Last Updated: April 2017. ORCID ID: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4161-7256
Imperial College London

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Latest News and Activities

October 2018

To coincide with our move to the MRSH, our new website goes live here: http://www.imperial.ac.uk/braddock-group/

All new updates will be on the new website.

September 2018

Braddock Group Labs at the MSRH open for business.

August 2018

The Braddock Group relocates to the MSRH @ White City.

July 2018

Karim rejoins the group as an EPSRC supported PDRA to mastermind our move to White City. Welcome back Karim!

May 2018

Chris delivers his inaugural lecture.

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Some curent and ex-group members after Chris' lecture. Left-to right: Areeb, Iuliana, Pani, Kiyo, Thais, Steve (honorary), Gemma, Monica, Ben, Muhammad, Chris, Savade, Karim, Jo, James, Lilian, Jared, Karl, Gajan, Albert, Michael & Jeremy.


April 2018

Karim passes his PhD viva - examiners Profs Donald Craig and Ed Anderson. Congratulations Dr Bahou!


March 2018

Our TMOS amidation paper in Organic Letters becomes 'Monthly Most Read' (@ 5th March 2018, screenshot).


February 2018

New Paper Accepted for Publication in Organic Letters:

Tetramethyl Orthosilicate (TMOS) as a Reagent for Direct Amidation of Carboxylic Acids

D. Christopher Braddock, Paul D. Lickiss, Ben C. Rowley, David Pugh, Teresa Purnomo, Gajan Santhakumar and Steven J. Fussell, Org. Lett. 2018, 20, 950-953. DOI:10.1021/acs.orglett.7b03841. Primary Data. Twitter.

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December 2017

Shijia Zhu and Lu Yu join the group on the Green MRes programme. Inyoung Cho, Jeremy Xue and Tianyou He join the group on the Catalysis, Drug Discovery and Chemical Biology MRes programmes respectively. Welcome to all!


December 2017

New Paper Accepted for Publication in ACS Catalysis:

Mechanistic and Performance Studies on the Ligand-Promoted Ullmann Amination Reaction

Quintin A. Lo, David Sale, D. Christopher Braddock, and Robert P. Davies, ACS Catal. 2018, 8, 101-109.


November 2017

Ben Rowley passes his PhD viva (Dr Tom Sheppard & Dr James Bull) on 07/11/17. Congratulations to Dr Rowley!


October 2017

Dan O'Reilly returns to start his PhD. Michael Cheung, Brendan Zhu & Pani Kelis join the group for their final year projects. Welcome to all!


September 2017

New Paper Accepted for Publication in Organic Letters:

Kinetic Benchmarking Reveals the Competence of Prenyl Groups in Ring-Closing Metathesis

Karim A. Bahou, D. Christopher Braddock, D. C.; Adam G. Meyer, G. Paul Savage, Org. Lett. 2017, 19, 5332–5335. DOI: 10.1021/acs.orglett.7b02492. Primary Data. Twitter. All things methathesis.

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July 2017

Karim wins a best research poster presentation award at the International Symposium of Metathesis and Related Chemistry XXII, Zurich, Switzerland, 9-12 July 2017. Congratulations to Karim!

Jin Hui joins the group for a summer UROP project. Welcome to Jin!


June 2017

Dan O'Reilly wins first prize for best presentation in the final year Department of Chemistry, Imperial College MSci project presentations for the Organic 1 (Synthesis Methodology, Catalysis and Polymers) Session (11 talks). Congratulations to Dan!

Gajan Santhakumar joins the group as an EPSRC supported PDRA.


April 2017

Jin Hui Teh is awarded a College UROP Bursary and will join the group over the summer.

Our work on the Obtusallenes (J. Org. Chem. 2016, 81, 9539-9552) is cited in Prof Douglass Taber's 'Highlights of Organic Chemistry' here.


February 2017

Daniel O'Reilly is awarded a Chemistry Doctoral Scholarship (EPSRC DTP award) and will commence his PhD in October.


