The Goodwin Group
Inorganic and Organometallic Chemistry


Latest News

  • 2024-01-05: The group is pleased to announce a PDRA (Postdoctoral Research Associate) vacancy. Please check UoM job pages for details at a later date, while the particulars of appointment can be found here. This position is fully funded for up to 3 years, subject to performance, and will begin in April 2024. Contact Conrad directly for an informal chat.
  • 2024-01-02: The group is pleased to announce a fully funded PhD Project: "Valence electron isomerism in the f-block" open to home and EU students to start either April 2024 or September 2024. See the advertisement for details, and contact Conrad directly for an informal chat.
  • 2024-01-02: The group celebrates securing an Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) New Investigator Award (NIA). Details of the scheme can be found here, and the abstract for the group's award are here. The funding provides an EPSRC-funded Postdoctoral Research Associate (PDRA) position starting in April 2024. Please look out for this job listing and contact Conrad directly.
  • 2024-01-02: Dr Ben Reant joins the group in January 2024 as the group's first Postdoctoral Research Associate (PDRA). Conrad and Ben first worked together during Ben's MChem year, where he wowed everyone with his crystal-growing skills and unflappably positive attitude. We are excited to bring him on board as part of a Royal Society URF-funded position. Many thanks to the Royal Society! Ben's group bio can be found here.
  • 2023-12-18: Conrad, Ross, and Cameron attend the Dalton Northern Regional Meeting - 2023. Ross and Cameron presented posters on their work, and Conrad has agreed in principle to host the next Dalton Northern Regional Meeting at Manchester in 2024!
  • 2023-12–14: Our computational collaboration with Bess Vlaisavljevich at the University of South Dakota is out in Chemical Science: "What is the nature of the uranium(III)-arene bond?". We hope to have many more collaborations with Bess and her team. See here for the ChemRxiv preprint.
  • 2023-10–24: Cory Windorff (New Mexico State University) and Profs. Bill Evans, David Mills, and Thomas Albrecht-Schönzart), and a small team of graduate students and postdocs, publish actinide works spanning from 2015 to 2022 in Inorganic Chemistry: "Stabilization of Pu(IV) in PuBr4(OPCy3)2 and Comparisons with Structurally Similar ThX4(OPR3)2 (R = Cy, Ph) Molecules". Work from Conrad's PhD (2015 visit to UC Irvine) is featured along with a crystallographic contribution. Congratulations Cory!
  • 2023-09–30: Cameron Deakin (PhD) and Harry Silver (MChem) join the group as Researchers. Good luck to all!
  • 2023-07–27: Ross MacKenzie passed his 1st-year transfer viva with no issues and picked up some snazzy EPR skills to boot at the EPSRC National EPR Facility teaching workshop.
  • 2023-08-21: Conrad attends ICFE-11 in Strasbourg, France, and presented the group's latest work on low oxidation state lanthanide chemistry.
  • 2023-06-10: Work from Conrad's PDRA time at LANL, working to support Skye Fortier and Andy Gaunt, is out in Chemical Science: "Synthesis and comparison of iso-structural f-block metal complexes (Ce, U, Np, Pu) featuring η6-arene interactions". Congratulations everyone!
  • 2023-06-02: Conrad attends Actinides 2023 at Golden, Colorado, giving a talk exclusively on lanthanide chemistry which was enjoyed by all after many technical difficulties.
  • 2023-04-18: Conrad and Ross attend Dalton 2023 in Warwick, presenting a talk and a poster.
  • 2022-10-29: Former MChem Michaela, and summer researcher Sara feature in the group's first paper! Out in Chemical Communications: "Isostructural σ-hydrocarbyl phospholide complexes of uranium, neptunium, and plutonium", in collaboration with Los Alamos and Manchester's own John Seed. Congratulations everyone.
  • 2022-09: Ross MacKenzie and Daniel O'Neill join the group as Postgraduate Researchers, and Cameron Deakin joins as a final year MChem student. Good luck to all!



We are The Goodwin Group in the Department of Chemistry The University of Manchester, and we are working to further our understanding of the f-block elements – lanthanides and actinides. We predominantly focus on non-aqueous chemistry to realise well-defined coordination geometries with which to stabilise highly reactive oxidation states and bonding motifs.


Goodwin and Liddle groups joint Christmas meal 2023 at "The Wishing Well"