About Dr Liam J. Donnelly
Dr Liam J. Donnelly is originally from a small town in the south-east of England. In 2012, he graduated from the University of Nottingham with an MSc in Chemistry. He was trained in transition metal catalysis for the synthesis of pharmaceutically-relevant compounds in the research groups of Prof. Ross Denton and Prof. Hon Wai Lam.​ Liam then moved to Edinburgh in 2016 to undertake doctoral studies as part of the CRITICAT (Doctoral Training in Critical Resource Catalysis) programme. During that time, he worked under the supervision of Prof. Jason Love and Prof. Stephen Thomas on the synthesis of novel rhenium complexes and their applications in catalysis. This included a 3-month placement at GSK (Stevenage) to learn about machine-learning accelerated drug discovery​.
After graduating in 2021, Liam moved to Paris to begin a 1-year postdoctoral position with Dr Thibault Cantat at CEA Saclay, engaging with projects aligned with the chemical circular economy. Liam then joined the groups of Prof. William Kerr and Dr David Lindsay at the University of Strathclyde, working on data-driven sustainable solvent design.
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​In December 2024, Liam declined a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship to move to Heriot-Watt University as an Assistant Professor in Green and Sustainable Chemistry. His group will seek to address contemporary scientific and societal challenges by developing environmentally benign catalytic methodologies to transform sustainable feedstock substrates into high-value chemicals and functional materials.
Teaching
B18OA - Organic Structural Identification, Stereochemistry & Reaction Mechanisms
B11LR - Laboratory Regulations & Project Management
Coming soon.
Roles & Responsibilities
2025 University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, U.K.
Sustainable Catalysis
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2024 ACS Spring, New Orleans, U.S.
Solvent Design for Sustainable Peptide Synthesis in the Pharmaceutical Industry
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2023 EastChem ECR Conference, Edinburgh, U.K.
Solvent Design for Sustainable Peptide Synthesis in the Pharmaceutical Industry
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2022 International Symposium on Green Chemistry, La Rochelle, France
Reduction of Secondary Carboxamides to Imines Catalyzed by Schwartz’s Reagent
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2022 GreenCat, Rennes, France
Reduction of Secondary Carboxamides to Imines Catalyzed by Schwartz’s Reagent
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2022 Global Young Scientists Summit, Virtual
Chemical Upcycling of Waste Plastics
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2021 Dalton Division Online Symposium, Virtual
Synthesis and Reactivity of a Rhenium Boron-Hydride Complex
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2021 Nagoya University and Edinburgh University Joint Symposium, Nagoya, Japan
Synthesis and Reactivity of a Rhenium Boron-Hydride Complex
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2019 Dalton Young Members Event, Cardiff, U.K.
Synthesis and Reactivity of a Rhenium Triboryl Complex – Applications in Hydrofunctionalisation Catalysis
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2018 Universities of Scotland Inorganic Conference, Edinburgh, U.K.
Synthesis and Reactivity of a Rhenium Triboryl Complex – Applications in Hydrofunctionalisation Catalysis​​