Congratulations to Varinder Aggarwal who has been invited to participate in the 37th Annual Richard Lerner Frontiers in Chemistry Symposium, on February 6, 2026, at Scripps Research in La Jolla, California.

Except from the symposium website: "Over the years, we have hosted 134 lectures by over 121 different distinguished scientists from all over the world whose renowned work is of great interest to the scientific community at Scripps Research and our neighbors. Among these speakers, we have had an impressive 14 Nobel laureates."

Congratulations to Professor Varinder Aggarwal, who has been elected as a Foreign Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, India. Established in 1930, the National Academy of Sciences is the oldest science academy in India.

Varinder writes, "To be a Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, India is a truly great honour, which my parents and their forefathers would be exceptionally proud of, with us all having grown up in small villages in India. The long and circuitous path had many dead ends but my parents migration to the UK and the educational opportunities it offered, transformed our family and I will be forever grateful.”

We are delighted to welcome Lulu, a new PhD Student, to our group. Welcome, Lulu!

We are delighted to welcome Yihang, a new PhD Student, to our group. Welcome, Yihang!

We are delighted to welcome Jiangwei Wen, a new research associate from Qufu Normal University in China, to our group. Welcome, Jiangwei Wen!

Congratulations to Professor Varinder Aggarwal who has been selected to give the 2nd Ila-Junjappa Endowment Lecture during the 34th National Symposium in Chemistry of the Chemical Research Society of India , at ISER Bhopal 6-9 February, 2025. The Endowment lecture carries an honorarium of INR 75,000 and a citation. The first recipient was Prof. Goverdhan Mehta FRS.

Congratulations to Mark Mandigma who won the Participant's Prize for his poster about "Aromatic Pummerer Promoted 1,2-Metalate Shifts: Enantiospecific Cross-Coupling of 1,3-Azoles with Boronic Esters" at the 2024 TECS CDT Summer Conference.

Congratulations to Hetty Walker for winning the the best presentation prize at the UoBPPN postgraduate away day. She talked about her work on design and application of FAK PROTACs in human platelets.

We are delighted to welcome Weiyi Wang, a new postdoctoral researcher from the Ma lab, Fudan University University in China, to our group. Welcome, Weiyi Wang!

We welcome two new members to the group, Richard Cox and Shubam Ojha, joining us from the CDT. Welcome to the both of you!

At the AstraZeneca Pharmaceutical Technology & Development /Pharm Sci PhD Day conference (running across Thursday 25th of April and Friday 26th April) Malcolm George (CDT PhD student working with Craig Butts and Varinder Aggarwal) presented his work entitled “Ultra-High-Resolution NMR and Total Synthesis; Uncovering the Stereochemistry of the Caylobolides” as a 15 minute oral presentation. Malcolm showcased the power of metalation-borylation chemistry for the installation of stereochemistry with 100% enantioselectivity, and how complex NMR systems can be addressed and simplified with the assistance of modern spectrometers and novel analytical methods. Malcolm won the runner-up prize at the event.

Congratulations to Mark Mandigma for being one of the finalists for best talk at the 4th Joint CDT Conference in Data Driven Chemical Synthesis and Catalysis, where he presented his work on enantiospecific cross coupling of heterocycles with alkyl boronic esters.

Congratulations to Professor Varinder Aggarwal who has been selected to be the Novartis Chemical Sciences Lecturer at UNC Chapel Hill, USA for the 2024-25 academic year.

Congratulations to Maryam Bashir, who was a 2020 Commonwealth Split-site Scholar from Pakistan and completed a PhD in Organic Chemistry at the University of Bristol with Prof. Varinder Aggarwal, who has been selected as the winner of the 2023 CSC Research Output Award stream for her article, Application of Enantioselective Sulfur Ylide Epoxidation to a Short Asymmetric Synthesis of Bedaquiline, a Potent Anti-Tuberculosis Drug, published in Organic Letters in 2023.

Congratulations to Professor Varinder Aggarwal who has been invited to deliver the 2024 Reuben Benjamin Sandin Lectures at the University of Alberta. This lecture series is the highlight of UoA’s visiting speaker program, held in honour of the late Professor Reuben Benjamin Sandin, who gave 75 years active service to the University. It is quite a who's-who of illustrious organic chemists, including almost a dozen Nobel Laureates.

We welcome three new members to the group – Ze-Xin Zhang, Joshua Mitchell, and Lushuai Zhang. Welcome all!

We welcome two new PhD students to the group – Swastik Biswas and Qingwei Guo. Welcome!

Congratulations to Dylan Rigby for being awarded the prize for best oral communication at the 5th edition of the International Symposium on Synthesis and Catalysis. This instalment of the biennial conference was held at the University of Évora, Portugal from the 5th-8th of September, featuring 22 oral communications from postgraduate and early career researchers.

We say goodbye to Santosh and Ruocheng, who have both finished their post-doctoral studies in our group. Santosh will take up an independent research position at the University of Göttingen, Germany and Ruocheng will pursue further PDRA studies with Professor Stuart Conway at UCLA, USA. We wish them all the best!

Kate has successfully defended her Ph.D. and is now Dr. Ellis-Sawyer!

Congratulations to Molly who completed her Ph.D. defence and is now Dr. Fairchild!

Mark Mandigma, a new PhD student in our group, joins us from the CDT. Welcome Mark!

Congratulations to Jack, who successfully passed his viva and is now Dr. Rogers!

Dawn has successfully defended her PhD thesis and is now Dr. White! Congratulations Dawn!

Congratulations to Jasper on successfully passing his viva and becoming Dr. Tyler!

Congratulations to Varinder Aggarwal who has been invited to give the Prof. A. Srikrishna Memorial Lecture on 20th January 2023 at the University of Hyderabad. Prof. A. Srikrishna (1955-2013) led pioneering studies in the total synthesis of natural products.

