Laura Cunningham

Laura received her Ph.D. degree in organic chemistry in 2020 from University College Dublin. Under the supervision of Professor Pat Guiry, she investigated planar chiral scaffolds for medicinal chemistry and asymmetric applications, with applications in bothtransition metal and organocatalysis. She moved to the University of Oxford in 2020 to carry out postdoctoral research with Professor Stephen Fletcher. Laura initially worked on the development and scale-up of asymmetric cross-coupling reactions and their applications in the synthesis of natural products, and later worked on complex self-assembling micellar systems.

Her research program now focuses on working at the interface between organic and supramolecular chemistry, investigating how self-assembly phenomena can solve challenges in classic organic synthesis. In particular, Laura is interested in catalysis and developing novel supramolecular systems to enable sustainable organic synthesis.

Laura recently received the American Chemical Society Young Investigator Award (August 2024) in organic chemistry and was selected to represented Ireland at the EU Chemical Society Young Investigator Symposium (July 2024), a reflection of her promise as a new independent researcher. She was elected to the Royal Society of Chemistry Macrocyclic and Supramolecular Chemistry Committee and the Women In Supramolecular Chemistry ECR Advisory Board.

Laura's work beyond research has largely focused on the development of supportive research cultures in chemistry. She received the Award for Excellence in 2023 from the Department of Chemistry, University of Oxford for both her supervision of research students and her outstanding contribution to the departments activities over her 3 years at Oxford in the capacity of an EDI Fellow (2022-2023), chair of the Postdoctoral Research Forum (2020-2022) and President of Oxford Women in Chemistry (2021-2023). She was also awarded the EDI Champion award from the Maths, Physics and Life Science Division at the University of Oxford for her consistent work in supporting women researchers and mental health advocacy.

Laura's research primarily focuses on the development of sustainable approaches to organic chemistry, with an interest in designing new synthetic procedures and reducing the environmental impact of existing methods. Her background in catalysis, process scale-up and supramolecular chemistry underpins the methodology developed within her group. Laura's group explore both homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis. Key objectives of her research program include the removal of organic solvent from organic processes to reduce environmental impact and use of bio-based building blocks to enable sustainable synthesis.

Laura teaches organic synthesis and medicinal chemistry at an undergraduate level from 1st to 4th year courses. Laura holds a Postgraduate Certificate in Teaching and Learning, and is currently undertaking a Diploma in Academic Practice.