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Welcome to the homepage of the James W. Walton Research Group.Contact James if you are interested in applying for Fellowships, PDRA, PhD or Masters by Research positions in our group

Contact: [email protected]

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For more news check out our Twitter page @WaltonChem

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1st Feb 2021 New publication in Chem Eur J from Luke Williams on organometallic pi-arene complexes. Well done Luke: As Nice as π: Aromatic Reactions Activated by π-Coordination to Transition Metals

1st Jan 2021 New publication, led by Dr Sangita Das, on sensing of Al3+ FRET based ratiometric switch for selective sensing of Al3+ with bio-imaging in human peripheral blood mononuclear cells

21st Mar 2020, Our latest paper is out! Jasmine’s collaborative work on Ru complexes with HDAC isoform selectivity. This article is part of a special edition in Molecules on Metal Anticancer Complexes.

7th Mar 2020, A Walton Group reunion in London with Jack, Luke and Jasmine. Great to see you guys again – the hats are looking sharp too.

10th Jan 2020, Congratulations to David Bradley, who graduated from his MSc degree. David is heading down under for a PhD in Sydney. Maybe we’ll come visit for the summer group trip?

9th Dec 2019, Christmas dinner 2019! We teamed up with the McGonigal and Avestro groups and had a merry old time.

14th Nov 2019, James attends the Metals in Medicine conference in Paris organised by Gilles Gasser. Thanks for a great conference Gilles. Also nice to meet up with some old buddies.

1st Oct 2019, Welcome to our new final year project students, Shannon Richardson and Alex Cook, who are wokring on a joint project with Dr Tim Blower from Biosciences. Good luck guys!

6th Aug 2019, An exciting day! Akkharadet returns to Durham on a Thai Government Fellowship to study Ru complexes in catalytic hydrogenation. Rak visited our lab for 9 months during his PhD and it’s so great to see him again.

28th Jul 2019, This week was the International Symposium on Bioorganometallic Chemistry at York. James helped on the organising committee, which was spearheaded by Jason Lynam. The week was a great success with some fantastic science and some engaging social events. Lots more photos on the conference website. Here’s a late night shot.

13rd Jul 2019, Jack’s PhD graduation was a great success. Congratulations again Jack on a great doctorate. Time for a game of “Who wore it better?”

7th Jun 2019, Final assessment for the 2019 cohort of MChem (and NatSci) students. Great posters from Becca, Johnny and David.

6th May 2019, Welcome to Silvia Rinaldi who joins the group for 3 months as an Erasmus Visiting Student. Great to have you joining us, Silvia!

26th Apr 2019, Welcome to Beth Beck who starts her PhD today. Beth is part of the SOFI-CDT and is working on a project joint funded by P&G. Good luck Beth!

15th Apr 2019, The Walton group attend the RSC Inorganic Mechanisms Discussion Group Meeting. James receives his certificate for the 2017 Inorganic Reaction Mechanisms Young Investigator Award from Dr Sam de Visser. Sangita presents an excellent poster.

12th Mar 2019, Jack passes his PhD viva!!! Well done Jack and thanks for all your excellent work over the past three years. Jack has already started a job working for Gamma Healthcare. Good luck Jack and keep in touch. Thanks to Jason Lynam form York who has Jack’s external examiner.

1st Mar 2019, Welcome to Dr Sangita Das who starts today as a Newton International Fellow in the Walton Group. Sangita will be studying fluoresnce HDAC inhibitors that show isoform selectivity.

10th Feb 2019, Our latest paper is out! A review chapter on pi-Coordinated arene metal complexes and catalysis.

1st Feb 2019, Welcome to Atreyee Mishra who starts her PhD today. Atreyee is part of the Durham GCRF CDT and is starting a project on copper complexes for overcoming antimicrobial resistance. The project is joint supervised between Karrera Djoko (Durham Biosciences) and James. Good luck Atreyee!

11th Jan 2019, Jasmine graduate at Durham Cathedral. Congratulations to her and all the other graduates today!

1st Oct 2018, New Starters in the Walton Group. Luke Williams joins us from University of Warwick to start his PhD. David Bradley (University of Northumbria graduate) starts his MSc by research and three new Durham MChems join the group: Rebecca Reid, David Husbands and Johnny Burnett. Good luck to all of you!