Congratulations to Jasper Tyler and Molly Fairchild who were both awarded prizes at the GSK 3rd Synthetic Organic Chemistry Postgraduate Symposium on 5/6 October 2022. Jasper was awarded the Oral Presentation Runner Up prize and Molly was awarded the First Place Poster prize.

Congratulations to PhD student (now a post-doc in our group), Sheenagh Aiken, who has been awarded THE 2022 Doctoral Prize in the Faculty of Science. Not just the best PhD in chemistry, but the best in the whole faculty!

We are delighted to welcome Ya Dong, a new postdoctoral researcher from the Sun lab, Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China, to our group. Welcome, Ya!

Welcome to Ting Xie, a CSC Scholar, who completed her Masters at Nanjing Tech University, and is joining our group as a PhD student.

Welcome to Merlin Hauer, who completed his Bachelors at Leibniz University of Hannover, and is joining our group as a visiting Masters student.

Hetty Walker, a new PhD student in our group, joins us from the University of Nottingham. Welcome Hetty!

Welcome to Zhuowen Guo, who completed his Bachelors at Dalian University of Technology, and is joining our group as a Masters student.

Welcome to Kevin Wang, who completed his Masters at the University of Cambridge, and is joining our group as a PhD student.

Congratulations to Joe on successfully passing his viva and becoming Dr. Abell!

Congratulations to Jasper Tyler for being chosen to give one of 6 talks from postgraduate students and for being awarded 'Best Poster Award' at the 22nd Tetrahedron Symposium in Lisbon (28/6/2022-1/7/22). The poster, entitled 'Azabicyclo[1.1.0]butyl lithium in the strain-release-driven synthesis of azetidine containing spirocycles', was one of three to win a prize as voted for by the symposium delegates.

We are delighted to welcome Margherita Zanini, a new postdoctoral researcher from the Melchiorre lab, ICIQ in Spain, to our group. Welcome, Margherita!

Franz Steppeler, a visiting PhD student from Poland has joined us for the summer. Welcome Franz!

Congratulations to Sheenagh who completed her Ph.D. defence and is now Dr. Aiken!

Congratulations to Varinder who has been selected to deliver the 2022 Cornforth Lecture at the annual Life Sciences Research symposium at the University of Sussex on 23rd March 2022. This is a keynote lecture delivered each year by a distinguished speaker in honour of Sir John Cornforth. For information, you can see a News Item about last years Life Sciences symposium.

We say goodbye to Valerio and Hui, who have both finished their post-doctoral studies in our group and are returning to Italy and China, respectively. We wish them all the best!

Congratulations to Dawn who was awarded the Participant's Prize at this year's RSC Organic Division Poster Symposium.

Welcome to Hanwen Zhang, a CSC Scholar, who completed his Masters at the Shanghia Institute of Organic Chemistry and is joining our group as a PhD student. .

We welcome three new post-docs to the group – Huaquan Fang, Liang Wei, and Zeshu Wang. Welcome all!

Congratulations to Varinder who has been awarded the Chemical Record Lectureship from the Chemical Societies of Japan. He will present his Lecture at the 102nd Chemical Societies of Japan Annual Meeting, to be held in Tokyo in March 2022. The full list of previous TCR Lecturers is provided here.

We have had a new PhD student join our group, welcome Tom!

We welcome a new post-doc to the group, Santosh Pagire, who is joining us from the Shibasaki group in Japan. Welcome, Santosh!

We bid farewell to Adam Elmehriki, who is starting a new job with Merck. All the best, Adam!

A new post-doctoral reseacher has started in the group, Christian Bold, who joins us from Switzerland. Welcome, Christian!

Congratulations to Charlotte for completing her defence and becoming
Dr. Gregson! We wish her all the best for the future!

Kay has completed her post-doc in the group and is moving on to the EPSRC. All the best, Kay!

Congratulations to Valerio Fasano and Daniele Fiorito, who attended the "A. Corbella" International Summer School on Organic Synthesis and won prizes for the best oral communication and for the best-solved problem session, respectively.

Well done to Rory who successfully completed his defence and is now
Dr. Mykura!

Congratulations to former group members, Chris Sandford, who has accepted an academic position at Dartmouth College (USA), and Roly Armstrong, who has accepted an academic position at Newcastle University (UK). These are great achievements, and we look forward to following your future academic careers.

Chao has finished his post-doc in the group, and is returning to China. All the best, Chao!

Wangyujing has started in our group as a new PhD student. Welcome, Wangyujing!

Varinder was recently interviewed for Chemistry World's In Situ series. See what he has to say about how he manages the group and what he gets up to most lunchtimes.

Steven Bennett has successfully passed his viva and became Dr. Bennett. Congrats, Steven!

Congratulations to Dr. Pradip Songara who recently passed his viva!

Sad farewell to our esteemed Marie Curie post-doc, Durga Hari, who has been fantastic in the group. He will be missed by one and all for the time he gave to different group members, his generous support, and the suggestions he gave to various projects. He returns to India to start his independent career at the Indian Institute of Science and Technology at Bangalore. All the best Durga!

Last week the Aggarwal Group’s Flu Fighters team was awarded 1st place in the final round of the SCI/RSC Retrosynthesis Competition. This year’s target was the polycyclic polyprenylated acylphloroglucinol hypatulone A. Congratulations to Sheenagh Aiken, Steven Bennett, Christopher Cope, Adam Elmehriki, Durga Hari, Jack Rogers, Jasper Tyler, and Kay Yeung for their win!

Congratulations to our former post-doc Dr. Jingjing Wu, who has received one of the prestigious "1000 Talents" awards in China. These highly competitive awards lead to immediate promotion to Associate Professor and make available generous funds for research. Jingjing will start his own research group in Shanghai Jiaotong University. Good luck, Jingjing!

Kris, who joins us from Edinburgh, has started in our group as a new PhD student. Welcome, Kris!

Daniele has joined us as a post-doctoral researcher, and is working on natural product synthesis. Welcome, Daniele!

Chary has finished his post-doc in the group, and is returning to India. All the best, Chary!