January 2017

Shijia Zhu joins the group for her BSc project.


November 2016

Albert Shi joins the group to start his PhD as supported by the CSC.


October 2016

Dan O'Reilly and Sascha More join the group for their final year MSci projects, Jenny Jiang joins for her BSc project, and Ziyao Lu joins on the Chemical Biology MRes course.


September 2016

New Paper Accepted as a Featured Article in The Journal of Organic Chemistry:

Epimeric Face-Selective Oxidations and Diastereodivergent Transannular Oxonium Ion Formation-Fragmentations: Computational Modelling & Total Syntheses of 12-Epoxyobtusallene IV, 12-Epoxyobtusallene II, Obtusallene X, Marilzabicycloallene C and Marilzabicycloallene D

James Clarke, Karl J. Bonney, Muhammad Yaqoob, Savade Solanki, Henry S. Rzepa, Andrew J. P. White, David S. Millan, and D. Christopher Braddock J. Org. Chem. 2016, 81, 9539-9552 (Featured Article). DOI: 10.1021/acs.joc.6b02008. Primary Data. Cited in Organic Chemistry Highlights, April 17th 2017.

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James passes his PhD viva (examiners Dr Jon Burton & Professor Donald Craig). Congratulations Dr Clarke!

Yusrah joins the group to start her PhD.


August 2016

New Paper Accepted for Publication in Chemical Communications:

Stable Bromoallene Oxides

D. Christopher Braddock, Areeb Mahtey, Henry S. Rzepa and Andrew J. P. White Chem. Commun. 2016, 52, 11219 - 11222. Gold for Gold Open Access. DOI: 10.1039/c6cc06395k. This communication is featured in ChemViews Magazine.

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July 2016

Ben wins runner-up prize for best final year PhD research talk in the Environmental and Green Chemistry Session in the annual Imperial Chemistry Post-Graduate Symposium.


June 2016

Areeb wins runner-up prize for best MSci final year project talk in the Organic 1: Synthesis Methodology, Catalysis & Polymers session.

Chris' Web of Science 'h-index' hits 30.


May 2016

New Paper Accepted for Publication in ACS Catalysis:

Mechanistic Studies on the Copper-Catalyzed N-Arylation of Alkylamines Promoted by Organic Soluble Ionic Bases

Simon Sung, David Sale, D. Christopher Braddock, Alan Armstrong, Colin Brennan, and Robert P. Davies, ACS Catal. 2016, 6, 3965-3974.

Albert Shi is awarded CSC Scholarship and will join the group in October.


March 2016

Chris goes on lecture tour of Australia.

Yusrah Al-Gharebawi is awarded DTP funding and will join the group in October.


January 2016

New Paper Accepted for Publication in Journal of Membrane Science:

Further collaborative work with Andrew Livingston (Chemical Engineering) and Rob Davies (Chemistry) as done by James Campbell is published in Journal of Membrane Science:

Hybrid polymer/MOF membranes for Organic Solvent Nanofiltration (OSN): Chemical modification and the quest for perfection

James Campbell, Joao Da Silvao Burgal, Gyorgy Szekely, R.P. Davies, D. Christopher Braddock, Andrew Livingston, J. Mem. Sci. 2016, 503, 166–176.


December 2015

Anna and Philipp join the group on the Chemical Biology MRes, Abi and Albert join on the Catalysis MRes, and Fuyi joins on the Drug Discovery MRes. Welcome to all!


November 2015

Web of Science shows >2000 citations for Chris' published work.


October 2015

Quintin Lo starts his pharmacat-sponsored PhD as jointly supervised by Prof Chris Braddock, Dr Rob Davies and Prof Alan Armstrong.

Areeb and Iuliana join the group for their final year projects.


September 2015

Mary Rose and Monica graduate from the DDD MRes programme.

Karim heads off to Melbourne, Australia for one year for his placement at CSIRO.

