University of Otago, Department of Chemistry
To celebrate the completion of the 300-level exams and 400-level research, the NZIC Otago Branch hosted a gelato cart for members and students to unwind after an intense examination and report writing period and send off a fantastic cohort for the summer. We anticipate many will be back at Otago in 2026 to embark on postgraduate studies.
Brooker Group
A warm welcome to Thesleema Nesri, our PhD student from India. She will be investigating non-covalently immobilised molecular electrocatalysts for the carbon dioxide reduction reaction, with the aim of optimising formate production from CO2 through controlled modifications to the promising initial molecular complex studied by our previous PhD student, Kieran DeMonte (MacDiarmid Institute-funded PhD). Thesleema's project will also expand on our well-established, MacDiarmid Institute-supported, research collaboration with Professor Aaron Marshall (University of Canterbury). Thesleema officially started her University of Otago-funded PhD scholarship on 1 November - welcome to New Zealand!
Congratulations to Kieran DeMonte on successfully defending his PhD thesis, "Molecular transition metal complexes as catalysts for the CO2RR". We are grateful to our collaborators Professor Garry Hanan (Université de Montréal) and Professor Aaron Marshall (University of Canterbury), and to the MacDiarmid Institute for support through the award of the PhD scholarship as well as consumables and travel support, and to the NZ Catalyst Seed fund (administered by the Royal Society Te Apārangi) for travel support for a research visit to Montreal.
The Pieper family at Agrowea GmbH & Co. KG, Margarete, Tristain and Christoph Pieper generously hosted Sally Brooker, Jose Bellosta von Colbe (Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon), plus Astrid and Wolfgang Breu (Fendt, AGCO Corporation) on 15 September for a tour and discussions about the Haren community co-owned wind turbine farm, with integrated battery storage and green hydrogen production (2 x 1MW PEM electrolysers), which supplies green electricity to Haren, provides green hydrogen to the Fendt hydrogen tractor operating on nearby farms, an EV-charging and green hydrogen refuelling station to the nearby motorway, and injects green hydrogen into the nearby gas grid. Wow!
The community has bought into this renewable energy development (literally), and will benefit for decades to come from this investment. This is a model that we and others should also consider. Plus, as Christoph Pieper said to us, "industry follows energy - always", so the community will clearly reap further benefits from this side of things too. All round it was a truly inspirational visit - thanks!!
Congratulations to Sally Brooker’s PhD students Varinder Singh (submitted May 2025) and Kieran DeMonte (submitted June 2025) who celebrated submitting their PhD theses by ringing the University of Otago's historic bell together, a privilege extended to our PhD students post-thesis submission. We are very grateful to our collaborators, Professor Garry Hanan (Université de Montréal), Professors Aaron Marshall and Alex Yip (University of Canterbury), and thank the University of Otago and the MacDiarmid Institute for financial support, along with MBIE for the award of a Catalyst Seed grant which enabled Varinder and Kieran to visit and collect data in Garry Hanan's laboratory.
Sally Brooker had a very stimulating and enjoyable chemistry department seminar day at the University of Cambridge. This included a day of talks, tours of facilities, discussions with Professor Jonathan Nitschke and Professor Erwin Reisner and with their research group members, and concluded with a wonderful dinner. Thanks everyone for making this such a great day!
Sally Brooker thoroughly enjoyed being at the Phase Transition and Dynamical Properties of Spin Transition Materials (PDSTM) Conference at University College Dublin with her former University of Otago PhD students, now postdocs, Dr Sriram Sundaresan (Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz) and Dr Matthew Robb (Stockholm University). Huge thanks to our chairperson, Professor Grace Morgan, for the invitation to present our research results in Ireland, at this international conference!
Congratulations to University of Otago/Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon PhD students Lekshmi Dinachandran and Alex Haack (funded by a joint MBIE Science and Innovation / German BMBF grant; supervised by Anna Garden/Paul Jerabek, and Nigel Lucas/Claudio Pistidda, respectively), as well as Sally Brooker’s PhD students Kieran DeMonte (funded by the MacDiarmid Institute) and Varinder Singh (funded by University of Otago) who reported on our collaborative work with Aaron Marshall and Alex Yip, respectively. All four of them won student prizes for their presentations at the 3rd NZ Hydrogen Symposium, NZHS-3! Really well done team!!!