We bid farewell to Lin, who is returning to Harbin Institute of Technology (Shenzhen) with an academic position. We wish Lin well!

Congratulations to Riccardo for completing his defence and becoming
Dr. Mega! Riccardo is now going to start a postdoc in the Ruben Martin group, and we wish him all the best for the future. Congrats again, Riccardo!

Congratulations to Varinder, who has been elected to the Academia Europaea. The Academia Europaea is an organisation of eminent, individual scientists and scholars from Council of Europe states and from other nations across the world, covering the full range of academic disciplines.

Chris and Vanessa are our new CDT students. Welcome, Chris and Vanessa!

Well done to Songjie who has finished his work in the Aggarwal group and is returning to China with an academic position. All the best, Songjie!

Changcheng (Jason) has finished his PD here in the Aggarwal group and has secured another PD role in the Bower group. Congrats, Jason!

Unfortunately, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Dario has returned to Italy to finish his studies. Dario was a great addition to the group and we wish him all the best for finishing his PhD!

Evonik Industries AG, in collaboration with Ekipa, hosted a worldwide competition to find alternative methods to synthetize p-aminobenzoic acid (PABA) and the corresponding ethyl benzoate (Benzocaine), at minimal cost and with a purity higher than 95%. The team members were Sheenagh Aiken, Steven Bennett, Dr. Valerio Fasano (team leader), Bilal Kicin, Rory Mykura, and Dr. Kay Yeung. The team received €2,000 prize money.

Well done to Lydia on passing her defence. Lydia is now working as a Senior Scientist in Protein Characterisation at AstraZeneca, Cambridge. Congratulations, Lydia!

Well done to Raffael Davenport and everyone involved for their Dalí-esque back cover in Angewandte Chemie. The paper, "Visible Light-Driven Strain-Increase Ring Contraction Allows the Synthesis of Cyclobutyl Boronic Esters", was also published as a VIP article!

Petr has finished his visit within our group, and is returning home. Good luck, Petr!

Well done to Bilal, who has finished his visit with us. We wish you all the best for the future Bilal!

We welcome Dario, who is a visiting PhD student from Bologna, Italy, and will be with us for 4 months. Welcome, Dario!

Bernhand is our new postdoc, joining us from the Prof. Alois Fürstner group. Welcome, Bernhard!

Both Alex Fawcett and Siying Zhong's PhD theses (2015–2019) have been highly commended by the Faculty of Science, University of Bristol. This accolade is achieved by only about 10% of research students. Congrats, Alex and Siying!

Daniel has finished his stay with us, and is returning to Vienna to finish his postdoc with Prof. Nuno Maulide. We wish him all the best for the future!

Well done to James on passing his defence. James has moved to Biberach, Germany, where he is working as an industrial postdoc for Boehringer Ingelheim. Congratulations, James!

Congratulations to Joe on completing his defence. Joe is currently working at Pharmaron, Hoddesdon, UK, as a senior scientist. All the best with your future career, Dr Bateman!

Dan, who joins us from Spain, has started his Master's project in our group. Welcome, Dan!

Congratulations to our team who are the joint winners of Merck’s International Compound Synthesis Challenge! In honour of Merck’s 350th anniversary, the company hosted a worldwide retrosynthesis competition. The other winners of this challenge were Professor Alois Fürstner’s team from the Max Planck Institute for Coal Research, Germany. The winning teams shared the €10,000 prize money and two representatives from the Aggarwal team: Steven Bennett (PhD student and team leader) and Felix Pape (post-doc) travelled to Darmstadt, Germany, where they presented their route to the company directly.

We have a new Master's student, Petr, who joins us from Germany. Greetings!

Congratulations to Lydia Dewis whose poster "The Synergy of NMR Spectroscopy, Computation and Organic Synthesis to Design Conformationally Controlled α-Helix Mimetics" won one of the three poster prizes at SMASH - the world's biggest chemical NMR conference - held in Porto, Portugal last week. Lydia recieved a cash prize and also a useful NMR textbook.

Joining us from Canada is Adam Elmehriki as a post-doctoral researcher. Welcome, Adam!

We say goodbye to our visiting students, Robin and Vinny. Both are returning to their respective groups to finish their PhDs.
All the best, guys!

A new PhD student has started in the group, Molly, who joins us from Oxford. Welcome, Molly!

We welcome a new masters student to the group, Bilal, who is finishing off his degree with six months work here. Welcome, Bilal!

We have a new post-doc in the group, Hui Wang. Welcome, Hui!

Nils is returning to Roche in Munich, Germany after his post-doc here. All the best, Nils!

Felix has finished his post-doc in our group, and is moving back to Germany on a DFG return fellowship to work with Prof. Ryan Gilmour (WWU Münster). We wish you all the best, Felix!

Well done to James who was awarded a poster prize at the European Symposium on Organic Chemistry, which took place in Vienna on 14–18 July. James' poster detailed the vinylidene homologation of boronic esters and its application in total synthesis. The conference included around 800 participants and 560 poster contributions. Congratulations, James!

Andy has finished his postdoctoral stay with us and is moving to Bergkamen, Germany to work at Bayer. Good luck, Andy!

Very well done to Varinder, who has been awarded the prestigious Davy Medal from the Royal Society for his outstanding contribution to the field of chemistry, particularly concerning the coupling of boronic esters to create 3-D shape with full control over shape and functionality. Congratulations, Varinder!

We welcome a new post-doc to the group, Kay, who is joining us from Manchester. Welcome, Kay!

A very well done to former Ph.D. student Alex Fawcett who has been selected as one of 45 finalists for the Reaxys Ph.D. Prize 2019. Alex will be attending the Reaxys Ph.D. Prize symposium in Amsterdam in October 2019 to present a poster on the Carbopalladation of C-C σ-bonds using bicyclo[1.1.0]butyl boronate complexes. Congratulations, Alex!

Congratulations to Belen who is starting a new position at Sygnature Discovery in Nottingham. All the best, Belen!

