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Archived Entries

2024


September 2024

A new academic year has started. We said goodbye to Keita, who went back to Nagoya, and officially welcomed Madison Diamantopoulos as new MSc student.

August 2024

We hosted about 350 scientists for the 20th International Symposium on Novel Aromatic Compounds (ISNA-20) in downtown Toronto.

2023


December 2023

Big congrats to Nayanthara, now Dr. Asok, for a successful PhD defense! And thanks to Dr. Saurabh Chitnis who acted as external examiner.

September 2023

Some personnel updates - Hannah and Sergio have finished their summer research, and Hannah won 'best talk' at the undergraduate research conference - Congrats! Hannah is continuing with us for her honours research, while Sergio will join us again next year.

We also welcome Mary Odagwe, our former ICE student from Calgary, and Samira Komijani who are joining us for graduate studies!

June 2023

A lot of action on the people front - we welcome Hannah Le and Sergio Ambrico for the summer, as well as Cheryl Cai Hui Tan from NTU Singapore for 6 months to the group! Hannah is sponsored by an ENURA scholarship, while Cheryl is a CN Yang scholar.

And Nayanthara is having a very successful spring. She was awarded a poster prize at the 3rd From Carbon-Rich Molecules to Carbon-Based Materials Conference, and she was invited to give an Emerging Investigator talk at the CSC Conference in Vancouver - Congrats!

February 2023

Nayanthara’s review on P-Avenues for Materials Tuning has been published by Acc. Chem. Res.!

January 

Amy’s work on solvent effects on Lewis acids has been accepted by Precision Chemistry - We are excited to contribute to a cool new ACS journal!

2022


December 

We say goodbye to our German exchange students Robert and Julius - all the best for your upcoming MSc thesis research!

September

Another major changing of the guards. Both Matt Gradiski and Josh Gaffen moved on to better things, while Mary Odagwe returned to Calgary to finish her undergraduate studies - all the best to all three! 

Amaar Hussein leveled up to graduate studies and we welcome Farnaz Rezaei who is joining us a MSc student from Iran.

May

We welcome Mary Odagwe and Kuldeep Jaiswal to the group who join us as ICE summer student from the University of Calgary and as postdoc from the Drobrovetski group in Tel Aviv, respectively. At the same time, we bid farewell to Benjamen Zondag and wish him all the best for his graduate studies.

January

Happy New Year! 

We welcome Matthew Gradiski as a new postdoc joining us from the University of Toronto. At the same time we bid farewell Dandan Miao and Vanessa Béland - all the best for their future careers!

2021


August

We bid farewell to Amy Laturski after successfully completeing her MSc degree - all the best for her PhD studies at Stanford with the Xia group!

May

We welcome our new undergraduate summer researchers Satnam Purewal (YSSA), Benjamen Zondag (USRA), and Amaar Hussein!

February

We bid farewell to Paul Demay-Drouhard, who successfully concluded his industrial project - all the best for his future career back home in France!

January

New year, new paper. Congrats to Nayanthara for her latest publication in Dalton Trans.!

2020


December

We welcome a new postdoc to the group: Dandan Miao joins us from Laval University!

We bid farewell to Stephanie Lo, and wish her all the best in her new career towards becoming a pharmacist!

September

We welcome two new graduate students to the group: Tamana Alizadeh joins us from Ryerson University for her MSc, while Reza Dadgar Yeganeh already brings a MSc degree from Shahid Beheshti University in Iran for his PhD studies.

And three more papers have been accepted in OrganometallicsJ. Org. Chem. and Chem. Sci., respectively - congrats, team!  

August

We bid farewell to Colin Bridges whose review article on Lewis acid/base-doped semiconductors was also just published in JPOC (with a cool cover page, courtesy of Tihana Mirkovic).

June

We’re back in the lab! (With the approriate safety measures, of course)

During our hiatus, we bid farewell to Josh Gaffen and Andryj Borys, while welcoming Muzi Li and Stephanie Lo, for their (remote) NSERC-USRA summer research projects!

