Dr Louis Morrill

Winner: 2022 Organic Division early career award: Hickinbottom Award

Cardiff University

For the development of sustainable methodologies for synthesis which employ catalysts that are metal-free or based on earth-abundant first row transition metals.

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My favourite moments are when a student or fellow researcher achieves a major personal milestone...

In 2021 the UK government set its ambitious climate change target into law: to reduce emissions by 78% by 2035 compared to 1990 levels. As part of this enormous collective effort, it is vital that the UK remains at the forefront of innovation in the development of more sustainable synthetic methods to produce important chemicals for society.

Dr Morrill's research group aims to introduce new, more sustainable synthetic approaches to enable chemical transformations that are otherwise difficult to achieve. For example, developing clean and sustainable catalytic and electrochemical processes is of high importance, particularly for industrial processes. Investment and innovation in this area will support various UK chemical industries to adopt more sustainable synthetic approaches and contribute towards UK (and global) priorities.

Read winner biography

Dr Louis Morrill was born in Wick on the north coast of Scotland in 1987. He obtained his MChem degree (1st Class Honours) from the University of St Andrews, including a one-year industrial placement at AstraZeneca (Charnwood). He completed his Masters research project in 2010 with Professor Andrew Smith, investigating Lewis base catalysed acyl transfer processes.

Louis completed his PhD at St Andrews under the direction of Professor Andrew Smith, producing a thesis entitled ‘Organocatalytic Functionalisation of Carboxylic Acids Using Isothioureas’, funded by a prestigious Carnegie-Caledonian Scholarship (2010–2014). This work expanded the utility of isothioureas in Lewis base catalysis, demonstrating the first intermolecular bond-forming reaction of carboxylic acid-derived C(1)-ammonium enolates.

For his postdoctoral research (and a change in weather!), he moved to UC Berkeley to join the research group of Professor Richmond Sarpong, entering the world of complex molecule synthesis. He was involved in developing highly efficient and concise total syntheses of complex diterpenoid alkaloid natural products.

In June 2015, he started his independent research career at Cardiff University, where he is currently Senior Lecturer in Synthetic Organic Chemistry. Research in the group is focused on inventing new reactions in organic chemistry and developing sustainable catalytic methodologies for synthesis.

Q+A

Who or what has inspired you?

I feel very fortunate to have had the best teachers/mentors throughout my life: Mr Darren Groat (high school chemistry teacher), Professor Andrew Smith (PhD Supervisor) and Professor Richmond Sarpong (PDRA Advisor), who each found ways to extract the best from me and enable me to keep pushing forwards.

What motivates you?

My favourite moments are when a student or fellow researcher achieves a major personal milestone (e.g. secured a job, submitted their PhD thesis, got an exciting new research result, had a research paper accepted). Those individual journeys, and playing my small role in them, is my primary source of daily motivation.

What has been a highlight for you (either personally or in your career)?

Any time a member of the research group presents an exciting new reaction/transformation from the lab that they have devised entirely independently, without any input from me.

What has been a challenge for you (either personally or in your career)?

Becoming comfortable with failure. Recognising that a significant proportion of the things I will try (e.g. research grant submissions, experimental ideas etc.) will fail, but that's ok. Learning to use both failures and successes as motivation to keep improving.