Nanda has finished his post-doctoral studies in our group, and is returning to India. We wish you well, Nanda!

Well done to James who won the 2015 cohort poster prize at the recent Chemical Synthesis CDT Summer conference!

We say goodbye to Hsuan-Hung (Dabao), who has finished his post-doc in our group, and is returning to Taiwan. All the best, Dabao!

Hsuan-Hung won the Elsevier Best Poster Prize for his poster entitled ‘Iterative assembly line synthesis of 1,3-polyfunctional molecules’ at the 20th Tetrahedron Symposium in Bangkok, Thailand organised by the ELSEVIER. Congrats, Dabao!

Congratulations to Oliver Dutton (1st year PhD) who won first prize for his poster presentation “The Synergy of NMR Spectroscopy, Computation and Organic Synthesis to Design Conformationally Controlled Molecules” at the Royal Society of Chemistry NMR Discussion Group postgraduate meeting on Friday 21st June in York. Oliver has been invited to present his work at the NMR Discussion Group Christmas meeting in London in December alongside international leaders in NMR.

Hao has joined our group, from the CDT programme, working with Craig Butts. Welcome, Hao!

We have two new starters from the Chemical Synthesis CDT programme, Jasper and Jack. Welcome to both!

Congratulations to Johan who has completed his defence. Johan is to start at the Novartis Institute for BioMedical Research, Cambridge (MA), USA, as a Postdoctoral Scholar, co-supervised by Stuart L. Schreiber. All the best, Johan!

A very well done to Mattia, who has finished his postdoctoral work here at Bristol and is moving to Nottingham to start his own career. Best of luck, Mattia!

Congratulations to Sheenagh who won a runner up prize at the annual University of Bristol Organic and Biological Syngenta poster competition. Sheenagh's poster, which details an ongoing natural product synthesis, was selected out of a total 19 other participants.

Xiabing has finished her postdoctoral stay here, and is returning to her position in China. All the best, Xiabing!

Chris Sandford's PhD thesis (2014–2018) has been highly commended by the Faculty of Science, University of Bristol. This accolade is achieved by only about 10% of research students. Congrats, Chris!

We have a post-doc finishing in the group: Raffael is moving to Switzerland to start a role as a process chemist. We wish you all the best, Raffael!

Narasim has finished his postdoctoral work in our group, and is moving to an industrial position in India. We wish you well, Narasim!

We have a new visiting student from Germany, who will be working with us for 6 months. Welcome, Robin!

A very well done to former PhD student Alex Fawcett who has been awarded one of five 2019 IUPAC-Solvay International Awards for Young Chemists for his work carried out here during his PhD. Alex will be awarded with USD 1000, attendance at the 2019 IUPAC Congress in Paris, and the opportunity to author a review article for Pure and Applied Chemistry. Congratulations, Alex!

The 2019 Bristol Synthesis Meeting is scheduled to take place on April 9th. Registration can be found at the School of Chemistry online shop. We are happy to present the following line up of speakers:

• Prof. Craig Townsend - John Hopkins University
• Prof. Michinori Suginome - Kyoto University
• Prof. Helma Wennemers - ETH Zurich
• Prof. Dean Toste - University of California, Berkeley
• Prof. Ilan Marek - Technion, Israel Institute of Technology

Please visit the event page on the School of Chemistry website for further information, or click the following link to preview a copy of the programme: pdf.

Our three masters students – David Bacos, James Southon, and Jessica Streets – have finished their projects in our group. We wish them all the best with their future careers!

A new visiting student has started in our group, Vincent Duong, who will be working with us for 6 months. Welcome, Vinnie!

Congratulations to Luke Lewis-Borrell who won a poster prize at the SCI Spotlight on Photoredox Catalysis and Photochemistry meeting recently. Luke’s poster highlighted how ultrafast transient absorption spectroscopy methods can be used to unravel photoredox-catalysed reaction mechanisms. The work will lead to new design principles for future generations of catalysts.

Congratulations to Dr. Bin Zhou who recently passed his viva! Bin is now working with Prof. Chris Willis here in Bristol.

We have a new post-doc, Andy Lerchen, who joins us from Muenster.
Welcome, Andy!

Congratulations to Varinder Aggarwal who has been selected to be the 2019 Bristol-Myers Squibb Lecturer at the University of California, Irvine. He has also been selected to be the guest keynote speaker at the 2019 Pfizer Chemistry Forum. The Pfizer Chemistry Forum is an annual two-day event held in Groton, Connecticut, that celebrates cutting edge organic chemistry.

Congratulations to Varinder Aggarwal on his selection to be the next Alfred Capper Pass Professor of Chemistry at Bristol University. Capper Pass and Son Ltd. was a British smelting and refining company which was established in Bristol in the early 1800s.

Selbi has finished her postdoctoral research in our group, and is returning to the University of Giresun, Turkey, as an assistant professor. All the best, Selbi!

Well done to Siying who successfully completed her defence and is now
Dr. Zhong!

Congratulations to Varinder Aggarwal who has been awarded the Yamada-Koga Prize 2019! He will receive the award at the 29th Symposium on Optically Active Compounds at the University of Tokyo, June 1st 2019.

Congratulations to Varinder Aggarwal who has been selected to be the
Prof. Paul G. Gassmann Lecturer in Minnesota for the year 2019/2020! A full list of Prof. Gassman Lectureships can be found on the University of Minnesota website.

Well done to Alex and Tobias for their recent paper in Nature Chemistry! The publication details the synthesis of strained bicyclo[1.1.0]butane (BCB) boronate complexes and their addition to aryl palladium complexes; the overall process generating 1,1,3-trisubstituted cyclobutane products with perfect diastereoselectivity. Congratulations to all involved!

Valerio, who recently finished his PhD at Manchester with Mike Ingleson, has started his postdoctoral research in our group. Greetings, Valerio!

The group's twitter page (@AggarwalLab) is now up and running. Feel free to follow us, using the button just below the group picture, for an insight into our labs!

