Annie Colebatch
Annie moved to the Australian National University in 2019 to establish her independent career as a Rita Cornforth Fellow at the Research School of Chemistry. In 2020 she was awarded an Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA). Prior to this, she was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Cambridge (2017-2019) with Prof Dominic Wright, working on designing pyridyl-based ligands that incorporate main group elements for use in catalysis, coordination chemistry, supramolecular architectures and chiral discrimination. She spent two years at the University of Oxford (2015-2017) working with Prof Andrew Weller elucidating mechanism and structure-activity relationships in the rhodium-catalysed dehydropolymerisation of amine-boranes. She received an Endeavour Research Fellowship at the University of Bath (2015), where she worked with Prof Michael Hill on utilising main group metals in synthesis and catalysis, including contributing to the establishment of a facile route to nucleophilic boron. Annie completed her BSc (Hons) and PhD at the Australian National University with Prof Anthony Hill exploring the synthesis and reactivity of phosphorus-functionalised carbyne complexes.
Postdoctoral Researchers
Michael completed his PhD with Dr Victoria Blair at Monash University in 2020 in s-block bimetallic chemistry. He started as a postdoctoral research fellow in 2021, where he is investigating the synthesis of bimetallic ‘expanded pincer’ complexes for (de)hydrogenation catalysis and taking good care of Boxanne. Outside the lab, he enjoys watching movies, live music and expanding his vinyl collection.
PhD Students
Andie completed Honours in the group in 2020. She commenced her PhD in 2021 as a Westpac Scholar, where she is working on phosphorus-containing bimetallic complexes and coming up with new ligand acronyms containing P, O and N. In her free time she likes bouldering, books and baking sourdough.
Peter Hall
Peter joined the group for Honours in 2020 after completing a BSc at the University of Melbourne in 2015. He continued with a PhD from November 2021 researching bimetallic cooperativity in CO2 electroreduction and breaking condensers. When not in the lab he likes calligraphy, reading books, disc golf and bouldering.
Vuyelwa Ngwenya
Vuyelwa graduated with an MSc in Chemistry from the University of KwaZulu Natal in South Africa in 2019 and joined the group in January 2022. Her project involves synthesising an array of bimetallic complexes, especially insoluble ones, and investigating their potential use in (de)hydrogenation reactions. Besides studying chemistry, she enjoys painting and watching documentaries.
Jingyun Wu
Jingyun completed her honours year in the group in 2021. She’s working on synthesising unsymmetric PNNN expanded pincer ligands and their complexes and avoiding columns. Outside of the lab, Jingyun enjoys staying at home, reading novels and listening to music.
Luke Hemmingsen (co-supervised with Jamie Hicks)
Luke is currently completing his PhB(Hons) in chemistry jointly supervised with Dr. Jamie Hicks. Luke focuses on attempting to combine aluminium and 3d metals in heterobimetallic complexes, which will hopefully serve as first steps towards designing novel catalysts, and crystallising side products. Outside of the lab, Luke keeps busy as a member of the ANU Chemistry Society, a tutor, a demonstrator, and he also works in a theatre (the surgical kind, not the fun kind).
Bailee Smith (co-supervised with Nick White)
Bailee is completing her BSc(Hons) in the group, working on metallated supramolecular cages and accumulating unintelligble NMR spectra. In her degree she has obtained a specialisation in chemistry and an elective minor in French. When she is not in the lab, she enjoys taking her dogs to the beach, getting outdoors and watching live music!
Colebatch Lab 