University of Auckland
Events
The School of Chemical Sciences Research Showcase returned in September 2025 for the first time since 2019. It was great to see such enthusiasm for the research being carried out in the School of Chemical Sciences. We had about 250 attendees, including technical, professional and academic staff, sub-doctoral and PhD students, and other invited guests from UniServices and the Faculty of Science.
Our students were the heart of the day, presenting their work in 92 posters (A0 and A1) and 24 oral presentations, which were run in a 3 Minute Thesis format. The judges commented on the high quality of presentations and science on display. Congratulations to our prize winners:
3MT talks:
- Charlotte Rayner – 1st place – ECP JT Baker Award
- Xin Sun – 1st place – ECP Star Award
- Josefina Barrera Morelli – People’s Choice Award
Posters 1st place:
- Anastasia Gater – A0 poster
- Beatrix Goggin – A0 poster
- Hea Jeong Kim – A1 poster
- Andrei Kriger – A1 poster
Highly Commended posters:
- Elise Bailey
- High Bloomfield
- Olivia Yugovich
- Zifan Su
- Jesse Wijaya
This event would not have been possible without our sponsors. Thanks to our Diamond sponsor ECP, Gold sponsors John Morris Group, Metrohm, OneLab, Alphatech, NZLab Supplies, and our Silver sponsors Bruker and Shimadzu. Thank you to everyone who visited their booths on the day.
Thank you also to our volunteers who helped the day run smoothly: Alan Cameron for performing the mihi whakatau, and our poster and 3MT judges.
Finally, huge thanks to the chair Rosalyn Falconer and the organising committee who put in a lot of work behind the scenes before and on the day of the event: David Barker, Freda Li, Rebecca Deed, Joel Rindelaub, SallyAnn Harbison, Tasdeeq Mohammed, Sahra Sheikh Aleslami, Nandita Biswas and Songyu Liu.
Research seminars
The School of Chemical Sciences hosted Professors Alex Bissember from the University of Tasmania and Jianwei Sun from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) in a synthetic organic chemistry double-header on 20 November. Their talks were respectively titled, “Structurally authenticating reactive species in chemical synthesis” and Organocatalytic enantioselective nucleophilic α-functionalization of carbonyl compounds”.
Ex-UoA PhD student Phillip Grant and Choon-Hoong Tan, both at Nanyang Technological University, combined for another synthetic organic chemistry double-header on 21 November. Their talks were respectively titled, “Positional isomerisation of phenols” and “Chiral cationic ion pair catalysis using guanidiniums”.
AUT
Talks and presentations
- Dr Emma Davison presented her research in the Thieme Cheminar: Rising stars in organic chemistry.
- Dr Emma Davison presented her research at SynthCon 7 in Arrowtown, Aotearoa NZ.
- Professor Nicola Brasch presented an invited lecture at the International Symposium on Bioorganometallic Chemistry in Paris in August.
- Professor Nicola Brasch presented seminars at the University of Zurich and the University of Fribourg in Switzerland in September.
Congratulations
Congratulations to Jessica Fredericksen who has successfully defended her PhD thesis. Jess was supervised by Professor Nicola Brasch.
New faces
Josh Van Dongen joins us to begin his PhD after spending 3 months as a research assistant at Dot Ingredients. Josh was awarded an AUT Vice Chancellor’s Doctoral Scholarship and will be working with Associate Professor Jack Chen on the development of cellulose-based SPF boosters, in collaboration with Dot Ingredients.
Lionel Ortega joins us from Paris, France, to begin a MacDiarmid Institute-funded PhD position. He will be working with Associate Professor Jack Chen on the development of stimuli-responsive vesicular systems capable of catalysing cascade reactions.
Welcome back to Marwa Omar, who has been awarded a faculty summer research position. Marwa will begin her PhD with Professor Nicola Brasch in February.
Kaya Flower was awarded a faculty summer research position and will work with Associate Professor Jack Chen over the summer.
In the media
AUT-based start-up Dot Ingredients was featured on RNZ’s Our Changing World podcast, “Mixing oil and water, the greener way”, which described their CelluspheresTM technology – an innovative surfactant derived sustainably from wood pulp cellulose. Dot Ingredients was founded on research by Associate Professor Jack Chen and Dr Andres Tiban at AUT and now features Dr Mohinder Naiya as Head of Chemistry and Dr Victor Yim as Head of Product: https://www.rnz.co.nz/podcast/ourchangingworld/2025/mixing-oil-and-water-the-greener-way.
Auckland Cancer Society Research Centre
Associate Professor Julie Spicer was recently appointed Director of the Auckland Cancer Society Research Centre (ACSRC), taking over from Associate Professor Michael Hay who has served as Director for the last five and a half years. Julie completed her BSc(Hons) and PhD with Distinguished Professor Dame Margaret Brimble at Massey University before moving to the ACSRC to work on small molecule drugs for the treatment of cancer. As a senior medicinal chemist at the ACSRC, she has extensive experience in drug design for a range of therapeutic applications such as anti-cancer, anti-bacterial, anti-inflammation and immunosuppression. Her current research interests include the design and synthesis of inhibitors of the protein perforin as potential immunosuppressive agents and kinase inhibitors for the treatment of cancer. Julie supervises medicinal chemistry postgraduate students and teaches in chemistry and pharmacology courses. She is also a Principal Investigator and Coordinator of the Cancer Theme for the Maurice Wilkins Centre of Research Excellence.