We have a new postdoc, Lin, who joins us on a DFG Fellowship. Welcome, Lin!

Congratulations to Varinder who has been selected to receive one of the 2019 Arthur C. Cope Scholar Awards! He will receive the award at the ACS National Meeting in San Diego in August 2019.

Our three masters students –David Bacos, James Southon, and Jessica Streets– have started in the group, and their projects are well underway. Good luck to you all!

A visiting scholar from Shaanxi Normal University, Xiabing Li, has started in the group. Greetings, Xiabing!

We have a new PhD student, Oliver Dutton, who will be working jointly with Craig Butts. Welcome, Olly!

Madhava has started in our group as a new postdoctoral researcher. Welcome, Madhava!

Both Alex and Siying have finished their PhD studies in our group. Alex will be starting with John Hartwig at UC Berkeley shortly, and Siying with Alessio Ciulli at the University of Dundee. We will miss them dearly, and wish them the best of luck!

Well done to Johan who won a prize at XXII International Conference on Organic Synthesis (22-ICOS), an international symposium which took place in Florence on 16-21 September, for his poster entitled ‘Helical Hydrocarbons: Synthesis and Control of Screw-Sense’. The event included around 800 participants and 450 poster presentations.

Beatrice has finished her postdoctoral studies in our group, and will be starting her own independant career here, at the University of Bristol. We wish her all the best!

Bjoern and Elliott have finished their Masters studies in our group. Both are going to undertake PhDs - Bjoern with David Leigh in Manchester, and Elliott with Bill Morandi in Switzerland. Good luck, guys!

Amna has finished her visit here in Bristol, and is returning to her home institution, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, to finish her PhD. Good luck, Amna!

Alex successfully completed his defence and is now Dr. Fawcett! Congratulations, Alex!

A new postdoctoral researcher, Nils Winter, has started in the group. Welcome, Nils!

Phil has finished his visit here in Bristol, and is returning to New Zealand -after a brief trip to Portugal- to complete his PhD. Good luck with the rest of your synthesis, Phil!

We welcome a new postdoctoral researcher, Songjie Yu, to the group. Greetings, Songjie!

Congratulations to Beatrice who has been awarded a Royal Society University Research Fellowship for five years, starting 1st October 2018, here at Bristol University to study 'Metals and Molecular Machines: A New Approach to Autonomous Molecular-Level Motion'.

Ganesh has finished his postdoctoral studies in our group, and has moved to Kharagpur, West Bengal, India, to start as an Assistant Professor at the Indian Institute of Technology. Good luck, Ganesh!

Well done to Charlotte who won a poster prize at the recent Early Career Researcher event entitled Celebration of Bristol Chemistry V! The event comprised of 3 talks (one from our own Dr. Mattia Silvi) and then a poster session, with over 50 competitors from the 3 different sections at Bristol.

Well done to Johan who won a poster prize at BORAM XVI, an intimate conference focused entirely around boron. As part of his prize, Johan gave a talk on his poster to the conference audience.

Giorgia has successfully passed her viva and is now Dr. Casoni! Congrats, Giorgia! Giorgia will be moving to Pharmaron UK Ltd in just under a month, and we wish her all the best.

We have had a new postdoctoral member start in the group, Hari. Welcome!

Well done to Siying who won a runner-up prize at the 3rd year PhD Organic and Biological section seminar recently!

We have two new PhD students, Joe Abell and Luke Lewis-Borell, who join us from the Chemical Synthesis CDT. Welcome to both!

After an impressive five years in the Aggarwal group, James Smith has finished his postdoctoral studies and is moving to Charles River Laboratories. All the best and good luck outside of Bristol, James!

Congratulations to Team PG for their recent publication in Chemistry - A European Journal, which details the re-optimisation of the L-proline catalysed dimerization of succinaldehyde to a key enal intermediate. The isolated yield has been improved from 14% to 29% to deliver 12.8 g of enal, and these new conditions were used to enable the synthesis of Δ¹²‐PGJ₃, which has considerable biological potency towards stem cell cancer. Well done to all involved!

We have a new postdoctoral member, Daniel Kaiser, who will be working on photochemistry in the group. Welcome, Daniel!

Eleven members of the group recently went to visit the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Universität in Hannover, as part of Prof. Aggarwal's Humboldt Fellowship. We enjoyed fantastic talks on the first day, with diverse chemistry from all areas, and were extremely impressed by the showing from our hosts. The second day was spent with a tour of the New Town Hall and the beautiful Herrenhausen Gardens, see pictures below, in the sunshine. Thank you to all our hosts, especially Prof. Dr. Andreas Kirschning, for an excellent experience. We hope to see you all again soon!

The Aggarwal group celebrated success at the recent Organic and Biological Section Syngenta Poster Competition, with Ricky Mega winning a runner up prize and Lydia Dewis the participant prize. The judges, Dr Dave Sale (Syngenta) and Dr Sarah Barry (King's College London), were extremely impressed with the overall standard. Well done to all involved!

The 2018 Bristol Synthesis Meeting is scheduled to take place on April 10th. Registration can be found at the School of Chemistry online shop. We are happy to present the following line up of speakers:

• Professor George M. Whitesides - Harvard University
• Professor Stefan Matile - University of Geneva
• Professor Jörn Piel - ETH Zürich
• Professor Frank Glorius - University of Münster
• Professor Sarah Reisman - California Institute of Technology

Please visit the event page on the School of Chemistry website for further information, or click the following link to preview a copy of the programme: pdf.

Felix Pape has started postdoctoral studies in our group. Felix has come from Berlin, and will be working in our group for at least one year. Welcome, Felix!

Alex Z. has finished his postdoctoral studies in the Aggarwal group, and is leaving Bristol to start at Pharmaron in Hertfordshire. Good luck in "the real world" Alex!

Prof. Phil-He has finished his visit to our lab and has returned to his group in Shihezi University, China. All the best, Phil!

Phil has joined the group from New Zealand as a visiting PhD student for 6 months. Welcome Phil!