Chris is promoted to Professor of Organic Chemistry.


July 2015

Alison's and Mariko's work on asymmetric functionalisation of myrcene (Chem. Commun. 2014, 50, 13725-13728) is cited in Prof Douglass Taber's 'Highlights of Organic Chemistry' here.


June 2015

James Clarke wins runner-up prize for best 3rd year PhD research talk (Organic and Inorganic Session II) at the annual Chemistry Post-Graduate Symposium.


May 2015

Michael Howlett is awarded an Imperial College EPSRC Vacation Bursary and will join the group in July for a UROP placement.


April 2015

New Paper Accepted for Publication in Journal of Materials Chemistry A:

Further collaborative work with Andrew Livingston (Chemical Engineering) and Rob Davies (Chemistry) as done by James Campbell is published in Journal of Materials Chemistry A:

Improving the permeance of hybrid polymer/metal–organic framework (MOF) membranes for organic solvent nanofiltration (OSN) – development of MOF thin films via interfacial synthesis

James Campbell, Robert P. Davies, D. Christopher Braddock and Andrew G. Livingston J. Mater. Chem. A 2015, 3, 9668-9674.


March 2015

New Paper Accepted for Publication in Chemistry - A European Journal:

Our collaborative work with Rob Davies and Alan Armstrong as done by Simon Sung is published in Chemistry - A European Journal:

Synthesis, Characterisation and Reactivity of Copper(I) Amide Complexes and Studies on Their Role in the Modified Ullmann Amination Reaction

Simon Sung, D. Christopher Braddock, Alan Armstrong, Colin Brennan, David Sale, Andrew J. P. White and Robert P. Davies Chem. Eur J. 2015, 21, 7179-7192 .

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December 2014

Jonathan Kwan joins the group on Green MRes programme. Mònica Planchat and Mary-Rose Ropner join the group on the DDD MRes. Welcome to all!

Chris receives Thieme Chemistry Journal Award (2015).


November 2014

Chris returns from lecture tour of Canada, Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong (6 weeks).


October 2014

Lauriane passes her PhD viva (examiners Prof Alan Spivey & Dr Pan Procopiou). Well done Dr Buisson!

Wenyi Chen and Janie Anka-Lufford join the group as MSci final year project students.


September 2014

Chris leaves for lecture tour of Canada, Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong (19 lectures).

New Paper Accepted for Publication in OBC:

Approaches to design non-covalent inhibitors for human granzyme B (hGrB)

Mi-Sum Kim, Lauriane A. Buisson, Dean A. Heathcote, Haipeng Hu, D. Christopher Braddock, Anthony G. M. Barrett, Philip G. Ashton-Rickardt, and James P. Synder Org. Biomol. Chem. 2014, 12, 8952-8965.

New Paper Accepted for Publication in Chemical Communications:

Towards the Synthesis of Halomon: Asymmetric Hexafunctionalisation of Myrcene

D. Christopher Braddock, Alison X. Gao, Andrew J. P. White and Mariko Whyte Chem. Commun. 2014, 50, 13725-13728. Gold for Gold Open Access. Cited in Organic Chemistry Highlights, July 13th 2015.

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Chris is admitted to Fellow FRSC (Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry).

Simon Sung (3rd year PhD student) wins runner-up prize for best presentation at the Syngenta Chemistry Collaborative Research Conference, Jealott's Hill 5th September 2014.

New Paper Accepted for Publication in Chemical Communications:

Proof-of-Principle Direct Double Cyclisation of a Linear C15-Precursor to a Dibrominated Bicyclic Medium-Ring Ether Relevant to Laurencia Species

D. Christopher Braddock and Dan-Tiberiu Sbircea Chem. Commun. 2014, 50, 12691-12693. Gold for Gold Open Access.

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June 2014

Daniel Kirkwood is awarded a Royal College of Science Union UROP Award and will join the group for the summer.

Chris is awarded an Imperial College President's Award for Excellence in Pastoral Care 2014.