7th Aug 2018***A PhD studentship is available*** in the group, starting Feb 2019. The project will study copper complexes in antibiotic resistance with Dr Karrera Djoko. See the full advert here. Funding requirements mean the candidate must come from a DAC list country.

1st Aug 2018, Slightly less ‘big day’, but the Walton group go live on Twitter. We’re @WaltonChem if you fancy following! #whatsahashtag?

30th Jul 2018, A Big Day Today! Jasmine passes her PhD Viva – the first from the group. Congratulations Jasmine! You did a fantastic PhD and we’re all going to miss you very much. Jasmine is off to Huddersfield to start a PDRA with Fraser Scott. Thanks also to Prof John Spencer for acting as external examiner.

15th July 2018, Jack is representing the Walton group a the ICOMC 2018 in Florence. Jack gives a flash oral presentation and a great poster. Good work Jack!

11th Jul 2018, James heads to Rennes for the joint Durham-Rennes Symposium. Also bumped into some old Durham friends, Prof Paul Low and Prof Todd Marder. Thanks for organising Rennes team. Nice rum bar too!

9th Jul 2018, Dial-a-Molecule annual meeting at Imperial. The new ROAR facility sounds really exciting. Can’t wait for it to be up and fully running. Thanks to Prof Gill Smith and team for organising.

2nd Jul 2018, Scottish Dalton comes to Durham! Some excellent talks and nice to see some familiar faces. Dominikus Heift was respresenting the Durham team. Good work Dominikus.

29th Jun 2018, James heads to Lausanne to examine a PhD thesis. Congratulations to Aswin Gopakumar and thanks to Paul Dyson for the hospitality. A view from the lab!

26th Jun 2018, Graduation 2018! Congratulations to all. In particular all those from labs 235 and 29. From the Walton group, Luke Green, Will Helme and Alex Kingdon all graduated. Alas, only managed to grab Will for a photo. Good luck to all with your future endeavours.

19th Jun 2018, Annual Staff-student cricket match. Thanks to all who came and along to play and watch. This year the students were successful. Congratulations to them. Next year the staff will be victorious. Maybe.

18th Jun 2018, James heads to ECR Dial-a-Molecule meeting in Strathcylde. Thanks to David Nelson and Marc Reid for organising.

11th Jun 2018, Group Trip 2018! This year: crazy space golf and cocktails (not at the same time). Lots of fun with the McGonigal and Avestro groups.

27th Apr 2018, Farewell to Akkharadet Piyasaengthong, who heads back to Thailand after a 9 month visit to the Walton group. Thanks for all your hard work Rak and please come back to visit (or work? 🙂 ). We’ll miss you.

3rd Apr 2018, The Walton group descend on Dalton Confernce in Warwick. It’s always a great event with interesting science and socialising alike. Thanks to all the organisers – a huge success, as always.

28th Mar 2018, James gives a seminar at University of York. Thanks so much to Will Unsworth for organising. It was a really fun day out.

10th Jan 2018, Now Closed: ***PhD POSITION AVAILABLE*** starting Oct 2018 on ‘Catalytic Reactions of Organometallic Ruthenium Complexes’. Please contact James if you’re interested in applying.

4th Jan 2018, James gives a Keynote Lecture at the UK Catalysis Conference in Loughborough. Many thanks to the organisers for a fantastic few days. A great start to the new year.

8th Nov 2017, Publication in Organometallics on C-H Activation of pi-Arene Ruthenium Complexes. Congratulations Luke and Jack!!

6th Nov 2017, James attends the Newton-Bhabha Fund Researcher Links Workshop on Peptides, Proteins and Metals in Disease and Therapy in Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur. Thanks to Sandeep Verma and Peter Sadler for organising such a fantastic workshop. Check out the lighting of the ceremonial candle to open the workshop:

26th Oct 2017, Publication in Org. Biomol. Chem. on Perfluorinated HDAC inhibitors as selective anticancer agents.

14th Sept 2017, Jack, Jasmine, Akkharadet and James attend the RSC Coordination and Organometallic Chemistry RSC Discussion Group Meeting in Lancaster. Jack wins a poster prize, presented by local organiser, Nick Fletcher. Congratulatios Jack!