Varinder will be the Robert Robinson Lecturer at the University of Oxford in 2020/2021. This Lectureship is the most prestigious award Oxford has to offer, and the awardee will spend several days at Oxford and deliver two research lectures.

Dr. Murat Kucukdisli has finished his postdoctoral research in our lab, and is going to the Prof. Till Opatz group at the University of Mainz, Germany, to work as a senior postdoctral researcher. All the best, Murat!

Welcome to Selbi Keskin, who has joined our group as a postdoctoral researcher on a TUBITAK fellowship!

Our Research Page has been updated. Now it includes our recent work in photochemistry and other areas.

Belen Rubial has joined our group as a postdoctoral researcher on a Clarin-COFUND program fellowship. Welcome to the group, Belen!

Congratulations to CDT student Lydia Dewis who has been invited to Genentech in San Francisco for a 12 week research internship with Dr David Russell this summer. This is a highly competitive programme, with thousands of applications every year. Lydia will be studying structural behaviour of fluorinated drugs to further the Genentech NMR programme. Enjoy California, Lydia!

The Aggarwal group had a combo of success at the recent RSC Organic Division South-West Regional Meeting: 3^rd year student Alex Fawcett was the winner of the Poster Presentation Prize and 3^rd year CDT student Lydia Dewis won a runner up prize! The meeting was held at the University of Bristol, and was attended by 40 presenters, including several distinguished plenary speakers from around the country.

Prof. Aggarwal has been invited to deliver the prestigious Kurt Alder Lecture 2018 at the University of Cologne, Germany. Varinder joins a list of very distinguished previous Kurt Alder Lecturers.

Congratulations to Team CPA for finishing the total synthesis of α-cyclopiazonic acid after many years of blood, sweat, and tears. Perseverance, creativity, and methodical approach are indispensable attributes of success in organic chemistry, and this project clearly required a lot. Congrats to Alex, Yunus, Lorenz, Viji, Chun, Mike, Mark, Marco, Mushtaq, Mehrnoosh, and Johno!

Selected as Hot Paper

Dr. Rafael Dias has finished his postdoctoral visit to our lab and returned to Brazil. All the best, Rafael!

Congratulations to Siying Zhong who won the participant prize at the Royal Society of Chemistry Organic Division Poster Symposium! The event was held in London on Monday, 4th December, and included 40 participants including Giorgia Casoni, also from our lab.

James Smith has successfully defended his thesis, and is now Dr. Smith. Congrats, James!

Raphael Bigler, aka the "Swiss Raphi", has finished his postdoctoral work and is moving back home to Switzerland. After travelling the world to New Zealand, he will join Roche in Basel.

Andrejs Pelšs, a postdoctoral researcher from Latvia, has finished his studies in our lab and moved back to Riga where he will continue as researcher. All the best, Andrejs!

Renata, a visiting student from Spain, has finished her studies in our lab and returned home. All the best, Renata!

Raffael Schrof joined our lab as a postdoctoral researcher on a Swiss NSF fellowship. Welcome to the group, Raffael!

Amna Murtaza joined our lab as a visiting postgraduate student on a CSC fellowship. Welcome to the group, Amna!

Sheenagh Aiken joined our lab as a PhD student. Welcome to the group, Sheenagh!

Dr. Muhammad Imran finished his postdoctoral stay in our lab. All the best, Imran!

Dr. Roly Armstrong finished his postdoctoral stay in our lab and moved to the University of Oxford where he will work in the group of Prof. Donohoe. All the best, Roly!

Dr. Stefan Aichhorn finished his postdoctoral stay in our lab and moved back to Austria. All the best, Stefan!

Dr. Cristina García Ruiz finished her postdoctoral placement in our lab and moved back to Spain. All the best, Cristina!

Bjoern Andreassen has joined our group as Master's student. Welcome to the lab, Bjoern!

Dr. Christopher Sandford has finished his doctorate in our lab and gone to the USA for postodoctoral studies. He will work in Prof. Sigman's group at the University of Utah. All the best, Chris!

Our research on assembly line synthesis has been featured in a German magazine, Nachrichten aus der Chemie, in the section Synthese im Blickpunkt (Synthesis in Focus). Synthese im Blickpunkt wants to stimulate the use of new synthetic procedures or elegant and important organic syntheses. This year, contributions to the series are written by Johannes Teichert, Juniorprofessor in chemistry at the TU Berlin.

Polyketides by assembly-line

Abstract
The iterative lithiation-borylation combines C-C bond formation with the selective construction of asymmetrically substituted carbon atoms. This methodology allows to build adjacent stereocentres in rapid succession.

Conclusion
The stereoselective lithiation-borylation is a good tool to generate alkyl chains with stereogenic centres. Particularly attractive is that different building blocks are obtained in a reaction sequence and simultaneously C-C bonds and stereocentres are generated. Such reactions occur in good yields and with high stereoselectivity, which compromises the stoichiometric use of metal reagents and chiral ligands as sparteine.

Dr. Chao Shu has joined our lab as a postdoctoral researcher. Welcome to the group, Chao!

Dr. Hannah Baars has finished her postdoctoral studies in our lab and moved back to Germany. All the best, Hannah!

Dr. Eddie Myers, our Research Officer in 2014-2017, moves up the academic ladder and becomes Lecturer in Organic Chemistry at NUI Galway, Ireland. We thank you for all your contributions to the Aggarwal lab and wish you the most outstanding career, Eddie!

Visiting student Moritz Classen has finished his placement in Aggarwal lab and returned to Germany to finish his Master's studies. All the best, Moritz!

Dr. Alba Millán Delgado has finished her postdoctoral stay in our lab and moved on as Juan de la Cierva Fellow to the Organic Chemistry Department at the University of Granada (Spain). We wish you all the best, Alba!

