News | Brooker's Bunch

Congratulations to Matt Robb (PhD completed in Brookers Bunch, titled ‘Towards Dual Functional Spin Crossover Complexes’) on recently accepting a Postdoctoral Fellowship with Assoc. Prof. Hanna Boström at Stockholm University, Sweden, starting in early April 2024. Matt will be studying spin crossover in Hoffman-type frameworks in a project funded by the Wallenberg Initiative – Materials Science for Sustainability (WISE). The focus will be on synthesizing new materials and investigating their use as guest sensors.

The New Zealand Hydrogen Aviation Consortium has released a report (available from their website) ‘Launching Green Hydrogen Powered Aviation in Aotearoa New Zealand’ which includes a foreword from Sally.
Pictured above at the NZ H2 2 Zero Summit where this report was launched are, L to R: Prof Sally Brooker (He Honoka Hauwai, Otago University), Christopher Boyle (Fabrum), Jean-Christophe Hoguet (Airbus), Claire Waghorn (CIAL), Cathy Clennett (Hiringa), Nick Flack (CIAL), Amy Barrett (FFI), Andrew Clennett (Hiringa). Missing: Jacob Snelgrove (Air New Zealand).

Kieran DeMonte recently returned from five weeks working with Prof Garry Hanan’s group at the Université de Montréal, Canada, carrying out a series of homogenous hydrogen and CO2 reduction photocatalysis studies, as part of a multi-year MBIE catalyst seed grant that will end mid-2023. Kieran learnt and developed valuable homogeneous photocatalysis skills under the expert guidance of the Hanan group (thanks particularly to Dr Folaranmi Akogun and Olivier Schott), and collected data on a family of our complexes. We are grateful to them for hosting this research visit and our continuing collaboration!

We’re very grateful to HWR Hydrogen for inviting Sally and Michael down to the George Begg Festival in Invercargill to talk to the public about green hydrogen. At the festival HW Richardson launched their dual-fuel truck, the first of its kind in Australasia, which can combust hydrogen along with the diesel for up to a 40% reduction in emissions, a groundbreaking and exciting step to a greener future! Pictured above are Gareth Wishart (HWR group general manager of innovation), Michael and Sally in front of the new truck, and below is Sally with the green hydrogen demo kit. Please check out the news about the dual-fuel truck on the ODT and Stuff.

A massive thank you to Hyundai and Hyundai’s Grant Doull and Gavin Young for hosting Sally and Michael at Mystery Creek Fieldays! Sally and Michael were doing hydrogen outreach with the demonstration electrolyser and fuel cell kit on Hyundai’s site. Pictured above are Grant Doull, Sally Brooker, Gavin Young, and Michael Bennington next to Hyundai’s XCIENT hydrogen fuel cell truck, December 2022.

One of the visitors to our hydrogen outreach demonstration electrolyser and fuel cell at Hyundai’s site at the Mystery Creek Fieldays (thanks Hyundai for sponsoring Michael Bennington and Sally Brooker doing this!), Adrian Maidment, made a quick video of Sally explaining how H₂ is made and used, and later sent us the link to it on youtube (thanks Adrian! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O04LcMAB1pQ) . Pictured above is Sally during the interview with Adrian, December 2022.

Congratulations Luca Bondí on his formal PhD graduation at the University of Florence. We’re very proud of you completing your co-tutelle PhD at Otago and Florence Universities – and that you have also completed publications based on all 4 of the chapters of your thesis, as well as additional papers in collaboration with others in our team!

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Congratulations to Abdullah (right) on starting at the University of Paris Descartes as a 2 year postdoc in Prof Olivia Reinaud‘s (left) research team in June 2022 (photo). He will be looking at the development of supramolecular catalysts for redox processes (O2 and CO2). Prior to this, Abdullah completed his PhD on ‘Catalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction’ in Brookers Bunch. Selfie by Abdullah June 2022.

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Its a small world, Rosa has now joined Prof Eva Rentschler‘s research group, at the University of Mainz, as a postdoc too! Selfie by Sriram, April 2022.

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A warm welcome to Kieran DeMonte, pictured in front of the Registry building, University of Otago. Last year Kieran completed an MChem with first class honours in Chemistry at Warwick University (UK). He subsequently accepted a MacDiarmid Institute funded PhD scholarship with Sally, to work on the design, synthesis and testing of coordination complexes for electrocatalytic carbon dioxide reduction. He arrived in Dunedin in mid-March and started his PhD on 1 April 2022.

