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CHITNIS GROUP

Molecular & Macromolecular Main Group Chemistry

Welcome!

We are a group at Dalhousie University in beautiful Halifax, Nova Scotia. We are driven by the beauty inherent within structural main group chemistry and by the functionality that emerges from interesting geometries. In seeking to explain why certain structures appear pleasing, we discover fundamental insights and develop applications for main group compounds in the area of clean inorganic and hybrid organic-inorganic materials.


Latest News

Sept 2024

> PhD student Tyler has won the Donald Arnold Scholarship and MSc student Tamina has won the Anna Wilson Scholarship at our Departmental Awards ceremony! Congrats Tyler and Tamina!

> We welcomed 3 new graduate students (Anjali - PhD, Joe - PhD, Mitchell - MSc), 2 Honours students (Darby, Anastasiia), and 1 experiential course student (Noa) to the group this fall!

July 2024

> Tyler and Tamina's computational analysis of pnictogen(III) pincer ligand geometries has been accepted in Chem. Eur. J. as a full paper - see Publications page!

> Saurabh gave a Plenary lecture at the 17th Inorganic Rings In Synthesis (IRIS) meeting in Halifax.

> Saurabh gave a Keynote lecture at the International Conference on Organometallic Chemistry (ICOMC) in Agra, India.

June 2024

> Excited to have group alumnus Dr. Joseph Bedard rejoin us as a Lab2Market - Validate Postdoc to explore commercial applications of our low-carbon inorganic materials. As always, we're grateful to MITACS and Dal's Office of Commercialization and Industry Engagement for support.

> We bid a fond farewell to Jan-Christian Raabe, who returned to Uni Hamburg after a 4 months internship with us. Super excited to publish the exciting new work on polyoxometallate chemistry we got to sample through this collaboration!

> Group members Tyler Hannah and Jan-Christian Raabe presented their work in our group at the CSC Winnipeg.

May 2024

> Saurabh presented at the POLYCHAR2024 Conference in Madrid, Spain, supported by an CNC-IUPAC Travel Award.

> It was a pleasure to host Dr. Max Poller from Uni Hamburg for a talk on polyoxometallate chemistry at Dal!

April 2024

> Congratulations to our 2nd PhD graduate Joseph Bedard on winning the Dalhousie Doctoral Thesis Award for the best PhD thesis in the Sciences or Engineering!

> Our patent application on the synthesis of PN-C polymers from reactions of PN cages with organic diazides has been filed. We're grateful to Dalhousie's Office of Commercialization and Industry Engagement for support.

March 2024

> Our NSERC Discovery Grant has been renewed! In addition, we have received funding through the NSERC Research Tools and Instrumentation program and the TriAgency's New Frontiers in Research Fund (NFRF)!

February 2024

> Welcome to visiting PhD student Jan-Christian Raabe from the Albert group at University of Hamburg! Jan will carry out main group polyoxometallate chemistry for the next 4 months in our group (hopefully this will include taching us what a polyoxometallate is!).

> Postdoc Maryam and alumnus postdoc Mohsen's paper on reticular chemistry with PN cages has been accepted in Chem. Commun. and is now online!

January 2024

> Saurabh starts his Dalhousie University Research Chair (CRC Tier 2 equivalent) from 2024-2029.

> We have a funded PhD position available. Details here.

December 2023

> Saurabh has been named a Dalhousie University Research Chair (CRC Tier 2 equivalent) from 2024-2029.

> PhD student Tyler Hannah's big review on geometrically distroted p-block compounds has been accepted in Chem. Soc. Rev. and is now online!

> We bid a fond farewell to Experiential Education students Darby Curtis and Mitchell MacEachern! Well done both and best of luck!

> PhD student Joe Bedard has successfully defended his thesis and now becomes our second PhD graduate! Congrats Dr. Bedard!

November 2023

> We bid a fond farewell to expert baker Max Neubauer who visited us for 3 months from LIKAT in Rostock. Best of luck back home and look forward to continuing our projects!

> PhD student Joe Bedard has won first place globally out of 1600 contestants at the Falling Walls Summit in Berlin for a 3-minute pitch of his work!! You can check out his winning pitch here. Congratulations Joe!!

October 2023

> We say a fond farewell to visiting student Lisa Zimmermann from the Scheer group in Regensburg - we will miss you!

> PhD student Joseph Bedard submitted his thesis! Congrats on passing this milestone Joe!

> Two new pre-prints with our latest work are on ChemRxiv! Check them out in the Publications page.

> We welcome new PDF Erin Welsh on a NetZero Atlantic-funded research project for carbon-dioxide capture.