Alex Fawcett and Siying Zhong have been selected by the Royal Society of Chemistry to attend J-NOST-13 at Banaras Hindu University (BHUI) in Lucknow, India in November this year. NOST is a trust established by senior Indian organic chemists, financed by money from Indian industries and other donors, in order to organize conferences, J-NOST being specifically for PhD students. Selection is highly competitive with Alex and Siying being two of only eight students selected from across the UK. Congrats to Alex and Siying!

We have published a review in Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. on the asymmetric synthesis of secondary and tertiary boronic esters. Cognrats to Beatrice and Claire!

We have published a JACS paper on homologation of boronic esters using α-sulfinyl benzoates via Li and Mg carbenoids. Congrats to Giorgia, Murat, James, and Matt!

Renata Calo Lapido, a PhD student from the CIQUS, University of Santiago de Compostela, has joined our lab as a visitor. Welcome to the group, Renata!

Elliott Denton, a MSc by Research postgraduate student has joined the group. Welcome to the group, Elliott!

Dr. Nandakumar Meganathan, a postdoctoral researcher from India, has joined our lab as a Marie Curie Fellow. Welcome to the group, Nandakumar!

We have published a paper in Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. on the synthesis of tertiary alcohols and thiols using non-stabilized tertiary α-oxy- and α-thio-organolithiums. Congrats to Alex, Ana, Cinzia and Pradip!
Selected as Hot Paper in ACIE.

Worawat Niwetmarin has successfully defended his thesis and became Dr. Niwetmarin. Congrats, Shake!

Christopher Sandford has successfully passed his viva and became Dr. Sandford. Congrats, Chris!

Dr. Daniel Pflästerer has finished his postdoctoral stay in our lab and returned to Germany. All the best, Daniel!

We have published in Nature on the total synthesis of baulamycin. This long and arduous project required a synergy of organic synthesis, molecular modelling and NMR studies as almost all stereocentres in the target had to be reassigned. Congrats to Jingjing, Paula, Siying, and Muhammad!
News & Views
Highlighted in C&EN
Highlighted on Phys.org
Highlighted at the University website
Highlighted in Chemistry World

Our latest review has been published in Synthesis. It provides an overview of the Zweifel olefination reaction, from its origins to the most recent developments. Congrats, Roly!

We have published in JACS on enantioselective rhodium(III)-catalyzed Markovnikov hydroboration of unactivated terminal alkenes. This is our second JACS paper in one week! Congrats to James, Beatrice and Matt!

We have published a JACS paper on enantiospecific synthesis of ortho-substituted benzylic boronic esters by a 1,2-metalate rearrangement/1,3-borotropic shift sequence. Congrats to Stefan and Rafael!

Our JACS publication on photochemical alkylation of vinyl boronate complexes has been highlighted in the coming Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. issue. Congrats to Mattia and Chris!

Our paper on enantiospecific sp²-sp³ coupling of boronic esters with p-arylacetylenes has been accepted in Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Congratulations, Ganesh and Marcin!

Rafael Dias, a postdoctoral researcher from Brasil, has joined our lab. Welcome to the group, Rafael!

PhD thesis of Maziar Mohiti (2011–2015) has been commended by the Faculty of Science of the University of Bristol. This accolade is achieved by only about 10% of the research students. Congrats, Maziar!

Tobias Biberger, a visiting student from Germany, has finished his placement in Aggarwal Group and is now back in Aachen, where he will continue his Master's studies. We thank Tobias for all the hard work and lots of fun he brought. All the best, Tobias!

We have just published our paper on the photoinduced decarboxylative borylation of carboxylic acids in Science (First Release). This new methodology links the diversity of carboxylic acids to the broad utility of boronic esters. Congratulations to Alex, Johan, Yahui and Tatsuya!

Alex Fawcett has won a runner-up prize at the Organic and Biological Section Postgraduate Symposium held at the School of Chemistry. Congrats, Alex!

Rory Mykura, a PhD student from the CDT programme, has joined Aggarwal group. Welcome to the lab, Rory!

Siying Zhong won yet another poster prize! Her poster Synergy of Computation, NMR and Synthesis Reveals True Baulamycin Structure won the 1^st place at the inaugural Bio-Techne Chemistry Poster Symposium. The competition included contestants from Bath, Bristol and Cardiff Universities. Impressive achievement, Siying!

Dr. Teerawut "Tong" Bootwicha has left the lab for Thailand where he will start as Lecturer at the Mahidol University (Bangkok). We wish you a spectacular academic career, Tong! Congrats!

We would like to send our best wishes to the lab's recent alumni: Olivier Wagnières, Paula Lorenzo, and Ana Varela. Olivier is back to Switzerland where he joined a startup in Basel. Paula is back to Spain where she is doing a postdoc with Prof. Ángel R. de Lera and Prof. Rosana Álvarez (University of Vigo). And Ana joined the Institute of Cancer Research in London as a postdoc. Great job, everyone!

Congratulations to Ana on successfully passing her viva and becoming Dr. Varela!

Our review on the sterospecific functionalizations of boronic esters has been selected for the inside cover of Chemical Communications, Issue 40. The cover, entitled "Boron at the helm", features a famous steamship SS Great Britain, one of Bristol landmarks. Congrats to Chris!

Varinder has been awarded the Royal Society of Chemistry Synthetic Organic Chemistry Award for 2017. This has been given for "highly creative work in the development of new synthetic methods based on the asymmetric homologation of boronic esters and their applications in natural and non-natural product synthesis".

As part of the Award, Varinder will deliver a number of lectures across UK universities.

Second year PhD student Siying Zhong won the 1^st prize at the annual Organic and Biological Section Syngenta Poster Competition for postgraduate students. Her poster was titled Synergy of Computation, NMR and Synthesis Reveals True Baulamycin Structure. Contrats, Siying!

Our paper on the synthesis of alkenes by the transition-metal-free Zweifel couplig is out. Congratulations to Roly and Shake!

We have published a paper on functionalisation of vinyl boronates into useful products, using a diastereoselective three-component coupling. Congrats to Roly, Chris, and Cristina!

We have published a JACS paper on photochemical alkylation of vinyl boronate complexes. Congrats to Mattia and Chris!

