting achievements!

July 2022 – Well done Annika & Lorna, our undergraduate project students, who both secured 1st class marks! Further congratulations to Annika for securing the Best Overall Performance Prize for BSc (Hons) Chemistry Research Project.

June 2022 – Congratulations to Dr David Jones on winning the Prize for Best Oral Presentation at the RSC Chemistry and Biology of Natural Products XV meeting, for his talk ‘A biomimetic approach to the synthesis and prediction of ulodione natural products’!

May 2022 – Congratulations to Adam on winning the Prize for Best Poster at the 2022 School of Chemistry Organic Section Retreat! This event is held at the University of Edinburgh’s Firbush Outdoor Centre on Loch Tay in the Scottish Highlands.

May 2022 – Congratulations to Shane who has graduated with First Class Honors from Trinity College Dublin! Shane completed his final year research project in the group, working with David and Jacob.

March 2022 – Publications from our collaborative projects with the Campopiano Group (University of Edinburgh) and the Trauner Group (New York University) have appeared on the front covers of Green Chemistry and Nature Reviews Chemistry, respectively.

December 2021 – The group have been awarded a Leverhulme Trust Research Grant for our work on “Biomimetic [1,2]-Shifts in the Synthesis of Complex Diterpenes”.

December 2021 – The group Christmas dinner at the Sheep Heid Inn, possibly Edinburgh’s oldest pub, was a great success. Congratulations to David and Lorna for winning the Skittles championship and an honourable mention for Steven who scored the only strike (yes, we were that bad!).

December 2021 – Congratulations to Jacob on delivering a fantastic on-line poster at the RSC Organic Division Poster Symposium, and Adam for presenting his First-Year PhD Talk!

October 2021 – Congratulations to Jacob on delivering a fantastic presentation at the first day of the 36th Annual Postgraduate Symposium of the RSC Heterocyclic and Synthesis Group!

September 2021 – Congratulations to Mária (visiting PhD student from the Slovak University of Technology) on winning the prize for best poster at the 73rd Annual Congress of the Slovak and Czech Chemical Societies in the High Tatra Mountains. Mária’s poster covered her work on new amine donors for biocatalysis, which is a collaborative endeavour with our colleagues in the Campopiano Group.

For previous group news see the News Archive section.