7th sept 2017, James gives an invited lecture at the European Symposium on Organic Reactivity in Durham. Thanks to AnnMarie O’Donnoghue and Dave Hodgson for organising.

4th Sept 2017, Akkharadet Piyasaengthong joins the group from Kasetsart University in Thailand for a 9-month PhD placement. Welcome to Durham Akkharadet. Good luck with the research.

28th Apr 2017, Farewell to Florian Behrendt, who returns to Germany to complete his Masters thesis. Great to have you in the group Florian. Come back and see us again soon.

14th Aug 2017, Publication in Chem. Commun. on Nucleophilic trifluoromethylation of electron-deficient arenes. Congratulations Jack!!

30th Jun 2017, Graduation day in Durham. congratulations to Katharine Insull, Jess Jackson, Niall O’Driscoll and Rachel Thorpe, who all graduate with various Masters degrees. Well Done to all.

23rd Aug 2017, Group Trip 2017: Go Karts and BBQ. According to my watch, JWW put in some pretty fast laps. The official timekeeper may need to invest in a new stopwatch!

21st Jun 2017, James gives a flash presentation at Dial-a-Molecule annual meeting in Liverpool. Thanks to the organisers for a great day.

7th Jun 2017, James gives a lecture at the International Symposium on Applied Bioinorganic Chemistry in Toulouse.

18th Apr 2017, Welcome to Florian Behrendt, who joins the group on an Erasmus placement for 4 months. Good luck Florian!

10th Apr 2017, Jack, Jasmine and James attend the ISACS: Challenges in Inorganic Chemistry Conference in Manchester. Jasmine wins a poster prize, presented by Dr Mike Andrews of the RSC Dalton Division. Congratulatios Jasmine!

3rd Apr 2017, Jack is selected to present a poster at the RSC Sir Geoffrey Wilkinson Dalton Poster Symposium. Entry to this symposium is highly competitive – congratulation on a successful application Jack!

19th Feb 2017, Jack, Luke and Jasmine present work at the 2017 Ferrocene Colloquim in Mainz, Germany.

31st Dec 2016, Fairwell to Dr Luke Wilinson, who joins Nick Long’s group at Imperial. Good luck Luke and thanks for a fantastic year with us!

12th Dec 2016, Group Christmas meal at Nadon Thai with McGonigal Group.

7th Oct 2016, Welcome to Katharine Insull, Jess Jackson, Niall O’Driscoll and Rachel Thorpe, who all join the group for their final year Masters projects. Good luck to all.

26th Sept 2016, Chris hands in his MSc project. Congratulations Chris. Thanks for a great year. You’ll be missed by all.

23rd Sept 2016, Joe finishes his summer project. Thanks for all your hard work Joe. Hope the groups have inspired you to pursue chemistry research at postgraduate level.

21th Sept 2016, Publication in ChemPlusChem on Anticancer Ru(II) and Rh(III) Piano Stool Complex HDAC Inhibitors. Congratulations Jasmine!!

8th Sept 2016, James gives an invited lecture at ISBOMC16 in Moscow. Thanks to Elena Milaeva and Alexey Nazarov for organising a great conference.

22nd Jul 2016, Joe Russell begins an undergraduate summer placement sponsored by BP. Joe will be working an electrochemical catalytic reactions in a joint project with the McGonigal Group. Good luck Joe!

11th Jul 2016, Publication in Dalton Transactions on Pyridylphosphinate Complexes Congratulations Jasmine, Archie, Natasha and Fiona!!

29th Jun 2016, Archie and Alex celebrate their MChem graduations. Congratulations to both. It’s been great having you in the lab. Best of luck in your future ventures.

15th Jun 2016, Chris (presentation) and Jasmine (2nd Yr poster) give fantastic summaries of their work at the annual postgraduate symposium. Well Done Guys.

6th Jun 2016, Group Trip! Bowling, Beer and Barbeque. Brilliaaant! (fast show anyone?). James takes the prize for most strikes (probably).

28th Mar 2016, The Walton group head to Warwick for the Dalton Meeting. James gives a presentation, while Luke, Jasmine, Jack, Chris and Archie all present posters.

