Many congratulations to Sanita for passing her PhD viva today, despite the added complexities of doing it remotely by Zoom!

Mattia successfully defended his PhD last Friday through the doubly unusual medium of the exam being virtual via Zoom AND having two rather than one external examiner. Despite that, he nailed it!

Welcome to the group Michael Canning and Joe Heeley, two new PhD students funded by the BCFN/Anaphite and the Bristol TECS CDT respectively.

Methylenespiro[2.3]hexanes via Nickel-Catalyzed Cyclopropanations with [1.1.1]Propellane, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2019, 141, 51, 20325–20334

Two recent papers from the group critically examine spurious claims of 1st row transition metal catalysed Suzuki cross-coupling.

Revisiting Claims of the Iron‐, Cobalt‐, Nickel‐, and Copper- Catalyzed Suzuki Biaryl Cross-Coupling of Aryl Halides with Aryl Boronic Acids, Organometallics 2019, 38, 1770−1777

Can Immobilization of an Inactive Iron Species Switch on Catalytic Activity in the Suzuki Reaction? Cat. Lett. 2020, 150, 963-968

Applications are invited for a Postdoctoral Research Associate to work with Professor Robin Bedford on the development and application of homogeneous first-row transition metal catalysts for cross-coupling and related reactions. The project is funded by the EPSRC Catalysis Hub, and you will interact with researchers at other Universities in the UK and at the Harwell Research Campus.

Experience in organometallic synthesis or homogeneous catalysts design and the routine use of air-sensitive techniques are essential. Applicants must have a PhD in synthetic of homogeneous catalytic chemistry. Experience in characterising paramagnetic complexes is desirable.

The post is available to start as soon as possible for 2 years and the closing date for applications is the 23^rdApril 2019. Full details and the application procedure can be found here: http://www.bristol.ac.uk/jobs/find/details.html?nPostingId=37094&nPostingTargetId=126454&id=Q50FK026203F3VBQBV7V77V83&LG=UK&mask=uobext

The highly surprising behaviour of diphosphine ligands in iron-catalysed Negishi cross-coupling

Cobalt-catalyzed Suzuki biaryl coupling of aryl halides

You are warmly invited to a free, one day meeting on homogeneous Earth-abundant metal catalysis (EAMCat1), hosted by the UK Catalysis Hub on the 8th December at the Harwell Research Complex. The confirmed speakers are:

Lutz Ackermann http://www.ackermann.chemie.uni-goettingen.de
Axel Jacobi von Wangelin http://www-oc.chemie.uni-regensburg.de/jacobi/
Ruth Webster http://www.bath.ac.uk/chemistry/contacts/academics/ruth_webster/
Stephen Thomas http://www.chem.ed.ac.uk/staff/academic-staff/dr-stephen-p-thomas
Damien Murphy http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/people/view/38540-murphy-damien
Jonathan Moseley http://www.catsci.com/dr-jonathan-moseley.html

In addition there will be a poster session for those working on all aspects of homogeneous Earth-abundant metal catalysis, either in the academic or end-user sectors. If you wish to submit a poster please email Robin Bedford (r.bedford@bristol.ac.uk) with a title + brief (1-2 sentence) abstract by 15th November.

There are a limited number of tickets available for the complementary conference dinner. For further details and to register for the meeting, please go to: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/earth-abundant-metal-catalysis-conference-eamcat-1-tickets-28217334808

Registration will be 10-11 and the programme will finish at 17:45. For details on travel to the Harwell complex, see: http://www.diamond.ac.uk/Home/Directions.html

Hope to see you there!