The Research Team

 

 

Post Doctoral Research Fellows

Dr Milena Czyz (University of Melbourne)

After immigrating from Poland, Milena completed her BSc (Chemistry) degree at The University of Adelaide where she later continued to complete her BSc(honours) degree. Following this, Milena moved to Sydney where she undertook a doctoral degree at The University of New South Wales under the supervision of A/Prof. Jonathan Morris investigating the synthesis and properties of atropisomeric N-Heterocyclic carbenes. Milena then joined the group of Prof. Corey Stephenson at The University of Michigan as a Postdoctoral Fellow. She later moved back to Australia where she completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship at CSIRO under the supervision of Dr Anastasios Polyzos. Currently, Milena is an ARC ITTC Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Melbourne working in the Polyzos group where she is currently developing novel photocatalytic C-H functionalisation pathways.

 

Dr Jared Fernando (CSIRO)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Postgraduate Students 

Ms Tyra Horngren (University of Melbourne)

Tyra was born in Johannesburg South Africa where she completed a double degree in Biochemistry and Chemistry at The University of Pretoria in 2015. During this time Tyra completed an internship under the supervision of A/Prof. Daniela Bezuidenhout. In 2016 she obtained her BSc(Hons) degree after which she moved to Melbourne where she is currently completing her PhD studies at The University of Melbourne under the supervision of Dr Anastasios Polyzos. Her research interests involve developing novel photoredox catalysed C-H functionalisation pathways.

 

Mr Jose Forni (University of Melbourne)

José obtained his degree in Chemistry in 2014 by the University of Campinas (UNICAMP). During his undergraduate years, José participated in a double degree exchange program with the École Nationale de Chime de Paris (ENSCP- Chimie ParisTech), where he obtained his degree in Chemical Engineering. During this period, José joined the research and development team of SANOFI as an intern and later worked as an intern at CSIRO under the supervision of Dr. Anastasios Polyzos. José obtained his MSc from the University of Campinas under the supervision of Prof. Julio Pastre in 2017 where he worked with heterogenous asymmetric catalysis in continuous flow. During this time, José joined Prof. Steven Ley’s group at the University of Cambridge for a period of 6 months as a visiting Master’s student. Currently, José is completing his PhD studies at the University of Melbourne under the supervision of Dr Anastasios Polyzos., His research interests involve the development of visible-light photoredox reactions in continuous flow.

 

Mr Xiaocong ‘Nero’ Guan (University of Melbourne)

Nero was born in Tsingtao, China where he completed his Bsc (Chemistry) degree at the Chinese University of Petroleum. He then went on to complete an MSc in Chemistry at the same Institute. During this time, Nero also worked at the Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Science developing synthetic routes for the synthesis of tumor inhibitor drugs. Nero then moved to Australia where he is currently completing his PhD at The University of Melbourne under the supervision of Dr Anastasios Polyzos. His current research interests involve developing novel reaction pathways using electrosynthetic techniques.

 

 

 

 

Graduate Students

 

Mr Peter Valakos (University of Melbourne)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ms Amanda Bunyamin (University of Melbourne)

 

 

 

 

 

 

ARC DECRA Fellows

Dr Daniel Priebbenow (University of Melbourne)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Research Assistants 

Mr Rowan Pilkington (University of Melbourne)

Rowan was born in England before moving to Australia in later life. He studied Science (Chemistry) at the The University of Melbourne, working in his final year under the supervision of Dr. A. Polyzos on photoredox carbonylation in flow. He has completed an MSc in the same group, with research interests in the development of novel photoredox processes and their application in flow processing. Rowan now works as a Research Assistant where he is developing novel continuous flow processes for API Manufacture with industry collaborators.

 

 

Group Alumni 

Dr Dean van As (Graduated 2021)

Dr Nenad Micic (Graduated 2020)

Dr Martin Brzozowski (WEHI)

Dr Timothy Connell (ARC DECRA Fellow, Deakin University)

Mr Nikolai Rossouw

Mr Mitchell Taylor

Ms Theerada Seehamongkol

Mr Mohammed Alhajji

Ms Addina Uzahirah Abdul Hakim

Mr Joshua Almond-Thynne

Ms Johanna Vondran

Ms Roisin Monaghan

Ms Caroline Virbel