23rd Jan 2016, James gives an invited lecture at the Swiss Ski Symposium in Saas Fee, Switzerland. Thanks to Cornel Fink (EPFL) and team for the great conference

4th Jan 2016, Welcome to new postdoc, Luke Wilkinson, who joins us following his PhD with Nathan Patmore at Huddersfield (and Sheffield). Luke will be working on catalytic C-H activation. Good Luck Luke!

15th Dec 2015, The Walton group team up with the McGonigal Group for a Christmas party at a Thai restaurant, followed by one or two beers in the town. Jack wins prize for flipping most beer mats (23).

20th Oct 2015***POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCH ASSOCIATE VACANCY*** – a one year PDRA position is available starting Jan 2016. Apply via the link or contact James for more details

1st Oct 2015, Welcome to our newest members! Jack Pike starts his PhD, Chris Jennings starts his MSc year and Alex Smith and Archie McNeillis start their MChem projects. Good luck everyone.

23rd Sept 2015, James gives an invited seminar at the Universite de Neuchatel, Switzerland.

19th Aug 2015, James gives an invited seminar at the EPFL, Switzerland.

17th Jul 2015, Jasmine joins James at the EPFL for a short research project.

31st Jul 2015, James begins a RSC JWT Jones Travelling Fellowship in the group of Prof Paul Dyson at the EPFL in Switzerland

30th Jul 2015, Fairwell to Dominika. 4 months flew by. Thanks for all your hard work

26th Jun 2015, Congratulations to all Durham Chemistry Graduates! Well done Fiona and Natasha on your fantastic achievements.

12th Jun 2015, James presents work at ISABC in Galway – excellent conference on bioinorganic chemistry…and hurling!

4th Jun 2015, Group Trip! Seaside, bowling, pizza…great day out!

3rd Jun 2015, Lyn Williams trophy critch match played between the chemistry staff and students. The staff take silver medal. Next year…

19th May 2015, James presents work at Dial-a-Molecule meeting in Leeds. Thanks to Kelly Kilpin and Co. for a great meeting.

1st Apr 2015, Welcome to Dominika Roos, who joins the group for a 4 month Erasmus placement from Wuerzburg.

25th Mar 2015, James gives a seminar at the University of Sydney during a trip down under. Thanks to Liz New for the invitation and David Smith for taking us snorkelling in shark-infested waters!

25th Feb 2015, James publishes an article in Chem. Commun. with Jon Williams on catalytic SNAr reactions. Check out our inside cover

13th Feb 2015, James presents a poster at Dial-a-Molecule conference in Manchester. Thanks to Dave Mills and Kelly Kilpin for a great day out.

13th Feb 2015, Perspective published in Dalton Trans. on EuroTracker dyes with David Parker et al.

6th Oct 2014, Natasha J. Wirszycz and Fiona H. Tscherny start their MChem projects in the group.

1st Oct 2014, Jasmine M. Cross joins the group and becomes the first PhD student in the Walton group. Good luck Jasmine!

10th Sept 2014, James presents at MICRA in Huddersfield – excellent curry, real ale… and inorganic chemistry

24th Aug 2014, James presents a poster at EuroBIC 12 and wins a poster prize

11th Aug 2014, James gives an invited lecture at the Brazilian Meeting on Inorganic Chemistry in Araxa, Brazil, after being awarded an RSC travel bursary. Jack Rowbotham (PhD student at Durham) is also presenting. There’s time for a few caipirinhas on Copacobana beach after the meeting.

4th Aug 2014, Chris Jennings (2nd Yr undergraduate) starts a short research project in the lab

21st Jul 2014, David O’Farrell (3rd Yr undergraduate) begins a 4 week project funded by the Department of Chemistry at Durham.

7th Jul 2014, Archie McNeillis (2nd Yr undergraduate) begins an 8 week project funded by the RSC undergraduate summer bursary scheme.

24th June 2014, James gives presentation at the RSC Younger Members Symposium in Birmingham. Good to meet up with the Williams group from Bath.

19th March 2014, James gives presentation at the Scottish Dalton Meeting in St. Andrews. No time for a round of golf!

6th Jan 2014, James W. Walton research group is established!