Dr Yanhua Lan
MSc, PhD (2004)
Current Job Title: Postdoctoral Fellow
Employer: Professor Annie K. Powell, University of Karlsruhe, Germany
PhD: with Assoc. Prof. Sally Brooker, University of Otago, New Zealand (2001-2004)
I embarked on my PhD project with Sally in 2001. Since my daughter Aileen Yuwen was born before I started the project, it was both a challenge and a great joy to study full-time and to be a mother. With the help of our parents in China and my sister-in-law Jing, as well as the support of my friends in the local community, I was able to concentrate on, carry on and complete my studies.
It has been a great pleasure to work with Sally in her robust research team. I am also grateful for her assistance in securing this postdoctoral position with her collaborator Professor Annie Powell. The knowledge and experience I gained during my study at Otago is helpful for my present work in Karlsruhe, particularly those in time management, presentation organisation and analysis of research results.
I miss Brooker’s Bunch as it has a lot of my memories. There were very interesting group presentations, inspiring discussions with Sally and group members after seminars, and many days of hard work in the laboratories in which radio music was on and some large plants grew silently that I seldom noticed. Also there were cosy barbecues at Sally’s house and exciting group lunches in downtown Dunedin.
I do miss Dunedin, a lovely and pleasant city, where I stayed for several years. The South Island is so beautiful that we spent our last two Christmas holidays there. I am fascinated by New Zealand: “the hometown of the long white clouds”, a country with magnificent scenery and a unique culture.
Contact details:
Dr. Yanhua Lan [ynhlan@hotmail.com]
Dr Ian J. Hewitt
PhD: with Professor Annie K. Powell at Karlsruhe University, Germany (2000-3)
Brookers Bunch visit: Jan-May 2002
I have been fortunate to, as part of my PhD at Karlsruhe University (Germany) help initiate a collaboration between the laboratories of Annie Powell (KU) and Sally Brooker (OU). The goal of this collaboration is to synthesize carefully designed macrocycles with the aim of encapsulating Fe-clusters within their large macrocyclic cavities. As certain cluster motifs appear to form commonly the goal of templating macrocycles around cluster cores also seems realistic although it is far more challenging. As part of the collaboration I was able to visit Sally’s labs for a period of 5 months in 2002. This allowed us to begin to understand, and try to integrate, the approaches of macrocyclic and cluster chemistry. During this time we were able to synthesize some large macrocycles for complexation studies. We now have a small group in Karlsruhe working on the project and hopefully further exchanges of group members should be possible in the near future.
Dr Tony C. Davidson
BSc(Hons), PhD, 1999
Current Job Title: Marsden Postdoctoral Fellow
Employer: Industrial Research Limited, Wellington.
Since leaving Dunedin I have been employed as a Marsden Postdoctoral Fellow at Industrial Research Limited in Lower Hutt. My research focuses on the properties of helical crystals in natural composite materials such as cellulose and chitin. Being a scientist is a lifestyle choice now days and it is fantastic to have a job that is interesting and where no two days are the same.
I have found that the skills I learnt as an inorganic chemist at the University of Otago have been of daily use to me in my current position. As well as getting a good grounding in chemistry I found Otago a great place to work and play.
Contact: Dr. Tony C. Davidson
Dr Paul G. Plieger
BSc (Hons), PhD, 1999
Current Job Title: Lecturer of Chemistry , Institute of Fundamental Sciences PN 461, Massey University, New Zealand
Previous Job Titles: Laboratory Directed Research and Development Postdoctoral Fellow (2003- 2004), Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico, USA; Engineering and Physical Science Research Council Postdoctoral Fellow, The University of Edinburgh, Scotland (2001-3); Foundation for Research Science and Technology Postdoctoral Fellow, Massey University, New Zealand (1999-2001)
PhD: with Dr Sally Brooker, University of Otago, New Zealand (1995-8)
Otago University as a whole has an excellent reputation as a producer of talented and able graduates both domestically and on an international scale. The Chemistry Department at Otago is no exception.
My current position as a Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) program postdoctoral fellow is directly related to the chemistry training that I began at Otago in 1991. Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, USA (where I am currently placed) is a great place to work. The laboratory is extensively funded and is at the cutting edge in many research areas. It also has an awesome climate (skiing only 20 minutes away in winter) and the summers seem endless. Previous to my position here I worked at Edinburgh University in Scotland as an Engineering and Physical Science Research Council (EPSRC) Postdoctoral Fellow. Chemistry in the United Kingdom is very healthy and as a chemist there are many positions available in both industry and academia.
The quality of the research and internationally recognised publications resulting from my doctoral studies with Dr Sally Brooker have helped me to travel the world and also to prove that when you do a chemistry degree at Otago, there are no geographical barriers to your chemistry career.
Contact details:
Dr. Paul Plieger [p.g.plieger@massey.ac.nz]
http://ifs.massey.ac.nz/staff/plieger.shtml
Lecturer of Chemistry
Institute of Fundamental Sciences PN 461
Massey University
Private Bag 11 222
Palmerston North
Tel: 64 6 356 9099 ext: 7825
Fax: 64 6 350 5682
Dr Geoffrey S. Dunbar
BSc (Hons), PhD, 1997
Current Job Title: Business Analyst
Employer: Accenture (Andersen Consulting), Wellington
Commencing studies at the University of Otago in 1990, I completed a BSc (Hons) degree, majoring in Chemistry (1993), and a PhD in Inorganic Chemistry (late 1997).
