The Chemistry Department at UCL is one of the top-ranked departments in the UK and is committed to supporting excellence in both research and teaching. The Chemistry Department has over 60 members of academic staff carrying out world-leading research, with an annual research income of around £15 million, derived from many sources including UKRI (EPSRC, BBSRC, MRC, and NERC), European Commission and a wide range of charities and industrial partners in the UK, Europe, and the USA. A multidisciplinary research ethos is fully embedded in our activities in the Department with highly innovative research programmes across Engineering and Bioscience Departments and elsewhere at UCL as well as nationally, internationally and with industry. Details about our research can be found on the departmental website
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/chemistry.
Fluorinated molecules have many applications across a range of scientific fields as the carbon-fluorine bond imparts useful properties, including altering the molecular shape. In this project we will take a combined experimental and computational approach to study the chemistry of underexplored classes of highly reactive fluorinated organic molecules. The postholder will be required to model the structures and predict NMR spectra of a range of small organic molecules, model their reactions with a range of possible reaction partners, calculate the energies of plausible transition states for these reaction pathways and work together with the synthetic chemists on the project to develop an understanding of the reactivity of these novel compounds. The postholder will work in an interdisciplinary environment so excellent team-working and communication skills will be required. The position is funded by the Leverhulme Trust for up to 24 months. The candidate will join the research groups of Tom Sheppard and Mike Porter in the Department of Chemistry at University College London. Information about the groups can be found at
https://www.tomsheppard.info and
https://profiles.ucl.ac.uk/8178-mike-porter. The Department has international strengths in the development of new synthetic chemistry and its application to the synthesis of potentially useful molecules.
The postholder will be required to carry out computational study of reactive fluorinated compounds. This will involve: (i) modelling of the structures of these compounds; (ii) predicting the NMR data for compounds to aid in structural elucidation of complex reaction mixtures; (iii) modelling the reaction pathways of our novel reactive fluorinated molecules with a range of reaction partners; (iv) developing an understanding of the chemical behaviour of these species. The postholder will work in a multidisciplinary environment. They will also be expected to supervise PhD and Masters students, assisting with their research projects where necessary, and reading drafts of reports and papers.
