Applications from people wising to undertake a PhD or Postdoctoral Research in the Byrne Chemistry Research Group are most welcome.

Dr. Peter Byrne completed his undergraduate studies in chemistry in University College Dublin in 2006, and undertook a Ph.D. in the laboratory of Prof. Declan Gilheany in UCD in 2007, funded by IRCSET.  During his Ph.D. he worked primarily on the mechanism of the Wittig reaction and on developing a novel chromatography-free method for phosphine oxide removal from reaction mixtures, but was also engaged in the synthesis of chiral phosphines for use in catalysis. He obtained his Ph.D. in 2011, and continued in postdoctoral work in UCD until 2014, during which time he focused on the mechanisms of phosphonium salt & ylide hydrolysis and alcoholysis, on the synthesis of novel strained bicyclic amines, and on the development of the phosphine oxide removal technique for industrial application.

In 2014, he was awarded an Alexander von Humboldt Postdoctoral Fellowship to carry out research in the laboratory of Prof. Herbert Mayr in Ludwig Maximilians Universität in Munich, Germany. His research in LMU was concentrated on the progression of a consistent rationale for understanding reactivity in organic chemistry (applications included rationalising the reactivity of ambident nucleophiles, and the electrophilicity of vinyl cations), and on the development of a quantitative organic Lewis basicity scale.

In November 2016 he joined the School of Chemistry in University College Cork as a lecturer in organic chemistry.  In July 2017 he was nominated by the Institute of Chemistry Ireland (ICI) to attend the EuChemS Young Investigator Workshop in Germany. Since then, he has built up a research group of nine members (9 × PhD students, 1 Postdoctoral Researcher now finished). He will welcome two further PhD students and a Postdoctoral Researcher into the group in 2022 as part of a Science Foundation Ireland Frontiers for the Future Programme-funded project. He is a Funded Investigator in the Molecules I theme of the SFI-funded SSPC Research Centre (Synthesis and Solid State Pharmaceutical Centre).

Research Interests

• Green & sustainable organic chemistry.
• Development of novel organocatalysts for new synthetic methodology.
• CO₂ activation and utilisation.
• Organophosphorus chemistry.
• Ambident nucleophilicity and Gibbs energy surfaces for chemical reactions.
• Development of less wasteful alternatives to the Protecting Group Methodology.
• Physical organic chemistry (determination of reaction mechanisms, quantitative Lewis basicity scales, Marcus theory).
• I have a particular interest in developing a more general understanding of the factors that cause some reactions to be faster than others (compositions of activation barriers), and why formation of some compounds is more thermodynamically favourable than others.

Awards

• Alexander von Humboldt Postdoctoral Fellowship (2014)
• Springer Thesis Prize (2012),
• ICI Nominee for EuChemS Young Investigator Workshop (2017)
• IRCSET Postgraduate Research Scholarship (2007)
• Hugh Ryan Medal (first in undergraduate chemistry class in UCD, 2007).