Charles Romain

Group leader

Charles is a Lecturer in Chemistry at Imperial College London. He leads a research group interested in the development of sustainable polymers from renewable resources, designing new metal catalysts and improving material end-of-life.

Through his scientific journey as a researcher in chemistry, Charles has developed an interest and an expertise in research data management and FAIR data. He is curently co-leading the Research Data Strategy discusion group at DigiFAB which aim to identify, disseminate and implement good practices for data sharing and publication in chemistry.

Open space, 5th Floor

MSRH, 82 Wood Lane

W12 0BZ, London

Marianna Diamantakis

PhD student since Oct 2023

Project co-supervision: Prof. Alex Porter (Materials), Dr. Jose Jimenez (Life Science), Polymateria

Marianna is a PhD student part of the Science and Solutions for a Changing Planet Doctoral Training Partnership (SSCP DTP).

She received her MChem degree from the University of Warwick, in which she did her final year project under supervision of Professor Martin Wills working on the asymmetric transfer hydrogenation of diketones.

Her PhD project focuses on polymer design, working towards enhancing the biodegradation of polylactic acid.

Outside of the lab, Marianna loves to watch movies, travel, and explore new restaurants.

Open space, 5th Floor

MSRH, 82 Wood Lane

W12 0BZ, London

Mrunal Tamhankar

PhD student since Oct 2023

Project co-supervision: Prof. Nick Long (Chemistry)

Mrunal is a first-year PhD student working on developing switchable catalysts for lactide polymerisation. This project is kindly supported by means of the Wilkinson Trust Scholarship and is co-supervised by Professor Nick Long.

She graduated from Imperial College London in 2023 with an MSci in Chemistry.

Her research interests are centred around the application of catalysis to solving problems in sustainability.

Outside of chemistry, she enjoys exploring new places, cooking and most of all, watching and playing tennis.

Open space, 5th Floor

MSRH, 82 Wood Lane

W12 0BZ, London

Hawra Bin Saad

PhD student since Oct 2023

Project co-supervision: Prof. George Britovsek

Hawra is a PhD student developping new methodologies to access block copolymers and investigating their properties for various applications.

Former group members

2024-2025

Gavin Smith - PhD student (viva in Sept 2025) and RA
Fred Lawrence - MSci student
Jianyu Liu - MSci student
Humaira Mohammed - MRes student (IMSE)
Ryan Reese - MSc student (Digital Chemistry)
Thibault Scherly - Exchange student from EPFL

2023-2024

Jacky Zhang - MSc student (Digital Chemistry)
Damien Yee - MRes student (IMSE)
Helena Dziedzic - MRes student (Advanced Molecular Synthesis)

2022-2023

Justin Koh - Exchange student from NTU, Singapore (now PhD student at UBC, CA)
Alicia Chin - MSci student
Hanxiao Pu - MSci student (now PhD student at UCL)

2021-2022

Hannah Wilding - MSc student (Digital Chemistry)

2020-2021

Sami Gesslbauer - PhD Student (viva in July 2021)

2019-2020

Panagiotis Bexis - PDRA
Sami Gesslbauer - PhD student (3rd year)

2018-2019

Sami Gesslbauer - PhD Student (2nd year)
Chawin Chalisarapong - MSci student
Veronica Nacci - BSc student

2017-2018

Jameel Marafie - PhD student (viva in September 2018)
Sami Gesslbauer - PhD student (1st year)
Floriana Moruzzi - MSci student
Diana Piermarini - BSc student
Stanley Ng - BSc student

2016-2017

Jameel Marafie - PhD student (3rd year)
Yijun Chen - MRes student
Risto Savela - Visiting fellow from Abo University, Turku, Finland
Stephane Bernhard - Exchange student from EPFL
Rebecca Murray-Watson - UROP student from Cambridge University