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Congratulations to Varinder, on the publication of his first paper, in Dalton Transactions, concerning comparison of a new dimetallic with a previous monometallic electrocatalyst for H2 production. 15 Feb 2022.

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Congratulations to Dr Rosa Diego Creixenti, on completing her PhD defense at the University of Barcelona. It was a pleasure to host you in my research team at the University of Otago from January to July 2020, albeit this was a more ‘interesting’ experience for you than expected, due to the sudden appearance of COVID19. Wishing you all the very best for the future!

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Varinder Singh has been offered an Otago PhD scholarship and plans to work in Sally’s team on developing and testing CO2 reduction catalysts. Congratulations Varinder! Photo (L to R): Michael, Hajie, Varinder, Matt by the Leith river in front of the Registry (Sally, 28 Jan 2022).

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Sriram (soon to graduate PhD) has now taken up his research position in Prof Rentschlers group at Mainz University, Germany. Research group photo taken Jan 2022; Sriram extreme left.

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Sandhya has started her Postdoc in Prof Beeren’s group at DTU in Copenhagen, Denmark 🙂 Selfie taken in Jan 2022.

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Sally was thrilled to be present at the 1 Dec 2021 launch – by Ministers Megan Woods and James Shaw, along with Christchurch Mayor Lianne Dalziel – of Christchurch International Airport Limited’s Kōwhai Park renewable energy precinct. Phase 1 of this initiative will generate up to 150MW, enabling a range of future decarbonisation initiatives to be developed at the airport and in the region. Sincere congratulations to Claire Waghorn, Nick Flack, and your visionary CEO Malcolm Johns. Photo by Sally 1 Dec 2021.

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Dr Sandhya Singh departs NZ in late December, to start a 2 year postdoc position at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) from Jan 2022, in the group of Associate Professor Sophie Beeren, working on enzyme-mediated dynamic combinatorial chemistry. Congratulations Sandhya!

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Sally enjoyed a drive of the Hyundai NEXO hydrogen powered car, during our outreach visits to 7 schools and SIT, in Invercargill, 23 and 26 November 2021.

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Guess who? in all her safety gear before she was given a fascinating tour of Tiwai Aluminium Smelter, 25 November 2021.

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Sally caught up with Sir Tipene O’Regan at the Murihiku Regeneration Research and Innovation wananga, Transport World, Invercargill, 24-25 November 2021

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Sally caught up with Aimee Kaio at the Murihiku Regeneration Research and Innovation wananga, Transport World, Invercargill, 24-25 November 2021

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Schools green hydrogen outreach team, at Southland Girls High School, Invercargill, 23 November 2021. Our Invercargill ‘green hydrogen’ outreach, visited 7 schools and SIT, brilliantly MC’ed by Ra Dallas (nkmp) for Murihiku Regeneration, with activities led by Dr Dave Warren (Otago University) and his outreach team, accompanied by Hamish Tonkin (GWD Motor Group) with the Hyundai Nexo hydrogen fuel cell car, resulted in two busy, informative and fun days for all concerned. This photo of us with the Nexo was kindly taken by Brenda Goodwill (HOD Science) at Southland Girls High School. Thanks heaps team!

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Sally talked with Hon Dr Megan Woods about green hydrogen (photo: Wigram electorate office staff, 25 October 2021)

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Congratulations to Sriram Sundaresan (MacDiarmid Institute funded PhD student), on successfully defending his PhD thesis “Designer complexes for spin crossover, CO₂ reduction and surface immobilisation” earlier today (1 October 2021). Sriram (right) is pictured here with his examiners (L to R): Professors Lyall Hanton (University of Otago), Annie Powell (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology) and James Wright (University of Auckland) and convenor A/Professor Carla Meledandri (seated, centre).

After leaving NZ for a short, well earnt holiday at home in India, he will take up a postdoctoral position with Professor Eva Rentschler (Mainz, Germany), to work on single molecule magnets (SMMs).

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Congratulations to Luca Bondí, pictured here on his first day of MBA study at the MIB Trieste School of Management (Italy) in the last week of September 2021. Earlier this year, Luca successfully completed his co-tutelle PhD “Towards predictable tuning of spin crossover” at the Universities of Otago and Florence, supervised by Prof Sally Brooker, Prof Federico Totti and Dr Anna Garden. From his time with us he has published 5 papers to date, with a 6^th paper close to submission. We wish him all the very best for his MBA study!