March

COVID-19 force us to work form home; lab is closed. 

January

Colin and Monika’s pyrene-based phosphaviologen paper has been published by Batteries & Supercaps - and we received an invite for a cover, too!

We welcome Vanessa Béland to the group, who is joining us from Western University as a postdoc.

2019


September

This year’s fall changing of the guards is in full swing: Goodbye to Shane and Amir after a successful summer; and welcome to Andryj Borys (PDF),  Amy Laturski (MSc) - both jointly supervised with Chris Caputo - and Iuliana Stoica (honours thesis)!

Mark your calendars: POMS is coming to YorkU in November 2019. For more details, see here.

August

Tom has successfully wrapped up his PhD studies, closing out the Calgary chapter of the group  - Congrats Dr. Welsh! 

June

We bid farewell to Johannes, who returned back to Germany - all the best for the final stretch of your PhD!

May

Road trip! Half the group will travel to Quebec City to attend the CCCE2019; Colin, Josh, and Thomas will give talks, while Nayanthara will present a poster. In addition, Amir will present a poster on his honours research at McMaster.

The annual changing of the guards is happening: Anyi successfuly concluded her undergrad studies - all the best for your future career!And welcome to the new cohort of summer students - Stephanie Lo, Shane Miller, and Amir Yeganeh. We’re excited to have you!

April

Big collaborative paper with the Caputo group on Lewis-acid sensing has been published in Chem

We welcome Johannes Ascherl from the Kivala group in Heidelberg, who is joining us for three months to work on a collaborative project.

February

We welcome Paul Demay-Drouhard to the group, who is joining is from France (via China) as a new postdoc.

2018


December

A nice end to the year. Two new papers have been accepted - one from a collaboration with the Weiss group at Université de Strasbourg, and one honoring Koop Lammertsma and Edgar Niecke.

August

The winds of change are here again. Laura has successfuly wrapped up her grad studies in Calgary - Congrats! And Carmen went back to UBC after a very successful summer - stay tuned for her exciting research results!

July

Industrial postdoc fellowship available in the group; experience in synthetic main group/organometallic chemistry is required for this position.

May

The merry month of May. 
Liisa has successfully wrapped up her grad studies in Calgary - Congrats! And we welcome four new additions to the team at York! Josh Gaffen and Colin Bridges are our new postdocs, while Carmen Chu and Anyi Zou are our undergraduate researchers for the summer.

And Monika Stolar was awarded a  2018 IUPAC-Solvay International Award for Young Chemists  for her PhD work in Calgary - Big Congrats!

March

The end of an era - Monika has left the group after a very successful journey that started at the undergrad level - All the best for your postdoc at MIT!

Monika’s Feature Article on main-group-based pyridines has been published by ChemComm. 

January

Changing of the guards - Markus went back to Germany - all the best for your career in industry! And we welcome Nayanthara Asok, who is joining us for graduate studies from India!

2017


December

Our new Wiley book on “Main Group Strategies for Functional Hybrid Materials”, edited by T. Baumgartner and F. Jäkle, is now available.

November

It’s official: the boss has been named Tier-I Canada Research Chair in Sustainable Organomain Group Materials!

August

Laura’s viologen review article has been accepted by Chem. Eur. J. and Sergio’s diketophosphanyl article by Mater. Chem. Front. - first two papers with YorkU affiliation!

July

Monika’s phosphaviologen charge-separation paper has been published by Organometallics

We have arrived at York are looking for enthusiastic people at all levels to join us in Toronto!

June

Graduation trifecta: Thomas W (PhD), Nicole (MSc) and Monika (PhD) have successfuly defended their theses - Congrats to all!

April

The Baumgartner group will set up shop at York University.

February

Laura and Marcus’ paper on star-shaped phosphaviologens has been published by Org. Chem. Front.

