SOUTHERN HIGHLANDS CONFERENCE ON HETEROCYCLIC CHEMISTRY
Speakers - 2026
Dr Sarah French
University of California, Los Angeles
Dr Sarah French began her academic studies at the University of Otago, completing a BSc. She then relocated to the University of Adelaide, where she earned her PhD degree under the guidance of Assoc. Professor Jonathan George. Her research focused on the biomimetic total synthesis of natural products derived from plants used in traditional medicine. In recognition of her research, she was awarded the Lew Mander Thesis award and the University Research Medal. Following her PhD, Sarah joined Professor Neil Garg’s laboratory at UCLA as a postdoctoral scholar. Her studies have led to the development of new methods to access strained intermediates with unusual geometries, including anti-Bredt olefins and cubenes. Her contributions have been recognised with a Postdoctoral Researcher Award from UCLA.
Assoc. Prof. David Leitch
University of Victoria, Canada
Dave obtained his Ph.D. (2005-2010, Schafer) at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver BC. He then held postdoctoral positions at McGill University (2010-2012, Arndtsen), and Caltech (2012-2014, Bercaw) before making a pivot into industrial R&D at GlaxoSmithKline (2014-2018). There he became group leader of the Chemical Catalysis and Continuous Primary groups within Process Chemistry R&D.
In 2019, Dave joined the Department of Chemistry at the University of Victoria as an Assistant Professor, and was promoted with tenure in 2023. His research group focuses on mapping chemical reaction space using high-throughput experimentation, and developing new catalysts and catalytic reactions for sustainable complex molecule synthesis. He is a Cottrell Scholar (2023) and Dorothy Killam Fellow (2025), and received the 2025 Keith Fagnou award from the Chemical Society of Canada.
Dr Lauren Murray
Monash University
Dr. Lauren Murray completed her Ph.D. in synthetic organic chemistry in 2021 under the supervision of Assoc. Professor Jonathan George at the University of Adelaide. Her doctoral research focused on developing biomimetic total syntheses of complex meroterpenoid natural products to gain insight into their biosynthetic pathways. She also conducted part of her Ph.D. research with Professor Bradley Moore at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography (UC San Diego), investigating marine natural product biosynthesis. In 2021, Dr. Murray received the Lew Mander Best PhD Thesis in Organic Chemistry Award from the Royal Australian Chemical Institute (RACI) and the University of Adelaide Research Medal. She then undertook postdoctoral research with Professor Alison Narayan at the University of Michigan, USA, exploring enzymes as biocatalysts for chemoenzymatic synthesis. In 2024, Dr Murray established her independent career at Monash University as an ARC Discovery Early Career Research Award (DECRA) Fellow. Her research focuses on integrating enzymes into the chemical synthesis of complex bioactive molecules.
Prof. David Nagib
Ohio State University
David grew up near Philly as the eldest of four siblings in an Egyptian family with a strong love for teaching. His training entails research in asymmetric catalysis (with Prof. Scott Miller, Boston College, BSc 2006), photoredox organocatalysis (with Prof. David MacMillan, Princeton University, PhD 2011), and organometallic mechanisms (NIH Postdoc with Prof. F. Dean Toste, UC Berkeley). Since 2014, David has taught at The Ohio State University, where he is the Harold and Betty Miller Professor of Organic Chemistry, as well as the College of Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry. His team’s research on radical- and carbene- mediated C-H and C-O functionalization is dedicated to streamlining the synthesis of complex, medicinally relevant molecules. These efforts have been recognized by the ACS (Cope Scholar), NIH, NSF, Lilly, Merck, Pfizer, and the Sloan and Brown Foundations. When not working alongside his awesome labmates, David enjoys running, trying new cuisines, and traveling with his wife and two young children
Prof. Vinh Nguyen
University of New South Wales, Sydney
Dr Vinh Nguyen (also known as: Thanh Vinh Nguyen or Thanh V. Nguyen in academic publication) was born in Vietnam. After high school, he went to Sydney, Australia to study industrial chemistry at University of New South Wales. He then moved to undertake his PhD in organic chemistry with Professor Michael Sherburn at the Australian National University, Canberra. He had worked to develop new synthetic methodologies for application in natural product synthesis and worked on the design and synthesis of enormous synthetic host molecules for drug-delivery modelling. After graduating in 2010, he came to work on organocatalysis in Professor Dieter Enders group at the Institute of Organic Chemistry, RWTH Aachen, Germany under the auspices of an Alexander von Humboldt Postdoctoral Fellowship. In 2013, he moved to Curtin University (Perth, Australia) to start his own independent research group. In 2015, he moved again to UNSW (Sydney) to take up a Lecturer/ARC DECRA fellow position at the School of Chemistry. He was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2018 and started his ARC Future Fellowship in 2019. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 2022 and Professor in 2026. His current research interests are organocatalysis, aromatic cation activation, synthesis of naturally occurring and bioactive compounds, asymmetric synthesis and medicinal chemistry.https://tvnguyen.group
Dr Tristan Reekie
University of New South Wales, Canberra
Dr Tristan Reekie earned his PhD from ANU and then completed a postdoctoral fellowship at
ETH Zurich. He has held roles at the University of Sydney and ANU before joining UNSW
Canberra. His work focuses on synthesising small molecules with therapeutic and commercial potential, notably contributing to treatments for substance use disorders and social dysfunction. As Head of Chemistry at Kinoxis Therapeutics, he works across academia and industry and is a passionate science educator and outreach advocate.