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Double congratulations to Fola Akogun: graduating with his PhD “Carbazole complexes as catalysts for hydrogen evolution and CO₂ reduction”, and being reunited with his family, wife Goodness and 1 year old daughter Nora, after being separated for one and a half years due to COVID19 border closures. Really great to see you happily reunited after all this time! Photo: Accra (Ghana) August 2021.

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Congratulations to Dr Sandhya Singh on being awarded a two year JSPS (Japan Society for the Promotion of Science) postdoctoral fellowship to work on “Supramolecular Radical Organic Frameworks for Sensing and Spintronics Applications” with Dr Jonathan Hill at the National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), Japan.

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Congratulations to Sriram Sundaresan (centre, pictured with Brookers Bunch) on submitting his PhD thesis “Designer complexes for spin crossover, CO₂ reduction and surface immobilisation”. 30 June 2021.

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Congratulations to Dr Sandhya Singh (front left) on taking up a MacDiarmid Institute funded internship at MBIE, Wellington, NZ. Photo of BB mid June 2021.

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Congratulations to Fola Akogun on successfully defending his PhD thesis, “Carbazole complexes as catalysts for hydrogen evolution and CO₂ reduction” via zoom on 20 May 2021. Photo: Fola after the oral examination, with the examiners, Prof Annie Powell (KIT, bottom left), Prof Geoff Waterhouse (Auckland, top right) and Dr Jonathan Kitchen (Massey Auckland, bottom right). Convenor Prof Claudine Stirling and supervisor Prof Sally Brooker were also present.

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Congratulations to Abdullah Abudayyeh on having his PhD thesis, “Catalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction”, placed on the list of Exceptional PhD Theses in the Division of Sciences, which means that “all three examiners of a candidate’s thesis agree that the thesis is of an exceptional standard in every respect – research content, originality, quality of expression and accuracy of presentation – and is amongst the top 10% of theses examined.”

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Congratulations to Dr Sandhya Singh on graduating with her PhD in person on a lovely autumn day in Dunedin (8 May 2021).

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Congratulations to Luca Bondí (bottom right) on successfully defending his co-tutelle PhD (Universities of Otago and Florence), ‘Towards predictable tuning of spin crossover’, at the oral examination held by zoom with participants from 4 countries, specifically from the cities of Florence (Luca; Prof Federico Totti, co-supervisor, bottom), Rennes (Prof Boris Le Guennic, examiner, top left), Dublin (A/Prof Grace Morgan, examiner, top right) and Dunedin (Prof Lyall Hanton, examiner; A/Prof Nigel Lucas, convenor; Dr Anna Garden and Prof Sally Brooker, supervisors, top middle).

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Congratulations to Abdullah Abudayyeh on successfully completing the oral examination of his thesis “Catalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction”, on 14 April 2021. Pictured after the oral from L to R: Prof Sally Brooker (supervisor), A/Prof Nigel Lucas (internal examiner), A/Prof Vladimir Golovko (NZ examiner present via zoom; Canterbury), Abdullah, and Prof Lyall Hanton (convenor).

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Congratulations to Matt Rob (far right), BB PhD student, for winning the ‘peoples choice’ talk prize at the Chemistry Department’s postgraduate student bootcamp at Portobello, Dunedin, 9 April 2021

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Sandhya has completed all requirements to graduate with her PhD. Pictured here, she is putting her hard bound thesis “Spin crossover in iron(II) dinuclear helicates and tetranuclear cages” on Sally’s bookcase – congratulations Sandhya! 11 March 2021. Photo: Sally

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Welcome to our two fourth year chemistry honours project students, Varinder Singh (left) and Alice Noe (right), shown here with Abdullah and Sandhya, as Varinder carries out an electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) test. 9 March 2021. Photo: Sally

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Fola Akogun has submitted his PhD thesis “Carbazole complexes as catalysts for hydrogen evolution and CO₂ reduction” – congratulations Fola! 28 February 2021. Photo: Sally

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Congratulations Sandhya! Sandhya has completed her PhD oral, so will soon be ready to graduate. Photo shows, left to right: convenor Prof Claudine Stirling, internal examiner A/Prof Nigel Lucas, Sandhya and Sally, 16 February 2021.

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Abdullah Abudayyeh has submitted his PhD thesis “Catalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction” – congratulations Abdullah! 8 February 2021.