January

Monika has been selected as one of the  four student/postdoc speakers in the Emerging Materials Chemistry Investigator Symposium at the CSC conference in Toronto - Congrats!

We welcome Markus Börgardts to the group, who is joining us as a DFG Postdoctoral Fellow from the University of Düsseldorf, Germany!

2016


October

Ziyue went back to Wuhan - all the best for the final stretch of your undergrad studies!

September

We welcome Francesco Tintori to the group, who is joining us for graduate studies from the University of Milan (Italy)!

Masato said good-bye to Calgary and went to Osaka for the final stretch of his PhD - all the best to you!

July

Monika and Christian’s P-viologen battery paper has been published by Adv. Energy Mater. 

We welcome Ziyue Zhu and Sergio Sanchez to the group, who join us as Mitacs Globalink student and Eyes-High postdoctoral fellow, respectively. 

June

We welcome Masato Okazaki from the Minakata/Takeda group (Osaka, Japan) to the group, who is joining us or a collaborative project for three months. 

May

Laura was awarded a Queen Elizabeth II scholarship - Congrats!

April

The times they are a changin’… Donny and Vroni have left - all the best to your future endeavours! And many new faces will join the group over the summer. Check out the ‘People’ page for details. 

Tom passed his qualifying exam and can call himself a PhD candidate now - Congrats!

Nicole was awarded a Queen Elizabeth II scholarship - Congrats!

February

We welcome Vroni Walter from the Tykwinski group (Erlangen, Germany) to the group, who is joining us for a collaborative project until April!

Szymon said goodbye to Calgary and went back to Europe. All the best for the next stage of your career!

January

Happy New Year! Thomas W.’s phosphinamide hydrogen bonding paper has been accepted by Angew. Chem.

2015


December

Thomas W.’s paper on the deeper understanding of the phosphole-lipid systems, has been published by J. Mater. Chem. C as part of the Shape-Responsive Fluorophores issue.

Thomas B. went to Hawaii, where he co-organized a symopisum on Organomain Group Materials, and gave a talk in the Advances in Phosphorus Chemistry symposium.

November

Thomas B. has joined the editorial board of the new Wiley journal ChemistrySelect.

Christian says goodbye to Calgary - He is joining the Tykwinski group in Erlangen, Germany, to work on some collaborative projects, courtesy of a Humboldt return fellowship.

Several group members attended BSOC in Banff. Thomas W. and Racheal gave talks, while Nicole and Laura presented posters.

September

We welcome Liisa MacLean to the group, who is joining us for grad studies from the University of Ottawa, as well as Sukhvinder Bharaj, who is joining us as research assistant from Ryerson University!

Christian doubles down - his and Monika’s paper on arylated phospha-viologens has been published by JACS.

August

Goodbye to Racheal - all the best for the final stretch of your undergrad studies!

A blast from the past - Yi’s last bit of PhD work has been accepted by Can. J. Chem. as part of the UofC 50th  anniversary issue.

Christian’s invited Frontier article for the themed issue “Phosphorus Chemistry: Discoveries and Advances” has been published by Dalton Trans.

Goodbye to Rochita - all the best for the final stretch of your studies at IIT Guwahati!

June

Thomas B. is off to Europe to give talks at ISNA16 in Madrid, IRIS14 in Regensburg, as well as a couple of departmental seminars in Budapest and Bielefeld.

Monika’s CSC talk in Ottawa was awarded with an Outstanding Presentation Award - congrats! 

Thomas B. presented one of the group’s latest projects at the Physical Organic Gordon Conference at Holderness School, NH.

Monika, Thomas W., and Thomas B. all gave talks at the CSC conference in Ottawa.

May

We welcome a new cohort of summer students to the group! Racheal Huynh and Laura Striepe are local additions, while Rochita Sundar joins us as MITACS Globalink student from IIT Guwahati.

Goodbye to Tatiana - all the best for the final stretch of your studies at Complutense in Madrid!

February

Monika’s paper on benzylated phosphaviologens has been accepted by JACS.