May 2014 - New Paper Accepted for Publication in Journal of Materials Chemistry A:

Our collaborative work with Rob Davies (Chemistry) and Andrew Livingston (Chemical Engineering) as done by James Campbell is published in Journal of Materials Chemistry A:

Fabrication of Hybrid Polymer/Metal Organic Framework Membranes: Mixed Matrix Membranes versus In-Situ Growth

James Campbell, György Székely, Rob P. Davies, D. Christopher Braddock, Andrew G. Livingston J. Mater. Chem. A 2014, 2, 9260-9271.


April 2014

Alex passes his PhD viva (Profs Alan Spivey and Darren Dixon as examiners). Well done Alex!


January 2014

James' bromoallene epoxidation Chem Comm is designated as a 'HOT article'.


October 2013

Jared passes his PhD viva (Prof Donald Craig and Dr Jon Burton as examiners). Well done Dr J!


October 2013

Günsu Oztas and Kipras Tornau join the group on the DDD MRes programme.


October 2013 - New Paper Accepted for Publication in Tetrahedron Letters:

Catalytic asymmetric bromolactonisation reactions using (DHQD)2PHAL-benzoic acid combinations

Alan Armstrong, D. Christopher Braddock, Alexander X. Jones and Stacy Clark Tetrahedron Lett. 2013, 54, 7004-7008.

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October 2013 - New Paper Accepted for Publication in Chemical Communications:

Epoxidation of Bromoallenes Connects Red Algae Metabolites by an Intersecting Bromoallene Oxide - Favorskii Manifold

D. Christopher Braddock, James Clarke and Henry S. Rzepa Chem. Commun. 2013, 49, 11176-11178. 'HOT article'. Gold for Gold Open Access.

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October 2013

Karim Bahou and Ben Rowley join the group to start their PhDs.

Jackie Leung, Mariko Whyte and Jaren Soo all join the group to start their final year projects.

Welcome to all!


September 2013

Alison Keating graduates with distinction on the DDD MRes programme, finishing top of the class and receiving the 'Best DDD MRes Student Prize 2013'.

Alison Keating wins best talk prize for her DDD MRes presentation at the 2013 Imperial College London Institute of Chemical Biology MRes Conference.


July 2013

Lauriane Buisson wins best Organic talk at the Department of Chemistry 2013 PG symposium for final year PhD students.

Simon Sung wins runner up prize for best Organic poster for 2nd year PhD students at the Department of Chemistry 2013 PG symposium.

Phillip Greenwood and Jonathan Shute join the group for summer projects.


June 2013

Tibi wins best final year organic MSci project prize.

Tibi wins runner-up prize for best final year MSci project presentation in the synthesis section (20 talks).


May 2013 - New Paper Accepted for Publication in Chirality:

An Enantiospecific Polyene Cyclisation Initiated by an Enantiomerically Pure Bromonium Ion

D. Christopher Braddock, Jared S. Marklew, Kevin M. Foote and Andrew J. P. White Chirality 2013, 25, 692-700 (Invited article for special issue on asymmetric halogenations).


January 2013

Anna is awarded her PhD. Congratulations to Dr Monta!

Joel Lee joins the group for his BSc project.


October 2012 - New Paper Accepted for Publication in The Journal of Organic Chemistry:

A Unifying Stereochemical Analysis for the Formation of Halogenated C15-Acetogenin Medium-Ring Ethers From Laurencia Species via Intramolecular Bromonium Ion Assisted Epoxide Ring-Opening and Experimental Corroboration with a Model Epoxide

Karl J. Bonney and D. Christopher Braddock J. Org. Chem. 2012, 77, 9574-9584.


October 2012

Alison Keating joins the group on the DDD MRes.


October 2012

James Clarke is awarded the Alfred Bader Prize for Excellence in Organic Chemistry Research (for his final year project).


October 2012

James Clarke starts his PhD as supported by an EPSRC DTG. David Freeman and Dan Sbircea start their final year projects.


