Mr Rob Borthwick

Rob obtained his BSc from the University of Melbourne in 2006, and is currently a PhD student in the Holmes group working on the synthesis of phosphorescent polymers.

Mr Joel Hooper

Joel completed his BSc(Hons) degree from the University of Melbourne in 2005. In 2006 Joel joined the Holmes group to study for a PhD on the synthesis of biologically active medium ring ethers.

David obtained his PhD from the University of Tasmania under the supervision of Prof. Kingsley Cavell. He has spent time since then at Sheffield University working with Prof. Varinder Aggarwal and Cardiff University working with Prof. Peter Edwards before joining the group of Prof. Vernon Gibson at Imperial College London in January 1999. David spent four years examining ligand design and complex synthesis for olefin polymerisation for BP and was the BP team leader from Oct. 2000 to Feb. 2004. He also spent time examining new catalytic systems for MMA polymerisation for ICI. David joined the Holmes group as a Postdoc at the University of Cambridge in 2004 to work on conducting polymers for photovoltaics and moved to the University of Melbourne in December 2004.

Mr Brian Johnson

Brian obtained his BSc (Hons) from the University of Melbourne in 2007, and is a PhD student in the Holmes group working on the synthesis of histrionicotoxins.

Dr Tae-Hyuk Kwon

He was born in Korea and studied in Seoul National University under the Prof. Jong-In Hong. He received Ph. D in 2006 for the synthesis and device fabrication on the emitting layer materials for organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), and then expanded his interesting research area into organic solar cells (LECs), light-emitting electrochemical cells, and phosphorescent biosensor. Now, in 2008, he joined the Holmes group for the polymer solar cells and dye sensititzed solar cells (DSSCs).

Dr Quinghui Mao

Qinghui Mao completed his PhD studies at the Max-Planck-Institute for Polymer Research in Mainz, Germany, in 2007. The research for the degree, directed by Prof. Gunnar Jeschke in Prof. H. W. Spiess group, focused on the characterization of polymer-layered silicate nanocomposites with solid-state EPR and NMR. After his postdoctoral work on fuel cells at the University of Detroit Mercy, he joined Prof. Andrew Holmes group on the photovoltaic project in 2008.

Georgia E. McCluskey was born in Perth and educated in Washington D.C, Adelaide and Melbourne. She completed a BA/BSc at Monash University in 2004. Georgia completed her honours year with the Holmes group at the University of Melbourne in the area of electroactive materials in 2005. Georgia commenced her PhD with group in 2006 on the synthesis and processing of electroactive materials in supercritical carbon dioxide. Georgia has an APA and a top-up scholarship from CSIRO Molecular and Health Technologies.

Mrs Thu Nguyen

Thu spent several years as the secretary in the Melville Laboratory for Polymer Synthesis at the University of Cambridge where she first worked with Prof Andrew Holmes. Following a move to Australia and a few years off, Thu has now returned to work with Prof Holmes as the Administrative Associate with the group.

Mr Inam ul Haq Raja

Inam Raja graduated from the University of Science and Technology, KIST, South Korea. During his M.S at KIST, he worked on the synthesis of small molecules for OLEDs. Inam joined the Holmes group in October 2007 as PhD student working on synthesis of phosphorescent polymers for PLEDs and solar cells. He has MIFRS and SFS scholarships.

Dr Shijie Ren

Shijie Ren was born in Henan province and completed his BSc at Tongji University in 2003. In July 2008, he obtained his PhD from Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences under the supervision of Prof. Qiang Fang on the subject of synthesis and applications of organic optoelectronic materials. Then, he joined Prof. Andrew Holmes group on the photovoltaic project in August 2008.

Dr Diane Robinson

After completing a Masters in Chemistry at the University of Oxford, Diane obtained her PhD from the University of Bath under the supervision of Dr Steve Bull. She then moved to Australia to take up a postdoctoral position with Assoc. Prof. Mick Sherburn at the Research School of Chemistry, ANU. Diane joined the Holmes group in 2008 as a Research Fellow working on the synthesis of inositol phospholipids and at the same time works as Editorial Assistant of Organic Letters.