Tom has been awarded an NSERC CGS-M scholarship - congrats!

Website updated with new design.

We welcome Dr. Szymon Wiktorowicz to the group, who is joining us as Eyes High Postdoctoral Scholar from the University of Helsinki, Finland.

January

Happy New Year! We welcome Tatiana Avila to the group who joins us for short research project as an exchange student!

2014


November

Starting Nov. 8, Thomas B is off to Japan for a short lecture and conference tour.

October

Thomas W’s account on self-assembled materials for the Nozoe special issue has been published by Chem. Rec.

Ze German swap: Johannes has returned to Erlangen for the continuation of his MSc studies - All the best to you! His ‘replacement’ is Dr. Christian Reus, who joins us from the Wagner group in Frankfurt for postdoctoral studies as AvH and Killam Fellow - Welcome to the group!

September

The team doubles in size! We welcome to the group: Nicole Grenon and Tom Welsh (sponsored by the Eyes High initiative), who join us for graduate studies from Queen's and UBCO, respectively; Laura Leon joins us for a Chem 402 project.

July

Goodbye to Jitendra, who went back to India for his final year of MSc studies - all the best to you!

We welcome Johannes Nebauer to the group, who is joining us from the Tykwinski group at the University Erlangen-Nuremberg for a 3-month research exchange.

June

Thomas B is off to Germany for another busy Humboldt stint with 4 departmental seminars and a talk at the P-conference (ICPC) in Dublin scheduled. 

Most of the group went the CSC conference in sunny(!) Vancouver, where Monika and Thomas B gave talks, while Thomas W presented a poster.

May

Alva has successfuly defended her thesis - congrats Master Woo!

Monika's NSERC has been topped-up with an AITF scholarship - congrats!

We welcome Jitendra Gurjar to the group, who is joining us from India as a MITACS Globalink student for the next 12 weeks.

April

Goodbye to Jeff, who finished his Chem502 project on pi-extended phosphaviologens concluding his undergrad studies at UofC. All the best for the future - wherever it takes you!

Well-deserved congrats to Monika, who has successfully passed her qualifying exam and is now officially a NSERC-sponsored PhD candidate!

Thomas B's review on organophosphorus electron acceptors has been accepted by Acc. Chem. Res.

February

Xiaoming’s legacy carries on. His cholesteric click-phosphole paper was just published by Org. Lett. and his first paper in this series made the front cover of Adv. Funct. Mater.

Congrats to Thomas W, who successfuly passed his candidacy exam!

January

Happy New Year! Monika's Focus Review on Phosphorus-Containing Materials for Organic Electronics was just accepted by Chem. Asian J.

2013


December

Goodbye to Xiaoming, who moved north to Edmonton for another postdoc with the Buriak group at UofA - all the best to you!

November

Xiaoming's second installment of the diketophosphepin saga has been accepted by Organometallics.

September

Our collaborative click-phosphole paper with the Ling group has been published by Org. Lett.

We welcome Jeffrey Vanderkley, who is joining us as Chem 502 student for the next two terms.

Goodbye to Sandra, who went back to Mexico - good luck for the final strech of your studies!

Our invited paper to the 'cluster issue' on Advances in Phosphorus Chemistry has been accepted by Eur. J. Inorg. Chem.

August

Xiaoming's phenomenal roll continues! His paper on the new self-assembling 'click'-phospholes was accepted by Adv. Funct. Mater.

Thomas B went to Taiwan to present some of the group's latest work at the International Symposium on Novel Aromatic Compounds (ISNA).

July

Website updated with new design!

Xiaoming's paper on the new phosphinine-lipid system has been published by Angew. Chem.

May

Thomas B has received the Faculty of Science Award of Excellence in Research - congratulations to the entire team whose hard work has been appropriately acknowledged by this award!

Monika, Xiaoming and Thomas B went to Quebec City to present the group's latest research at the 2013 CSC conference.

