Executive Committee Members

Sue Gibson is Professor of Chemistry at Imperial College London.  Her research interests are in synthetic chemistry with emphasis on the development and use of organometallic reagents and catalysts.

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Ray Jones is Professor of Organic and Biological Chemistry at Loughborough University. His research interests are in heterocyclic and natural product chemistry, with a current focus on cycloaddition methodologies and biomimetic molecules such as pseudopeptides.

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David Rees is Vice-President of Medicinal Chemistry at Astex Therapeutics. Prior to Astex, he had 19 years experience as a drug discovery chemist in the pharmaceutical industry, working with Parke-Davis, Organon and, most recently, AstraZeneca where he held the position of Director and Head of the Medicinal Chemistry Department with some 140 staff at the research and development laboratories, Mölndal, Sweden.  He has served on various University positions, editorial boards and international conference committees, he has over 75 publications and patents and is a joint recipient of the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Malcolm Campbell award in 2007 for the discovery of the anesthesia drug, Sugammadex.

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Tim Donohoe is a Professor of Organic Chemistry at Oxford University and Head of the Organic Chemistry Department.  His research interests include the development and application of novel methodology for natural product synthesis with particular emphasis placed on investigating new asymmetric oxidation and reduction protocols; the synthesis of highly functionalised sugars (especially amino sugars) and metathesis reactions are also prominent in his research.

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Dr Michael Willis is an EPSRC Advanced Research Fellow and lecturer in Organic Chemistry at the University of Oxford. The Willis group is interested in developing and utilising modern organic chemistry techniques to provide innovative solutions to the challenges of organic synthesis. One area of particular interest in is increasing levels of selectivity in synthetic transformations; this can be regio- chemo- or stereoselectivity. To address these aims the group focuses on the development of new reactions, reagents and strategies for asymmetric synthesis, often employing catalytic techniques.

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Currently the Head of Medicinal Chemistry Services at Peakdale Molecular,  he recently joined Peakdale, having worked previously as Director of Medicinal Chemistry at Medivir UK.  Before that he had the honour of learning my trade as a medicinal chemist under the aegis of Jim Black at the James Black Foundation.  Current interests revolve around the rapidly expanding nature of Peakdale's business, which will hopefully see its transition from a highly successful custom and contract synthesis organization to a flexible service provider for not only the pharmaceutical sector but the wider organic chemistry community.

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Helen is a Reader in Chemical Biology at University College London.  Her research is focused at the chemistry-biology interface and the use of synthetic organic chemistry to probe and solve biological problems. Research interests include biocatalysis, gene and siRNA delivery, supramolecular chemistry and the development of novel small molecule inhibitors and mechanism of action studies.

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Ganesan is a Reader at the School of Chemistry, University of Southampton. He was born in Malaysia, obtained his undergraduate degree at the National University of Singapore and a Ph.D. at the University of California-Berkeley. Following a postdoctoral position at Harvard University he began his independent career at the Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, Singapore before the move to Southampton. His research interests encompass natural products, medicinal chemistry, chemical biology and high-throughput organic synthesis.

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