Assistant Professor
School of Engineering and Physical Sciences
Heriot-Watt University
S.Mansell@hw.ac.uk
2014 Cruciblist

Stephen’s research focuses on the synthesis and development of new homogeneous catalysts. He uses skills in synthetic main group chemistry to construct new ligands that include cooperative reaction sites to increase the potential for exciting new reactivity. Synthetic organometallic chemistry is exploited to form new transition metal and f-element catalysts for testing in challenging reactions such as dehydrocoupling and the catalytic functionalisation of dinitrogen.

Stephen started his undergraduate degree in 2001 at Imperial College London and graduated in 2005 working with Prof. Mike Hill for his MSci project on chiral ligands for enantioselective lanthanide catalysis, and winning the H.V.A. Briscoe prize for excellence in Inorganic Chemistry.

In 2005 he moved to The University of Bristol and graduated in 2009 with a PhD under the joint supervision of Dr Chris Russell and Prof. Duncan Wass working on low valent and low coordination chemistry in the main group elements, with particular emphasis on developing new ligands for transition metals. He then undertook a one year post-doctoral position with Prof. Nick Norman researching boron-nitrogen analogues of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.

In 2010 he moved to The University of Edinburgh undertaking research on small molecule activation using highly reactive uranium centres in the group of Prof. Polly Arnold. In 2013 he worked with Prof. Paul Raithby, Prof. Chick Wilson and Dr Andy Burrows at The University of Bath in a multi-disciplinary project on meta-stable functional materials before being appointed Lecturer at Heriot-Watt University in September 2013.

For more information on Stephen, see his webpage at Heriot-Watt University.