September 2012

Daniel Perks wins best talk prize for his presentation at the 2012 Imperial College London Institute of Chemical Biology MRes Conference, and graduates from the DDD MRes with distinction.


August 2012

Ferdinand Loo joins group as UROP student.


July 2012 - New Paper Accepted for Publication in Chemical Communications:

Verification of stereospecific dyotropic racemisation of enantiopure D and L-1,2-dibromo-1,2-diphenylethane in non-polar media

D. Christopher Braddock, Debjani Roy, Dieter Lenoir, Edward Moore, Henry S. Rzepa, Judy I-Chia Wu and Paul von Rague Schleyer Chem. Commun. 2012, 48, 8943-8945.


July 2012

Jared Marklew wins runner-up prize for best presentation in the Inorganic and Organic Session of the Annual Chemistry Department Post-Graduate Symposium.


June 2012

Chris is awarded Rector's Prize for Excellence in Teaching 2012, and a Faculty of Natural Sciences Award for Excellence in Teaching 2012.


March 2012

Jared Marklew is selected to give presentation at SCI Postgraduate Symposium.

James Clarke is awarded EPSRC DTG studentship and will start his PhD October 2012.


January 2012

Shaun Wood joins the group on a jointly supervised PhD project. Meha Shah joins group as BSc student.


December 2011

Thais Cailleau and Karl Bonney awarded PhDs. Well done Dr Cailleau and Dr Bonney!


October 2011

Philippa Owens, James Clarke and Alison Gao join the group for their final year projects. Simon Sung and James Campbell join the group as jointly supervised PhD students. Daniel Perks joins the group on the MRes in Drug Discovery & Development.


August 2011 - New Paper Accepted for Publication in Journal Of Natural Products:

Total Synthesis of the Marine Metabolite (±)-Polysiphenol via Highly Regioselective Intramolecular Oxidative Coupling

Tim N. Barrett, D. Christopher Braddock, Anna Monta, Michael R. Webb, and Andrew J. P. White J. Nat. Prod. 2011, 74, 1980–1984.


July 2011 - New Paper Accepted for Publication in Chemical Communications:

Enantiospecific bromonium ion generation and intramolecular capture: a model system for asymmetric bromonium ion-induced polyene cyclisations

D. Christopher Braddock, Jared S. Marklew, and Alexander J. F. Thomas Chem. Commun. 2011, 47, 9051-9053.


June 2011

Tim Barrett wins the award of best organic project for his final year MSci project.


June 2011

Tim Barrett achieves the 1st prize in the final year MSci project presentations in Organic Synthesis.


January 2011

Betty Tai joins to do her final year BSc project in the Braddock group.


January 2011

Bao Nguyen joins the Braddock group as a Ramsey Memorial Fellow.


December 2010 - New Paper Accepted for Publication in Tetrahedron Asymmetry:

The Reaction of Aromatic Dialdehydes with Enantiopure 1,2-Diamines - an Expeditious Route to Enantiopure Tricyclic Amidines

D. Christopher Braddock, Thaïs Cailleau, Gemma Cansell, Stephen A. Hermitage, Rebecca H. Pouwer, Joanna M. Redmond, and Andrew J. P. White Tetrahedron: Asymmetry 2010, 21, 2911-2919.


November 2010 - New Publication in the Journal of Organic Chemistry:

Intramolecular Bromonium Ion Assisted Epoxide Ring-Opening: Capture of the Oxonium Ion with an Added External Nucleophile

Karl J. Bonney, D. Christopher Braddock, Andrew J. P. White, Muhammad Yaqoob J. Org. Chem. 2011, 76, 97-104.


October 2010

Ed Moore joins to do his final year MSci project in the Braddock Group.


October 2010

Alex Jones starts his PhD as sponsored by EPSRC and GSK, Tim Barrett continues in the group to do his final year MSci project, and Sandy Leung joins to do her final year BSc project in the Braddock Group.