Thomas W's paper on P-benyzlated dithienophospholes has been accepted by the Aust. J. Chem. for a special issue on main group chemistry

The spring "changing of the guard" has come: Hannes went back to Austria to continue his MSc research, Huy and Emad have concluded their Chem502 projects as well as their undergrad studies at UofC, and we welcome Ashley Shannon, who is joining us for the summer!

Scholarship time: Both Alva and Monika received Queen Elizabeth II graduate scholarships - Congrats!

April

2013 keeps giving - Huy and Xiaoming's paper on a halochromic white light-emitting dithienophosphole has been accepted by ChemComm and Monika's perspective on charge transport and storage materials by PCCP.

March

The 2013 publication bonanza continues: Carlos' Account on dithienophospholes, as well as Xiaoming's review on conjugated main-group polymers for optoelectronics and his paper on dithiazolo-phospholes have been accepted by SYNLETT, RSC Adv., and Chem. Eur. J., respectively.

February

Yi struck again! His and Felix' paper on new-gen, luminescent phosphole-lipids has been accepted by J. Phys. Chem. C and is now online.

Yi's paper on P-linked bisphospholes has been accepted by Dalton Trans. and is now online.

Monika has received the 2013 Department CIC Travel Award that will allow her to present her latest work at the CSC conference in Quebec City - Congrats!

January

Happy New Year! Xiaoming's paper on diketophosphepins has been accepted by JACS and is now online.

2012


November

Thomas B. has received a Friederich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and will spend the first four months of the new year in Germany at the University of Erlangen Nuremberg with Rik Tykwinski.

September

A complete overhaul of the group in the Fall of 2012: Jordan has successfully defended his thesis - Carita went back to Victoria - Christine went back to Germany - Thomas Wang and Monika Stolar are the new grad student additions from China and Calgary, respectively - Ryan Goodall and Hannes Puntscher are this year's TASSEP students from Ireland and Austria, respectively - Huy Huynh and Emad Hajar are this year's Chem502 students - Good bye and all the best to the people leaving - Welcome to the new crew!

July

We welcome Christine Weichselbaum to the group who joins us from Erlangen-Nuremberg in Germany as a DAAD RISE student for two months!

May

We welcome Huy Huynh (UCalgary) and Carita Sequeira (UVic, ICE) to the group who are joining us for summer research projects!

Monika's halochromic phospholes made the (inside) cover of New J. Chem.'s May issue

April

Yi has successfully defended his thesis - Congratulations Dr. Ren!

March

Our Perspective on phosphole-based materials in Dalton Trans. for the special issue "New Talent Americas" is now online

2012 is shaping up extremely well! Three more group papers by Monika, as well as Jansen and Yi (2x) were accepted into New J. ChemOrganometallics, and Org. Lett. and are now online.

February

We welcome Xiaoming He to the group who is joining us as postdoc from Hong Kong (after a brief stint in Ann Arbor)

January

Happy New Year! Yi's 2 latest phosphole-lipid papers have beeen accepted in Inorg. Chem. and Angew. Chem.

2011


December

Yi's "phosphole-lipids" paper in JACS was highlighted as "Noteworthy Chemistry".

Jansen has successfully defended his thesis - Congratulations!

November

Carlos' gels and liquid crystals paper has been published by Adv. Funct. Mater.

Thomas was awarded a short-term JSPS Invitation Fellowship allowing him to visit 7 Japanese Universities in the fall.

August

Stefan's phospha-viologen paper in Angew. Chem., and his azadibenzo-phosphole full paper in Inorg. Chem. are now online.

June

Yuen-ying has been awarded a prestigious Killam postdoctoral fellowship, and Yi has received a Talisman Energy Graduate Scholarship - Congratulations to both!

May

We welcome Monika Stolar to the group who is joining us for the summer sponsored by a UofC PURE award

April

Stefan has successfully defended his thesis and is now Dr. Durben

January

Happy New Year: Two papers are online at J. Polym. Sci. Part A and JACS

We welcome Yuen-ying Carpenter to the group who is joining us from Dalhousie as a postdoc

2010


October

Another paper has been published in Org. Lett.