Assoc. Prof. Sophie Rousseaux
University of Toronto
Sophie Rousseaux is an Associate Professor of Chemistry at the University of Toronto, where she also holds a Canada Research Chair (Tier 2) in Organic Chemistry and serves on the Scientific Leadership Team of the Acceleration Consortium. Dr. Rousseaux obtained her PhD from the University of Ottawa in 2012, working with the late Prof. Keith Fagnou on Pd-catalyzed aliphatic C–H bond functionalization reactions. In 2010, she moved to MIT to complete her graduate research with Prof. Stephen L. Buchwald. From 2012–2015, she worked with Prof. Harry L. Anderson, University of Oxford, on the self-assembly of porphyrin nanorings as an NSERC postdoctoral fellow and Glasstone Research Fellow, before starting her independent career at the University of Toronto. Her group’s research interests include organic synthesis, catalysis, and organometallic chemistry, with a particular focus on the synthesis of small rings and nitrile-containing molecules. Selected recent awards include the ACS Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award (2026), CSC Keith Fagnou Award (2023), the McLean Award (2022), the University of Toronto School of Graduate Studies Early Career Supervision Award (2022), the Organic Letters Outstanding Publication of the Year Lectureship (2022), a Sloan Research Fellowship (2021), and the Dorothy Shoichet Women Faculty Science Award of Excellence (2020).
Dr Sarah Ryan
NuFarm
Sarah began her chemistry career at Monash University, completing a Bachelor of Science before earning her PhD under Professor David Lupton, where she helped establish the group’s early work on N‑heterocyclic carbene organocatalysts. In 2011, she was selected to present at the SHCHC as a student speaker.
Sarah completed her postdoctoral fellowship with Professor Melanie Sanford at the University of Michigan, USA, supported by the ConocoPhillips Fellowship. Her research focused on fluorination chemistry in partnership with Dow Chemical, expanding from acyl fluorides to more industrially practical anhydrous fluoride reagents.
In 2015, Sarah joined Dow AgroSciences (now Corteva), before moving to Eli Lilly and Company in 2016. At Lilly, she led the early‑phase chemistry group, supporting the synthetic programs entering Phase 1 and Phase 2 clinical trials, including small molecules, peptides, and oligonucleotides. Among her many contributions, she served as the responsible chemist for Lilly’s first GMP manufacture of Orforglipron, a small molecule now in Phase 3, and for Retatrutide, a peptide drug for obesity recently submitted to the FDA.
Sarah joined Nufarm in 2023 to support the company’s renewed innovation agenda, bringing novel agricultural solutions to growers worldwide.
Dr Tomohiro Yasukawa
Monash University
Tomohiro Yasukawa obtained his PhD from Department of Chemistry, at The University of Tokyo, under the supervision of Prof. Shū Kobayashi in 2015. After his PhD, he was appointed as a project assistant professor at Green & Sustainable Chemistry Social Cooperation Laboratory, The University of Tokyo in 2015-2022. From 2022-2024, he joined the laboratory of Prof. Janine Cossy at ESPCI Paris (Paris, France) as a post-doc, supported by The Uehara Memorial Foundation (2023). He then moved to Department of Chemistry, The University of Tokyo as a project assistant professor in 2024. In October 2024, he was appointed as a lecturer at Monash University. His research work has been recognized by several awards including The 16th PCCP Prize, The 21st (2021) Green and Sustainable Chemistry Incentive Award and The Chemical Society of Japan Award for Young Chemists for 2023.