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Luca Bondi has submitted his co-tutelle (Otago-Florence) PhD thesis “Towards Predictable Tuning of Spin Crossover” – congratulations Luca! 31 January 2021.

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Sriram Sundaresan has been accepted into MRSC (promoted from student membership). January 2021.

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Luca Bondi has been accepted into the highly sought after MBA program in International Business at the MIB School of Management in Trieste, Italy (top 2% of MBA programs worldwide, hence he chose to apply there). He was also awarded a 40% merit scholarship. Luca will submit his PhD thesis this month, then complete 3 months on a University of Otago publishing bursary, before taking up his MBA studies in Trieste in September 2021.

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Sriram Sundaresan won a prize for the best ‘chemistry theme’ student talk, “Molecular design for Surface Immobilisation of Spin Switchable Materials using Langmuir Blodgett technique” at the Materials@UC 2020: Overcoming Challenges symposium, University of Canterbury, 19-20 Nov 2020. Photo: 20 Nov 2020.

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OERC symposium 2020 held in the Otago Business School
student presentation winner Abdullah Abudayyeh pictured Sally Brooker (left), Sean Connelly and Michael Jack

Abdullah Abudayyeh won the prize for the best student talk, “Copper catalysts for hydrogen production” at the Otago Energy Research Centre (OERC) annual symposium, University of Otago, 19-20 Nov 2020. Photo: Jane Dawber 20 Nov 2020.

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Varinder Singh is busy carrying out the multistep organic synthesis of a key macrocycle precursor, as he looks to build up stocks of it as part of his summer project in Brookers Bunch. Photo: Sally 12 Nov 2020.

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Congratulations to Sandhya Singh, on submitting her PhD thesis “Spin crossover in iron(II) dinuclear helicates and tetranuclear cages” earlier this week. She is pictured here, along with Sriram, Abdullah, Matt, Varinder and Fola, on her way to ring the University bell (above), a privilege granted to PhD students after submission of their thesis. Photos: Sally. 6 November 2020.

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Congratulations to ex-BB member Dr Nick White who has been awarded a Rennie Memorial Medal by the RACI for excellence in research in Chemical Science by a researcher with less than eight years of professional experience. October 2020.

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Sriram managed to catch a selfie with Prime Minister Jacinda Adern during her visit to campus today. 7 October 2020.

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Congratulations to PhD student Sriram Sundaresan on being awarded a University of Otago OUSA Gold for “Outstanding member of the Dunedin community”, for his contributions and service to the Dunedin Hindu community and Dunedin Tamil community. 30 September 2020.

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Sally with the Hylink household sized robust electrolyser (produces green hydrogen from water; powered by sun and wind) developed by Robert Holt at Callaghan Innovation, which provides instant hot water for shower, taps and radiators as well as fuel for the BBQ. 25 September 2020.

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Left to right: Sriram Sundaresan and Dr. Lux Selvanesan (President of the Dunedin Multi Ethnic Council) with Aaron Hawkins (Dunedin’s Mayor) before opening the council meeting with a Hindu prayer. 28 July 2020

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Brookers Bunch on June 2020 in the Mellor Foyer (missing Abdullah and Michael). Left to right: Varinder, Sriram, Luca, Sally, Fola, Matt, Rosa. Photo: Sharron Bennett

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Most of the BB team are back at Uni under COVID-19 Level 2 restrictions today, 18 May 2020, hence meeting outside, physically distanced, until we are assigned a new room that is large enough to hold our group meetings in under level 2 guidelines. Left to right: Michael, Abdullah, Fola, Sandhya, Luca, Matt, Sriram (back) and Rosa (front). Photo by Sally.

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Congratulations to BB alumnus, Dr Santi Rodriguez-Jimenez , on being awarded a Marie Curie postdoctoral fellowship to continue working on photoelectrocatalysis in Prof Erwin Reisner’s lab (Cambridge University).

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We welcome two visitors, Prof Dirk Kurth (Wurzburg), visiting academic (Jan-Mar 2020), and Rosa Diego-Creixenti (Barcelona), visiting PhD research intern (Jan-May 2020).

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Congratulations to BB alumnus, A/Prof Paul Plieger (Massey University, Palmerston North) on being promoted to full Professor.

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Sally is one of seven Inaugural Sesquicentennial Distinguished Chair (Poutoko Taiea) appointments at the University of Otago, Dunedin, 30 September 2019. Photo: Sharron Bennett.

