2nd Empowering Women in Organic Chemistry Europe Conference

Hossay Abas obtained her M.Sci. and Ph.D. from Imperial College London, working on the synthesis of natural products and α-helix mimetics under the supervision of Prof. Alan Spivey. She then moved to the University of Bristol and worked as a post-doctoral research associate with Prof. Jonathan Clayden, working on the asymmetric synthesis of quaternary amino acids. Since 2019, she has been working as a medicinal chemist at Cancer Research Horizons (CRH), having spent the first four years of her time at CRH focussing primarily on the synthesis of steroidal based natural products and its analogues in the treatment of cancer.

Abstract

Dr. Giulia Moncelsi is a Solution Engineer at Elsevier since 2024, supporting customers in academia and government make the most out of Reaxys at their institution. Giulia joined Elsevier in 2020 as a Customer Consultant for the Life Sciences portfolio, which includes Reaxys, Embase, Embiology and other digital solutions. Giulia is currently based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Previously, she completed a PhD Degree in Chemical Science and Technology at the ICIQ in Tarragona, Spain. Giulia brings more than 7 years of experience in academic research as a trained chemist, is an active member of international chemistry networks and is regularly involved in organizing scientific outreach activities.

Sheenagh studied Natural Sciences at the University of Cambridge, followed by an MSc in Chemical Research at Queen’s University Belfast (working on the synthesis of cationic lipids as gene delivery vectors supervised by Dr William P. D. Goldring) and then 18 months working as a graduate medicinal chemist at Redx Oncology. Sheenagh’s doctoral research on the application of lithiation–borylation methodology to the total synthesis of complex polyketide natural products was supervised by Professor Varinder K. Aggarwal at the University of Bristol. After her PhD, she stayed in Bristol as a postdoc in the Aggarwal group and then with Professor Tim Gallagher, before moving to the University of Oxford in 2023 to take up her current position as a postdoctoral researcher working with Professors Paul Brennan, Yang Shi and Chris Schofield on the design and synthesis of novel chemical probes.

Megha grew up in Dhanbad – a small town in northern India. She has an undergraduate major degree in Chemistry with a minor in Biosciences and Bioengineering from IIT Bombay in India. In 2012, she moved to the University of Georgia Athens, US to work with Prof. Henry F. Schaefer III for a PhD degree at the Center for Computational and Quantum Chemistry. She was a post-doctoral trainee at the Stanford University for a year before moving to the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) along with her advisor, Professor Jens K. Nørskov, to continue my post-doctoral research. She transitioned from academia to industry in August 2022 and has been working as an associate principal scientist at AstraZeneca (AZ) in Macclesfield, UK. She specializes in modelling homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis reactions with emphasis on reaction mechanisms, role of solvents and additives, and understanding reaction trends. At AZ, she provides specialist technical support to a broad range of drug projects by generating predictive models from scientific data, design automated workflows, provide scientific leadership and represent AZ externally through conferences and outreach programmes.

Gillian McArthur is a final year PhD candidate in Chemistry at the University of Manchester under the supervision of Prof Igor Larrosa. Born in Glasgow, she completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Strathclyde working as part of the Kerr group in her Master’s year. During her time at Strathclyde, she also completed a 1 year industrial placement at Bayer AG Cropscience in Frankfurt am Main.