Since early 1998, I have been employed by Andersen Consulting as a Business Analyst in their Wellington practice. Andersen Consulting is the world’s leading management consulting firm. I have been privileged to work with clients in several different industries, including manufacturing, telecommunications and utilities. As a Business Analyst I have been involved in a variety of roles including planning, process design, coding, application testing, user training, and proposal preparation. The roles are demanding and often involve me being “thrown at the deep end”, having to quickly get up to speed with my new role and new challenges. Despite the variety of roles that I have been involved in there are many core skills common to all. These include communication skills, time management, being thorough and seeing a job through to completion, being systematic/ methodical and logical, being creative, meeting deadlines, and working with others in a group environment.
While I am not specifically using my practical or theoretical chemistry knowledge, there is much that I learned during my years of Chemistry that I am currently using and building on. These skills were developed during thesis writing, following/ developing/ documenting an experimental method (reasoning, eliminating redundant steps or introducing new ones), giving seminars, taking laboratories and tutorials, being systematic in recording results, report writing, time management. There are many parallels between these “Chemistry” skills and the skills mentioned above.
Contact: Dr. Geoffrey S. Dunbar, Accenture (Andersen Consulting), Wellington, New Zealand
Dr Robert J. Kelly
MA (Cambridge), PhD (Otago), 1997
Current Job Title: Research Scientist
Employer: Wool Research Organisation of New Zealand, Lincoln
I am currently involved in a research project aimed at making new materials from wool and wool wastes by extracting and reforming the wool protein. It is an interesting and challenging job with good potential for career development. I have been pleased, and initially surprised, to find my training in fundamental science has opened opportunities in applied areas such as agriculture and forestry, vital to the NZ economy as well as the basic research often performed in an academic environment.
My chemistry background has given me a good understanding of many fundamental processes as well as a range of analysis and problem solving skills which I think employers in and outside science find attractive.
Contact: Dr. Robert J. Kelly, WRONZ (Wool Research Organisation of New Zealand), Lincoln, New Zealand
Dr Paul D. Croucher
Currently: Croucher Brewing Co.
Previous Job Titles:
ARC Postdoctoral fellow at Monash University, Australia;
Lecturer in Chemistry, Charles Sturt University, NSW, Australia;
Lecturer in Pharmacy, School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Auckland, New Zealand
I began my studies in 1989 at Otago University with not much direction. After being accepted into a few courses I had to make a decision which career path I wanted. Chemistry, as a fundamental subject, appealed to me as it meant that I would not specialise myself into an area that I may eventually dislike yet would be useful in any number of careers; management, academia, pharmaceuticals, mining and teaching to name a few. Having said that, chemistry at Otago offers a broad range of subjects allowing students to tailor their courses to specific career paths.
I enjoyed my undergraduate time at Otago and despite the temptation of the mighty dollar I dug deep and enrolled for a PhD, under the supervision of Dr. Sally Brooker. During this time I was part of a successful research team and we published articles in the (British) Royal Society of Chemistry journals which have high international standing. This success was to breed success and the year following my graduation I was awarded a very prestigious Australian Research Council Postdoctoral Fellowship to study the research of my choice at one of the best chemistry schools in Australia. Together with Professor Colin Raston at Monash University, Australia, I researched the host-guest chemistry of fullerenes in the hope of preparing devices, such as switches and wires, on a nanometer scale (such devices could lead to the ultimate in computer miniaturisation).
I was then appointed as a Lecturer in Chemistry at Charles Sturt University in Australia. As an independent researcher, my research direction changed considerably and I started investigating the chemistry of wine and olive oil, in particular the chemistry of the polyphenolics and tannins which act, amongst other things, as antioxidants and are reputed to have considerable health benefits. My other interests included the controlled delivery of drugs using cage molecules attached to biopolymers. A move to a Lectureship at Auckland University followed.
For each of my appointments the high regard for the Otago School of Chemistry and the publications from our research group were important factors. Studying chemistry at Otago was definitely a positive move for my career. This work allowed me to travel extensively, including a trip to Poland, where I conducted an extensive study on Bohemian Pilsners and Hungarian wine.
Click here to read about my most recent career move: http://www.croucherbrewing.co.nz/about.html
Contact: Dr. Paul D. Croucher, Croucher Brewing Co., Rotorua, New Zealand, http://croucherbrewing.co.nz/
Shaun Presow
BSc(Hons) 2004 with Dr E.W. Tan
Currently: a PhD student with Professor Karl Wieghardt, MPI for Bioinorganic Chemistry, Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany (2005-present)
Previously: Previously: summer studentship with Assoc. Prof. Sally Brooker (2003-2004)
I first worked with Assoc. Prof. Sally Brooker on an investigation of luminescent tripodal amine lanthanide complexes during the summer of 2003 – 2004. I then completed some follow up work in November of 2004. This research project gave me a practical background in inorganic chemistry, which is helpful to me in my position today. Working on such an interesting topic was also an attraction! Sally’s help and enthusiasm was a constant feature of working with her, and the members of Brooker’s Bunch were a lot of fun to hang out with. The Otago University campus is such a beautiful place, and the members of the chemistry department so supportive, that I feel privileged to have worked in such a place.
I am currently studying towards a PhD under Prof. Karl Wieghardt at the Max Planck Institute for Bioinorganic Chemistry in Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany. This exciting move is the result of discussions I had with Sally, who knows this top German research group well, and her recommending me to Professor Wieghardt. The background I gained working at Otago University is proving invaluable in my further studies.
Contact details:
shaunpresow@yahoo.com