Our Nature Chemistry paper on the application of assembly-line synthesis towards polypropionates is out! Congrats to Tong and Julian!

Our group has published a feature article in Chemical Communications on stereospecific functionalizations and transformations of secondary and tertiary boronic esters. Congrats, Chris!

On 4 April, Bristol hosted its 17th Synthesis Meeting. We had five fantastic talks that proved chemistry is vibrant like never before. From total synthesis to methodology to bioengineering - one can make great discoveries everywhere. We want to thank all attendees, our sponsors, and of course the five incredibly inspirational speakers!

Please welcome our new and shiny Research page! With almost a dozen of detailed schemes, plus direct references, it is much more complete than the previous version.

The registration is now open for the Bristol Synthesis Meeting! We are glad to announce the following line-up of speakers:

• Professor Thomas R. Hoye (University of Minnesota)
• Professor Nicholas Turner (University of Manchester)
• Professor Erik J. Sorensen (Princeton University)
• Professor Ivan Huc (University of Bordeaux)
• Professor M. Christina White (University of Illinois)

Please visit the event page on the School of Chemistry website for further information.

Dr. Yahui Wang has left the lab. He is moving to China where he will become a professor at the Institute of Advanced Synthesis, Nanjing Tech University. We wish you the most spectacular career, Yahui!

The group has published a paper in Chemical Science on mono- and bidirectional homologation of diborylmethane. Congrats to Daniel, Damiano, Joe, and Helen!

Dr. Muhammad Imran has joined the lab. Welcome to Aggarwal group, Imran!

Our work on three-component trifluoromethylation/alkylation of furans has been published in ACIE (thus making it two group's papers in the same issue). Congrats to Yahui, Adam and Chris!

Our group has published total synthesis of (−)-Stemaphylline. The work features several lithiation-borylation reactions, inluding a late-stage lithiation–borylation with a tertiary amine containing carbenoid. Congrats to Ana and Lennart!

Our group has a shiny new website! Check out our new guides: the power of lithiation-borylation, practical guides, and recommendation on buying sparteine.

Lorenz Loffler, a visiting undergraduate student, has finished his placement and left for Germany. We wish Lorenz success in his PhD application and future career. You have been a fantastic student and made a really valuable contribution to the project.

Chris has successfully defended his PhD thesis and is now Dr. Christopher Brown. Congrats, Chris!

Roly and Cristina have published a paper in ACIE on their work on stereodivergent olefination of enantioenriched boronic esters. Congrats!

Chris was awarded second prize in the poster competition at the Late Stage Functionalization for Synthesis and Medicines Symposium, held at the University of Oxford.

Ana won a runner-up prize at the recent Royal Society of Chemistry’s Organic Division Poster Symposium. This is competitive event at which just 40 posters were presented, selected out of 117 applications from across the UK.

Lydia won the ChemMedChem Poster Presentation Award for her poster entitled ‘Conformationally Controlled Hydrocarbons as Scaffolds for Inhibitors of Protein–Protein Interactions’ at the recent Protein-Protein Interactions 2016 conference in London organised by the SCI and RSC.

Yahui won a poster prize for his work entitled 'Enantiospecific Alkynylation of Alkylboronic Esters & Three Component Coupling of Boronic Esters with Furans Triggered by Trifluoromethylation' at the International Conference on New Challenges in Organic Synthesis held at Guangzhou in China last week.

Marcin has successfully passed his PhD viva and now he is Dr. Marcin Odachowski. Congrats, Marcin!

Varinder has been elected to receive a Research Award of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in recognition of his academic achievements. These are highly prestigious Awards from Germany and are ‘…granted in recognition of a researcher's entire achievements to date to academics whose fundamental discoveries, new theories, or insights have had a significant impact on their own discipline and who are expected to continue producing cutting-edge achievements in the future’.

Izzy has successfully passed her PhD viva and now she is Dr. Isabel Perez-Powell. Congrats, Izzy!

Adam Noble and Stefan Roesner have published in Angewandte Chemie on the total synthesis of tatanan A. The paper describes a short and highly stereoselective total synthesis of the sesquilignan natural product tatanan A, and its C-3 epimer using an assembly-line synthesis approach to install the three contiguous stereocenters with high enantio- and diastereoselectivity. Congrats to Adam and Stefan!

Daniel Blair, our former PhD student now working as postdoc at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, has been awarded a prestigious Damon Runyon Fellowship. These highly competitive fellowships offer four years of postdoctoral research funding and are widely recognised as amongst the most prestigious postdoctoral fellowships at the chemistry/biomedical interface in the USA. Congrats, Daniel!

The group has published a paper on regio- and stereoselective homologation of 1,2-bis(boronic esters). The methodology allows to prepare 1,3-diols with impressive levels of stereocontrol (>95:5 d.r.) and is amenable to gram-scale synthesis. A natural product Sch725674 was prepared in 9 steps (LLS). Congrats to Alex, Dominik, Muhammad, and Joe!

Dr. Ella Kriemen has moved to Germany to join ARLANXEO as Head of Laboratory. Congratulations to Ella!

Congratulations to Izzy on winning RSC Teacher Training Scholarship for the academic year of 2016/2017. The scholarship – run in partnership with the Department of Education – includes a £25,000 bursary, free classroom materials, mentoring by an experienced teacher and free online CPD courses.
It is a very competitive process, awarded to those with an excellent understanding of chemistry at school level, a passion for chemistry, teaching, and the empathy, respect and humility needed to relate well to pupils.
During the rigorous selection process, Isabel had to complete an online application before being invited for an intensive interview.
Isabel intends to take up her scholarship when she starts her PGCE training in September 2016. She will train through the INSPIRE programme at Imperial College London. INSPIRE is designed to bridge the gap between STEM research and school science by recruiting able researchers who are good communicators.

Riccardo Mega and Steven Bennett has joined the lab as first-year PhD students. We wish them the most fruitful and enriching research experience!