September

We welcome Jared Wiseman to the group, who is joining us for graduate studies from McMaster!

June/July

A very productive year continues. Our papers in Eur. J. Org. Chem.C.R. ChimieOrganometallics and Chem. Asian J. are now online.

May

Our communication on diazaphosphole oxides in now online at Chem. Eur. J.

We welcome Lisa Szabo back for the summer

April

Our paper on dithienophosphole-capped oligomers is now online at New J. Chem.

March

Our perspective on metal-rich organometallics is now online at Dalton Transactions

January

We welcome Robin Krüger back to the group (joint with T. Sutherland) who is rejoining us from Germany as a postdoc

2009


October

We welcome Matt Henderson to the group (joint with C. Berlinguette) who is joining us from UVic as a postdoc

Our White-Light Emission paper in Adv. Funct. Mater. was one of the most accessed papers in october and made the virtual 'hot topic' issue on organic electronics

May

We welcome Lisa Szabo to the group who is joining us for the summer sponsored by a UofC PURE award

Hiking season has begun

April

Shirley Xing has been awarded with an NSERC PGS-M award - Congratulations, Shirley!

March

We welcome Dr. Terry Gordon to the group (joint with C. Berlinguette) who is joining us from SFU as a postdoc

February

We welcome Dr. Thomas Linder to the group (joint with T. Sutherland) who is joining us from Marburg, Germany as a postdoc

January

Carlos' dendrimer paper was accepted in Chem. Eur. J.

We welcome Shirley Xing to the group who is joining us for grad studies from UVic after a 2-year stint at Nova Chemicals

2008


December

Mike and Yvonnne's paper in Arkivoc is now available online

Stefan, Debby, and Robin's paper in J. Poly. Sci. A. Poly. Chem. is now available online

November

Yvonne's heteropentacene paper is now available in Chem. - Eur. J.

September

We welcome Jansen Chua, Jordan Wilson (Grad Studies), and Sean Byrne (Undergraduate Exchange) to the group who are joining us from UBC, McGill, and Trinity College Dublin, respectively!

June

We welcome Dr. Robin Krüger to the group, who is joining us from Marburg, Germany (joint with T. Sutherland)!

May

We welcome Mike Boone (back for a second term), Ila Kormos, and Joel Viccars (co-supervised with T. Sutherland), who are joining us for the summer!

Congratulations to Stefan who has passed his candidacy exam!

April

Congratulations to Yvonne who has successfully defended her PhD thesis (Dr. rer. nat., RWTH Aachen)!

Yi was awarded an AIF Graduate Student Scholarship in Nanotechnology

March

Stefan's AIF Graduate Student Scholarship was upgraded to a Scholarship in Nanotechnology

January

We welcome Carlos Romero again, who is joining us for another six months from the University of Castilia La Mancha in Spain!

We welcome Matthias Kuhlmann to the group, who is joining us from Germany for three months!

2007


December

We welcome Dr. Dongren Bai to the group, who is joining us from Queen's University, Kingston, ON!

November

A workshop on Solar Energy Conversion Materials is jointly hosted by the Baumgartner, Berlinguette, Piers, and Sutherland groups in Banff on Nov. 19.

We welcome Debby Nickel to the group, who is joining us from Germany for five months!

September

We welcome Yi Ren to the group, who is joining us for graduate studies from China!

August

Our Microreview in Eur. J. Inorg. Chem. made the cover

July

We welcome Carlos Romero Nieto, who is joining us for two months from the University of Castilia La Mancha in Spain!

June

Yvonne's cross-coupling paper is available online

Thomas receives an Alberta Ingenuity New Faculty Award

May

We welcome Randy Khalil and Mike Boone to the group, who are joining us for the summer!

April

Stefan receives an Alberta Ingenuity Student Scholarship