Ms Christine Schieber

Christine finished her studies in the diploma program (MSc) in Technical Chemistry with a focus in Organic Chemistry and Technology at the Vienna University of Technology in 2004. During her last year she worked at the Boehringer-Ingelheim Austria Research Institute, where she developed a strong interest in the synthesis of biologically active natural products. Christine moved to Melbourne in May 2005 and joined the Holmes group to commence a PhD at the University of Melbourne working on inositol phospholipids. Christine has a Melbourne International Fee Remission Scholarship as well as a Melbourne International Research Scholarship.

Dr Weihua Tang

Weihua Tang completed his PhD study at the National University of Singapore in 2006 under the guidance of Prof. Ng Siu-Choon and Prof. Chan Sze On, Hardy. He did his postdoctoral research work at the Institute of Materials Research and Engineering, Singapore before joining Prof. Andrew Holmes' research group on the solar cell project.

Dr Doojin Vak

Doojin was born in South Korea and he obtained his PhD from Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology under supervision of Prof. Dong-Yu Kim. He spent 2 years developing organic photovoltaics and organic light-emitting diodes in Heeger Center for Advanced Materials. He joined the Holmes group in 2007 to perform research on organic photovoltaics.

Scott was born in Sydney,
Australia and completed both his BSc (Hons) and PhD at the University of New South Wales in Sydney. Scott was supervised by Dr Steve Colbran and worked on ditopic N,P-donor ligands for heterometallic complexes. In December 2000 Scott moved to the UK and took up a postdoctoral position with Dr Victor Christou in the Inorganic Chemistry Laboratory at the University of Oxford. Scott's work there was on novel phosphorescent emitters for use in Organic Light Emitting Diodes (OLEDs). In 2001 Scott moved to work for Opsys, a company spun-out from the University of Oxford working on OLEDs. Opsys merged with Cambridge Display Technology in October 2002. Since then Scott has continued his work on novel phosphorescent cores for both light emitting dendrimers and polymers. Scott joined the Holmes group as a Postdoc at the University of Cambridge in September 2003 to work on the synthesis of triplet emitters. In October 2004 Scott returned to Australia to take up a CSIRO postdoctoral fellowship at CSIRO Molecular and Health Technologies, based at the University of Melbourne. In 2006 Scott was appointed as a Research Scientist at CSIRO Molecular and Health Technologies and in 2007 became Stream Leader for Organic Photovoltaics at CSIRO.

Dr Leon Wong

Leon was born in Papua New Guinea and completed his Honours (on the total synthesis of the steroid skeleton) and PhD (on the total synthesis of himbacine, a tetracyclic alkaloid) at the University of Sydney, under the guidance of Dr Mick Sherburn (now at the Research School of Chemistry). Postdoctoral positions followed at the RSC (Canberra), the Victorian College of Pharmacy (with Avexa, Melbourne) and CSIRO (Melbourne). Leon joined the Holmes group at the University of Melbourne in October 2007, and is currently working on inositol-based probes for proteomic investigations.

Dr Wallace Wing Ho Wong

Wallace is currently working as a postdoctoral researcher in the group of Professor Andrew Holmes at the University of Melbourne involved in the design and synthesis of new organic materials for light-emitting and photovoltaic devices. He is the Chief Investigator in a recently awarded Australian Research Council Discovery Project grant to study novel materials for next-generation organic photovoltaic devices starting in 2008. Wallace has broad experience in academic research having worked as a postdoctoral researcher in ETH Zurich, Switzerland, and obtained my doctoral degree from the University of Oxford. In the future, he would like to continue to work as a research chemist and pursue a career in academia.

Dr Chao Yan

Chao Yan obtained his PhD from the Institute of Chemistry Chinese Academy of Science. He was supervised by Prof. Shouke Yan and focused on polymer crystallization, phase transition and thin films. He continued his research as a postdoctoral fellow in Kwansei-Gakuin University, Japan for more than a year. Chao Yan joined the Holmes Group as a research fellow working on the solar cell in April
2008.

Ms Mengxin Yin

Vivien got her bachelor degree from the School of Life Science, Shandong University in China working on microbiology and biochemistry, and completed her Honour's year in 2006 at Tsinghua University, China in the field of neuroscience. She joined the Holmes group at the University of Melbourne as a Ph.D student in March 2007 working on the synthesis of inositol phospholipids and biological function evaluation.