Group

Current Postdocs

Dr Dan Cubbin

Dan read for his MChem in Oxford (Somerville College) and completed a part II in the Timmel/Mackenzie groups. After finishing his DPhil in 2026, he took up a postdoc position in the group. Dan works on a range of MFE projects including cavity ring-down spectroscopy and microcavity sensing.

Current DPhil Students

Ellen Jones

Ellen was adopted by Stuart into the cluster group in 2024 after spending the first years of her DPhil in the Burt group. Her cutting-edge research sees the abridgement of the Coulomb explosion imaging (CEI) methodology into the exciting landscape of transition metal clusters. Ellen is a keen, safe, and newly-qualified sailor who spends her hours away from the lab (of which there are very few!) rowing, mingling, and engaged in philosophical discourse. Ellen's time at Oxford has been very kindly funded by Lincoln College via the Lord Crewe Foundation.

Carl Olavesen

Carl joined the MFE group in October 2022 and works on BBCES / OCTAS.

Peter Rubli

Peter joined the Clusterlab in 2023 after completing his MChemPhys degree at the University of Edinburgh which involved a research project in the group of Prof. Otto Dopfer at TU Berlin. His research focuses on investigating mode-selective reactions involving metal clusters and ion-molecule complexes. Outside of the lab, Peter plays the guitar and loves to crochet. He is a Clarendon scholar at Magdalen College.

David Vesty

David joined the cluster group as a part II in 2024, writing an excellent thesis on carbon dioxide binding to rhodium clusters. His work as a DPhil will continue to investigate metal-containing clusters and complexes using infrared spectroscopy. Aside from chemistry, David is a keen singer-songwriter and enjoys performing at local events around Oxford. He is a Sir David and Lady Clary scholar at Magdalen College.

Alex Buckley

Alex (from Magdalen college) joined the clusterlab in 2025 as a part II student working on the mode-selective chemistry experiment, investigating reactive collisions between transition metal ions and small molecules. He is now a DPhil student continuing this research, in addition to taking part in investigations of metal clusters using infrared spectroscopy.

Eric Jiang

Eric joined the Mackenzie lab in 2026 after studying at Washington University in St. Louis where he got a B.A in chemistry followed by completing a research placement in the group of Dr Kelly Powderly. His work focuses on structural assignment of and metal clusters and molecules via infrared spectroscopy and Coulomb explosion imaging.

Current Part II Students

Jay Ennis

Jay (from Jesus College) joins the group to investigate gas-phase mixed-ligand metal-ligand complexes using infrared spectroscopy.

PDRAs

Dr Christian Haakansson

Christian joined the cluster group in September 2023 to work on mode selective chemistry of metal clusters, and IRPD of metal ligand complexes. He completed a BSc(Hons) and PhD in chemistry at the University of Western Australia studying photoelectron spectroscopy. He is now a postdoc in the group of Dr Jemma Gibbard at Durham University.

Dr Peter Watson

Peter joined the group as a postdoc at the start of 2022 to work on mode selective chemistry of metal clusters. He completed a BSc(Hons) and PhD in chemistry at the University of Western Australia studying photoelectron spectroscopy. Peter is now a Forrest Research Fellow and Lecturer of Physical Chemistry at Curtin University in Perth, Australia.

Dr Lewis Antill

Lewis joined the MFE collaboration from Japan in early 2023 before starting his own research group in 2024 at the Institute of Quantum Biophysics at Sungkyunkwan University.

Dr Alice Green

Alice joined the group as a DPhil student from St. Andrew's in 2016. Funded by a Beghian Scholarship from Magdalen College, she graduated in 2020 and stayed as an EPSRC Programme Grant Postdoctoral Researcher. She moved on to a post in Stanford in 2021 before starting as a lecturer at the University of Edinburgh in 2024.

Dr Olivier Pare-Labrosse

Olivier joined the MFE group at the start 2021. He completed a B.Sc. and a M.Sc. in physics from the University of Montreal before moving to Toronto to do a PhD in chemistry to studying proteins with ultrafast spectroscopy. Olivier is also proud to be a Canadian stereotype who talks too much "aboat" snow and maple syrup. He left for a further postdoctoral position in germany in Feb 2023.

Dr Alexander Gentleman

Alex was an excellent postdoc in the metal clusters group 2014 - 2019 publishing 14 papers (and counting). He then moved to a postdoc position in Cambridge.

Dr Lauren Jarocha

Lauren worked in the MFEs group 2014-19 and was instrumental in developing our picosecond transient absorption spectrosopy. She is now Assistant Professor at Furman University, South Carolina.

Dr Aras Kartouzian

Aras joined us from Munich on a Royal Society Newton Fellowship to work on IR spectroscopy of ion-molecue complexes and velocity map imaging of metal-containing molecules. He then returned to the Chemistry Department at the Technical University Munich

Dr W Scott Hopkins

Scott joined us in Cambridge and then moved with the group to Oxford in 2008. He developed the velocity map imaging experiment for studying metal-containing molecules and clusters. He is now full Professor in Waterloo Univeristy, Canada.

Dr Mikhail Mazurenka

Mikhail joined us in Warwick to work on evanescent wave cavity ring-down. He moved witht he group first to Cambridge and then to Oxford and was instrumental in making these moves efficient. He now works at the Helmholtz Zentrum Institute for Biological and Medical Imaging in Munich

Dr Mark Ford

Mark was a postdoc with us in Warwick 2003 - 2006 and developed the metal cluster source for both FT-ICR mass spectrometry and photoionization spectroscopy. He is now a College tutor in Oxford.