Education:

2003 - 2007: Master of Chemistry (MChem)
The University of Edinburgh, Scotland
Supervisor: Prof. David A. Leigh

2007 - 2010: Ph.D. in Chemistry
The University of Edinburgh, Scotland
Supervisor: Prof. David A. Leigh
Thesis title: Active metal template synthesis of rotaxanes, catenanes and knots

2011 - 2012: Postdoctoral Researcher
Institute of Chemical Research of Catalonia (ICIQ), Spain
Advisor: Prof. Antonio M. Echavarren

Publications:

Message:

Paul will join the faculty in the Chemistry Department at the University of Durham as a Lecturer in Organic Chemistry starting from June 2015. Visit the McGonigal Group website for the latest news.

I was born in Scotland and grew up in the small town of Dalkeith, just outside the city limits of Edinburgh. During my undergraduate studies at the University of Edinburgh I spent two summers working for the pharmaceutical companies GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZeneca and was awarded the Gillies Prize upon completion of my master’s degree in 2007. I continued to study for a Ph.D. at the same institution under the supervision of Prof. David Leigh, focussing on the preparation of interlocked and knotted molecules. After completion of my Ph.D. thesis in 2010, I moved to the Institute of Chemical Research of Catalonia (ICIQ) in Tarragona, Spain, as a postdoctoral researcher to study gold catalysis with Prof. Antonio Echavarren. As a US-UK Fulbright Scholar in the Stoddart Mechanostereochemistry group, I intend to investigate the synthesis of toroidal carbon nanotubes, and to prepare host-guest complexes and interlocked compounds using radical cation pairing.