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Congratulations to BB alumnus, Dr Ross Hogue, on being awarded a Marie Curie postdoctoral fellowship to join A/Prof Dennis Hettersheid’s catalysis team at Leiden University.

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Luca Bondi about to present his invited talk to an impressive audience at AMN9, Wellington 11 February 2019.

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Brookers Bunch members at the AMN9 conference, Wellington 10-14 February 2019. Left to right: Sriram, Sally, Luca and Santi (Sriram’s poster is behind us).

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Thanks to my Brookers Bunch team for their stirling efforts behind the scenes in making the Otago Future Fuels (OFF) workshop a big success!! 7-8 Feb 2019.

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Congratulations to Fola Akogun on winning a top student talk prize, judged by Profs Toni Llobet (ICIQ) and Ed Constable (Basel), at the Otago Future Fuels workshop, OFF (7-8 Feb 2019).

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Congratulations to Sriram Sundaresan and Fabrice Karabulut on winning top student poster prizes, judged by a panel of our invited speakers, at the Otago Future Fuels workshop, OFF (7-8 Feb 2019).

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From the Chem department newsletter (14 Jan 2019):

“Congratulations and good luck to Dr Humphrey Feltham.
Research Fellow Dr Humphrey Feltham left the Department last week, to take up a position as metals chemist at Ligar Polymers in Hamilton. Humphrey will be working on polymers that capture valuable materials so that they can be re-used in industrial processes. Humphrey did his MSc (2008) and PhD (2012) at Otago, both with distinction, under the supervision of Professor Sally Brooker. After graduating, he took up a Postdoctoral Fellowship on a MacDiarmid Institute-funded project led by Sally. In 2015, Humphrey became a Research Fellow, and was funded by Marsden and MacDiarmid Institute grants through until 2019, supervised by Sally. Humphrey is an author on 32 papers in peer-reviewed chemistry journals, and has given numerous presentations at conferences and meetings. He has formally co-supervised six PhD students, and informally trained and mentored many other students in the Brooker group. We’d like to take this opportunity to thank Humphrey for his thoroughly professional approach and his many strong contributions to the Chemistry Department, the Brooker group in particular.” All the best with your new job Humphrey!!

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Yanhua sent this photo of ex-BB groupees (Left to right: Drs Julia and Marco Klingele, Dr Wolfgang Mohr, Dr Shaun Presow, Dr Markus Weitzer and Dr Yanhua Lan) meeting up in Freiburg pre-Christmas 2018.

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Congratulations to Dr Humphrey Feltham, who departs Brookers Bunch – after 12 years over which time he has become Sally’s ‘right hand man’ – to take up a position in Ligar, Hamilton, in the new year. We’ll all miss you Humphrey, and wish you all the very best with your new job!! Photo: Sally Dec 2018.

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Sandhya Singh with her first Otago publication; a comprehensive review of spin crossover, featured on the front inside cover of ChemSocRev. Photo: Sally Dec 2018.

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A belated welcome to Leon Escomel, a 6 month visiting research intern, who will then return to complete his MSc at Lyon University, France. Photo Sally December 2018.

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Congratulations to Hannah Davidson who will be starting work in the new year as Science Research Assistant for the NZ Environment Protection Authority (EPA) in Wellington.

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Congratulations to Alice Endersbee and William Pelet on completing their BSc(Hons) project work and reports! Left to right: Alice, Sally, William, Santi and Humphrey. Photo: Fola on 5 Oct 2018.

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Hannah is currently writing her thesis whilst working as an au pair in a beautiful spot in France. She gets to drive the kids round in the family’s spare Porsche Cayenne! September 2018.

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Welcome to Andreas Durrmann, a 6 month visiting research intern, who will then return to complete his MSc at Bayreuth University, Germany. Photo August 2018.

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Congratulations from all of us to Fola and Goodness, on their recent wedding in Nigeria (left = engagement; right and above = wedding day)

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WOW – ex-BB member Dr Matthew Cowan has been named as ‘Silver’ on the IUPAC periodic table of young chemists

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Hearty congratulations to Dr Stuart Malthus, who returned briefly from his postdoctoral fellowship in the UK in order to graduate PhD in the August ceremony here. Great to see you, especially in all this finery!, and to hear all your news. Photo: 18 August 2018.

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Welcome to new PhD student Sriram Sundaresan (MSc from University College Dublin). Photo: March 2018

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Welcome to new Honours students, William Pelet and Alice Endersbee, who started work with us on 19 February 2018.