September 2023

> Our invited perspective on 3-dimensional inorganic cages for materials chemistry has been accepted in Chem. Mater. See publications page.

> PhD student Joseph Bedard ranked second place in the university-wide Falling Walls pitching competition. He's off to Berlin to compete internationally! Congrats Joe!

> PhD student Tyler Hannah received the departmental Gerry Dauphinee award for excellence in research and teaching - congrats Tyler!

> We welcome visiting intern Max Neubauer from the Hering-Junghans group (LIKAT) for a 3 month internship! Looking forward to testing out some wild ideas!

Aug 2023

> We bid a fond farewell to undergraduate researchers Soleil Campbell and Jincheng Ren. Best of luck in your academic journeys and thanks for making us part of the ride!

> We have received an inaugural NetZero Atlantic Emerging Concepts & Technologies Grant to develop PN materials into carbon capture platforms.

July 2023

> We bid a fond farewell to Arjune Mane (MITACS Globalink Intern) who will return to IISER-Bhopal for his MSc.

> Our work on the expdited synthesis of PN adamantanoid cages and the kinetics of their oxidation has been accepted in Chemistry - An Asian Journal as a VIP Article for the Emerging Investigators Special Issue! See publicatin page for details.

June 2023

> Joe, Michael, and Saurabh presented at the CSC conference in Vancouver. Undergraduate researcher Nicholas Roberts presented his Award for Undergraduate Research in Inorganic Chemistry lecture for work done in our group.

> We welcome Dr. Maryam Abdollahi (PhD with Yuming Zhao at Memorial U) as a new postdoctoral researcher in the group.

May 2023

> Saurabh has been selected as the Professor of the Year by the Dalhousie University Undergraduate Chemistry Society for 2022-2023!

> Recent graduate Toren Hynes has won the Governor General's Gold Medal for his MSc work in our group! This medal is handed out to a single MSc graduate across all Science departments at Dal.

> A busy month for us! We welcome undergraduate researchers Soleil Campbell (NSERC USRA), Jincheng Ren (Faye Sobey Award), Arjun Mane (MITACS Globalink Research Intern from India). And we also welcome new graduate students Will Howlett (PhD), Tamina Kirsch (MSc, MITACS Globalink Research Fellow from Germany), and postdoctoral fellow Dr. Michael Land (NSERC PDF)!

April 2023

> Tyler presented his work at the Dalton 2023 Conference in Coventry in the Main Group section.

> Saurabh presented the group's work at the Dalton 2023 Conference in Coventry as a plenary speaker.

> Saurabh presented the group's work at the University of Birmingham.

> Honours students Maxwell and Mitchell defended their thesis - congratulations to you both and best of luck!

March 2023

> MSc student Tyler Hannah's latest project - a collaboration with Chris Kozak (Memorial U) and Jason Masuda (St. Mary's U) - has been accepted as a full paper in Chem. Sci.! See publications page for details.

> PhD student Joe Bedard's latest project - a collaboration with Rebecca Musgrave (King's College London) - has been accepted as a full paper in J. Am. Chem. Soc.! See publications page for details.

> Together with the Nazemi group (UQAM) and Laventure group (UdeM), we have been awarded a 3-year NSERC-FRQNT Nova Grant to explore the fundamental applied aspects of phosphorus-nitrogen cage dense materials.

February 2023

> Saurabh has been awarded an Alfred P Sloan Research Fellowship. Details: Awarded to approximately 20 early career researchers in Chemistry "in recognition of distinguished performance and a unique potential to make substantial contributions to their field."

> Saurabh has been awarded the Faculty of Science Killam Prize for 2023. Details: One prize is awarded annually to enhance the careers of "the most promising scientists in the Faculty of Science who have obtained their doctorate within the preceding eleven years. The winners must demonstrate exceptional research ability through their contributions to scientific knowledge. "

January 2023

> We bid a fond farewell to our postdoctoral researcher Dr. Mohsen Shayan, who is moving to Ontario to work in industry. Best of luck Mohsen!

> Saurabh has been awarded a CNC-IUPAC Travel Award for 2023. Details: The purpose of these awards is to help Canadian chemists who have gained their PhD in the last 10 years, and are currently working at a Canadian institution to increase their international exposure by presenting a paper at an IUPAC-sponsored conference. The assessment criteria include "evidence of an independent research program, a publication record of high quality, and the ability to attract research funding (internal and external)."

> We are looking for a postdoctoral researcher! Details here. Position has been filled

"to sights unseen, and beyond"