School of Chemistry

Research degree students at Leeds School of Chemistry

Project opportunities

The School of Chemistry has a number of PhD studentships, fully funded through research council grants, charities, industry and the University, which cover full payment of UK/EU tuition fees and a tax-free stipend of approximately Ł13,895 per annum.

With many of these studentships applicants can choose their research areas and supervisors. The School of Chemistry has a selection of research project opportunities available for PhD students, across a range of research areas. Our current list of projects and their supervisors can be seen in the table below.

For further information on these opportunities please contact the Postgraduate Admissions Office

Some studentships are linked to specific projects and supervisors. You will find a list of our current opportunities on the Funded studentships page.

In addition you may apply to a number of prestigious Doctoral training programmes where the research topic is also flexible.


Inorganic and Materials Chemistry
Spin-Crossover Compounds – Switchable Materials from Simple Metal Complexes (PDF)
Supervisor: Prof Malcolm Halcrow
Metal Complexes as Supramolecular Cavitands (PDF)
Supervisor: Prof Malcolm Halcrow
Porous crystalline networks from 2,2’-bipyridine ligands (PDF)
Supervisor: Dr Michaele Hardie
New cryptophanes and metallo-supramolecular cages (PDF)
Supervisor: Dr Michaele Hardie
Exploring microstructural effects in zinc oxide and doped zinc oxide thin films (PDF)
Supervisor: Dr Geoff Hyett
The Emergence of Phosphorus-Based Bioenergetic Systems (PDF)
Supervisor: Dr Terry Kee
The use of organometallic compounds as anticancer drugs (PDF)
Supervisor: Dr Patrick McGowan
Droplet Microfluidic Systems: Nanoscale Reactors for Biological Crystallization Studies (PDF)
Supervisor: Prof Fiona Meldrum
Synthetic Approaches to Artificial Biominerals (PDF)
Supervisor: Prof Fiona Meldrum
Organometallic complexes of N-heterocyclic carbene ligands bearing carboranes; biomedical and catalytic applications (PDF)
Supervisor: Dr Charlotte Willans
Recyclable Biocatalysts and Biosensors using Enzyme-Coupled Magnetic Nanoparticles (PDF)
Supervisor: Dr Dejian Zhou
Organic Chemistry
Small molecule inhibitors of TRPC channels (PDF)
Supervisor: Dr Robin Bon
Synthesis of natural product-inspired compound libraries (PDF)
Supervisor: Dr Robin Bon
Multifunctional Nanoparticles for Medical Imaging and Targeted Drug Delivery (PDF)
Supervisor: Dr Rongjun Chen
Synthetic Biodegradable Polymers for Delivery of Novel Drug Payloads to the Cell Interior (PDF)
Supervisor: Dr Rongjun Chen
Identification and optimisation of activators of basal angiotensin converting protein i9a (bACi9a) (PDF)
Supervisor: Dr Richard Foster
Development of a small molecule electrochemical microarray for detection of ligand–protein interactions and its application in drug discovery (PDF)
Supervisor: Dr Richard Foster
C-H Activation Approaches to (Hetero)aromatic and Biaryl Skeleta (PDF)
Supervisor: Prof Steve Marsden
The Discovery of New Catalytic‘Linchpin’ Reactions for Lead-Oriented Synthesis (PDF)
Supervisor: Prof Steve Marsden
experimental design for scalable continuous processes (PDF)
Supervisor: Dr Frans Muller
Using Diversity-Oriented Synthesis to Target Protein-Protein Interactions (PDF)
Supervisor: Prof Adam Nelson
Development of New Approaches to the Synthesis of Diverse Lead-like Molecules (PDF)
Supervisor: Prof Adam Nelson
Carbon Dioxide Chemistry (PDF)
Supervisor: Prof Chris Rayner
Natural Products Chemistry / Sustainable Chemicals for the Future (PDF)
Supervisor: Prof Chris Rayner
Re-engineering bacterial toxins as building blocks for synthetic biology (PDF)
Supervisor: Dr Bruce Turnbull
Stable analogues of phosphorylated amino acids (PDF)
Supervisor: Dr Mike Webb
Protein-Surface Mimetics - Cytochrome c Mimics as Pro-Apoptotic Small Molecules (PDF)
Supervisor: Dr Andy Wilson
Design, Synthesis and Testing of Novel Beta-Strand Mimics as Inhibitors of Amyloid Fibril Formation (PDF)
Supervisor: Dr Andy Wilson
Physical Chemistry
The nanoscale science and applications of self-assembling peptides (PDF)
Supervisor: Dr Amalia Aggeli
Computer modeling of normal and aberrant self-assembly in biological systems (PDF)
Supervisor: Dr Stefan Auer
Self-organisation of multi-compartmental, biomimetic superstructures for applications in nanomedicine (PDF)
Supervisor: Dr Paul Beales
Membrane biophysics approaches to investigating the potential toxicity of engineered nanoparticles (PDF)
Supervisor: Dr Paul Beales
Atmospheric field measurements of hydroxyl radicals (OH), other radicals/intermediates (HO2, RO2, IO, formaldehyde, glyoxal) and OH reactivity using laser induced fluorescence spectroscopy (PDF)
Supervisor: Prof Dwayne Heard
Kinetics and photochemistry of gas phase and heterogeneous reactions on aerosols in atmospheric and astrochemical environments (PDF)
Supervisor: Prof Dwayne Heard
Biomarkers of Pancreatic Cancer – an NMR-based metabolomic investigation (PDF)
Supervisor: Dr Julie Fisher
Mechanisms, stereodynamics and control of elementary chemical reactions (PDF)
Supervisor: Dr Marcelo P. de Miranda
New theoretical methods for the analysis of molecular collision processes (PDF)
Supervisor: Dr Marcelo P. de Miranda
Chemical Self-Organisation in Materials Science (PDF)
Supervisor: Dr Annette Taylor
Synthetic Quorum Sensing Systems (PDF)
Supervisor: Dr Annette Taylor
Laser ablation and nanoparticle generation in liquids (PDF)
Supervisor: Prof Ben Whitaker
Bond dissociation energies of weakly bound molecules measured by velocity map imaging (PDF)
Supervisor: Prof Ben Whitaker

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