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Congratulations to Stuart on completing all requirements to graduate PhD. Pictured here adding his hard bound thesis to Sally’s bookshelf.

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Welcome to new PhD student Luca Bondi (MSc, University of Florence), pictured here busy working in our laboratory. February 2018.

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Congratulations to Dr Carla Meledandri on winning the PM’s MacDiarmid Emerging Scientist award. Left with the PM. RIght with Pip, Anna and Sally afterwards. February 2018.

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Brookers Bunch enjoying a 10-pin bowling night to farewell Ross and Stuart both of whom are heading to the UK to take up postdoctoral fellowships. Photo Sally February 2018.

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Following the award of the 2017 Burrows Prize by the RACI, Prof Sally Brooker has been interviewed for the RACI careers website:

https://www.raci.org.au/jobs-careers/career-profiles

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Sally joins the Editorial Board and invites all NZers to contribute to a special NZ issue of Chemistry an Asian Journal (IF 4.08; deadline 30 Nov 2018). The NZIC benefits financially for each NZ paper published, so doing so is a win-win!

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Congratulations to Stuart Malthus on securing a postdoctoral fellowship (2018) with Dr John Brazier at Reading University and the Diamond Light Source in the UK, on the research project: “Targeting the weakest links in DNA for selective structural recognition”.

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Congratulations to Dr Ross Hogue on securing a postdoctoral fellowship (2018) with Dr Kathryn Toghill at the newly renovated Chemistry Department, Lancaster University, UK, on the research project: “Synthetic chemistry for redox flow batteries”.

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A recent interview of Sally has appeared in Materials Today (12 Jan 2018):

https://www.materialstoday.com/amorphous/news/special-look-at-materials-down-under/

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Congratulations to Santi (left) and Ross (right) on graduating with their PhD’s from the University of Otago at the 16 December 2017 ceremony.

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Ross Hogue (supervisor: Prof Sally Brooker) wins the prize for the best student talk at the 11th Otago Energy Research Centre (OERC) Symposium, Hutton Theatre, Dunedin, 23-24 November (2017) for his talk “Producing hydrogen from water and sunlight using molecular cobalt catalysts”

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Check out the Royal Australian Chemical Institute interview of Sally “Meriting Professorship” for RACI careers website (2017):

https://www.raci.org.au/jobs-careers/career-profiles

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Sally receiving the Royal Society of New Zealand (RSNZ) Hector Medal for outstanding work in chemical, physical or mathematical and information sciences (2017)

Vice Chancellor Professor Harlene Hayne presenting the Hector Medal to Sally

From left: Professor Hayne, Sally, DVC(External Engagement) Professor Helen Nicholson and DVC(Research) Professor Richard Blaikie

Sally and the Brooker’s Bunch

Sally and Humphrey

Closeup of the Hector Medal

Photo Credit: Sharon Bennett

Earlier Prof Richard Blaikie (DVC Research at Otago) accepted the Hector Medal on her behalf at the annual RSNZ Awards Dinner

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Sally meets with German President, Dr Frank-Walter Steinmeier, and NZ Minister for Research, Science and Innovation, Dr Megan Woods (Nov 2017)

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Santi Rodriguez-Jimenez adds his hard bound thesis to Sally’s collection, so is ready to graduate (Nov 2017)

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Three new PhD students have started in Brookers Bunch over the last 3 months: Sandhya Singh (MSc from IISER Mohali, India), Sunday Folaranmi (known as Fola) Akogun (MSc from Lanzhou Jiaotong University, China), and Abdullah Abudayeh (MSc from Bradford University, UK). Photo (left to right): Sandhya, Abdullah and Fola
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Ross Hogue’s thesis has been placed on the Sciences Divisional List of Exceptional Doctoral Theses

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Ross Hogue hands over his hard bound PhD thesis so is ready to graduate

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RSNZ Hector Medal

2017 RSNZ Hector Medal awarded to Sally and her team

2017 RSNZ Hector Medal awarded to Sally and her team – Otago Daily Times article

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Santi Rodriguez-Jimenez successfully completes his PhD oral exam (18 Sept 2017)

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Ross Hogue successfully completes his PhD oral exam (13 Sept 2017)

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Member of the NZ Order of Merit (MNZM), for services to science, investiture by the Governor General (29 Aug 2017)

Close up of MNZM medal

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Sally receives the 28th Inorganic Chemistry Award of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute (RACI), the Burrows Award, from Professor Phil Andrews (21 July 2017)