Charlotte Willans

Dr. Charlotte Willans is a Professor in Synthetic Inorganic Chemistry at the University of York. She specializes in electrosynthesis, flow chemistry, and the design of organometallic complexes for catalytic and biomedical applications. Her research focuses on sustainable methods for synthesizing metal species, base-metal catalysis, and the development of anticancer agents using silver-NHC complexes. She holds a Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowship and a Leeds University Research Fellowship, and leads collaborations across multiple institutions.

Education: MChem (2002, University of York), PhD (2006, University of York), Postdoctoral work at Durham University (2006-2009) and Leeds University (2009-2013). Promoted to Reader in 2023 at York.

Research interests include: (1) Electrochemical flow synthesis for scalable production of organometallic complexes, (2) Transitioning from precious to base metals in catalysis, (3) Structure-activity relationships in bioorganometallic drugs. Her work combines experimental and computational methods with collaborative projects in materials science and pharmacology.

Key achievements include pioneering electrochemical flow reactors, developing caffeine-derived anticancer ligands, and identifying novel deactivation mechanisms in catalysis. Her labs focus on translating innovations from bench to industrial applications through partnerships with Prof. Nik Kapur and Prof. Andrew Nelson.