July 2010

Michael Lau and Tim Barrett join the group for Summer UROP projects.


April 2010

Daniel Byrom joins the group as a Masters student.


January 2010

Thomas Rowley and Paul Marechal join the group as BSc students.


November 2009

Scifinder Scholar shows >1000 citations for Chris' published work.


October 2009

Jared Marklew starts his PhD as sponsored by EPSRC and Arrow Theraupeutics.


September 2009

Dr Rebecca Pouwer finishes her PDRA stint at Imperial, and leaves to take up a PDRA position with Dr David Chen in Singapore (Jan 2010).


June 2009 - New Publication in the Journal of Organic Chemistry:

Clarification of the Stereochemical Course of Nucleophilic Substitution of Arylsulfonate-Based Nucleophile Assisting Leaving Groups

D. Christopher Braddock, Rebecca Pouwer, Jonathon W. Burton, Phillip Broadwith J. Org. Chem. 2009, 74, 6042-6049. Erratum, 7602.


June 2009

Rebecca and Thaïs present posters at the tenth Tetrahedron Symposium in Paris.


April 2009

Katrin Brakhage joins group as ERASMUS student.


February 2009

Savade Solanki awarded PhD for his thesis entitled "Towards the Biosynthetically-Inspired Total Synthesis of the Obtusallenes" and leaves to take up a post at the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR).


January 2009 - New Publication in the Journal of Organic Chemistry (Featured Article):

Bromonium-Ion Induced Transannular Oxonium Ion Formation-Fragmentation in Model Obtusallene Systems and Structural Reassignment of Obtusallenes V-VII

D. Christopher Braddock, David Millan, Yolanda Perez-Fuertes, Rebecca Pouwer, Richard Sheppard, Savade Solanki, Andrew White J. Org. Chem. 2009, 74, 1835-1841.


January 2009 - New Publication in Chemical Communications:

The Generation and Trapping of Enantiopure Bromonium Ions

D. Christopher Braddock, Stephen A. Hermitage, Lilian Kwok, Rebecca Pouwer, Joanna M. Redmond, and Andrew J. P. White Chem. Commun. 2009, 1082-1084.


December 2008 - RSC South East Regional Organic Meeting

Savade Solanki won a prize for his talk entitled "Towards a Biosynthetically-Inspired Synthesis of the Obtusallene Family of Marine Natural Products". Rebecca Pouwer also won a prize for her poster entitled "The Generation and Trapping of Enantiopure Bromonium Ions".


December 2008

Savade Solanki selected to give the PhD talk presentation at the RSC South-East Regional Meeting to be held at UCL on 17th December 2008.


November 2008

Chris goes on lecture tour of Singapore, Australia and New Zealand.


October 2008

Karl Bonney joins the group to start his PhD and Serkan Osman joins to do his final year MSci project in the Braddock Group.


October 2008

Chris is promoted to Reader in Organic Chemistry.


June 2008

Savade Solanki wins best organic talk prize for final year PhD students at Imperial College's Annual Chemistry Postgraduate Symposium.


February 2008 - New Publication in the Journal of Natural Products:

Structural Reassignment of Obtusallenes V, VI and VII by GIAO-Based Density Functional Prediction

D. Christopher Braddock and Henry S. Rzepa J. Nat. Prod. 2008, 71, 728-730.


February 2008 - New Publication in Chemical Communications:

The Stereochemical Course of Bromoetherification of Enynes

D. Christopher Braddock, Roshni Bhuva, Yolanda Pérez-Fuertes, Rebecca Pouwer, Craig, A. Roberts, Andrea Ruggiero, Elaine S. E. Stokes and Andrew J. P. White Chem. Commun. 2008, 1419-1421.


January 2008

Joanna Redmond awarded PhD for her thesis entitled "Development of a Catalytic Asymmetric Bromination Reaction of Alkenes" and leaves to take up a post at GSK Stevenage, UK.