Hi everyone! I’m Eya Kacem, a PhD candidate in Chemistry at the University of Otago, working in the KCG Group under the supervision of Prof. Keith C. Gordon. Originally from Tunisia, I spent some time in Qatar, where I completed my Master’s degree in Materials Science and Technology at Qatar University and worked on several research projects in materials science.
Eya
My PhD research is funded by the Marsden Fund and focuses on spectroscopic characterization of nanoscale materials and photocatalytic systems. I am particularly interested in combining experimental and theoretical techniques to tackle complex scientific questions and develop innovative solutions.
Moving to New Zealand has been an exciting new chapter, and I am looking forward to learning, growing, and collaborating with researchers from different fields. Outside the lab, I enjoy exploring new places, cultures, meeting people from different backgrounds, and embracing every opportunity that comes with this adventure.
I’m excited to be part of the Otago community and look forward to the years ahead!
Congratulations to Amir Sohail who defended his thesis May 20. Amir’s work was entitled “Electronic Structure and Charge-Transfer Dynamics in Donor–Acceptor Dyes and Heteroleptic Metal Complexes”.
Amir after his thesis defenseOne of the neat compounds studied by Amir, synthesized in the Crowley lab by Joseph Wilkinson and Gourav Vashisth
Congratulations to Jeremy and Keith on their latest publication in the Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand. The citaiton is: Huang, Z.; Xue, B.; Zhang, M.; Rooney, J. S.; Gordon, K. C.; Killeen, D. P. Symbolically Regressing Fish Biomass Spectral Data: A Linear Genetic Programming Method With Tunable Primitives. Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand 2026, 56 (3), e70051. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/snz2.70051
The work describes the use of machine learning based around genetic algorithms to classify fish waste and was part of an MBIE program looking at developing new technologies in marine industries.
Applying linear genetic programming with tunable primitives (LGP-TP) for fish biomass component prediction. Particularly, LGP-TP synthesizes regression models based on the spectral data (inputs) and the chemical ground truth of on-hand fish samples (target outputs). The synthesized regression model from LGP-TP predicts the components of unseen fish biomass samples in real-world production.
The work reviews the enormous growth in the use of low frequency Raman as a method of measuring very low frequency vibrations with applications across semiconductor, polymer, polymorph and even amorphous systems.
Congratulations to Jervee for submitting her thesis entitled “Using vibrational spectroscopy to investigate the molecular properties of plant-based food systems”. Her thesis examined the effects of pulse electric field treatments on plant-based proteins. This included protein meal through to semi-processed food stuffs. Thus far she has published six papers and has won and has won six poster or oral awards at conferences.
Jervee is working on another paper through her publishing bursary based on 2D correlation spectroscopy in protein-based systems.
Jervee’s PhD was funded by the Riddet Insititute. Thanks to them for giving us such a great student and colleague.
The KCG group had their group meetings in Wellington and Dunedin this afternoon. Khansa, Saniga, Anam and Sana met in the Wellington cable car during the MacDiarmid meeting and Peter, Lisa, MJ, Skyler and Keith enjoyed a great talk in Dunedin.
Khansa, Saniga, Anam and Sana in WellingtonMJ, Skyler, Peter, Lisa and Keith in DunedinTea after the meetingIced tea after the meeting
The MacDiarmid Institute recently ran their MI Research Programme meetings and CRISP in Wellington, 9-10 April 2026. A lot of group members went to it and contributed as part of the MESA group
Photos of the MESSA group at dinner, including Khansa, Anam, Sana and Saniga
