The Smith Group
Post Doctoral Researchers
Dr Kevin Kasten
Kevin was born and raised in Berlin (Germany) where he conducted his undergraduate studies at the Humboldt Universität zu Berlin. Kevin carried out his final year research project in the Smith group, studying NHC catalysed regiodivergent Steglich rearrangements before completing his PhD within the group investigating cinchona alkaloid catalysis. He then obtained a post-doc position with Peter O’Brien at the University of York. Kevin is now a post-doctoral researcher with Prof. Andrew Smith investigating the effect of Chalcogen-bonding within isothiourea catalysed reactions.
Dr Lotte Stockhammer
Lotte was born in Gmunden, Austria. She carried out her Master thesis in the group of Prof. Mario Waser at JKU Linz (Austria), working on hypervalent Iodine chemistry. She stayed in the same group for her doctoral studies (2020-2024), with her work revolving around isochalcogenourea mediated alpha-functionalisation reactions of C(1) ammonium enolates as well as the development of novel catalysts for this purpose. During her PhD, she had the opportunity to join the Ofial group at LMU Munich (Germany) several times to investigate nucleophilicity and Lewis basicity of those catalysts. Lotte joined the ADS group in February 2025 as an Erwin Schrödinger postdoctoral fellow (funded by the Austrian Science Funds, FWF) working on asymmetric rearrangement reactions. When not in the lab, Lotte enjoys biking, hiking, windsurfing and playing chess.
Ishani Borthakur
Final Year PhD Students
Ffion Platt
Ffion grew up in the much sunnier South East of England, and obtained her MChem from the University of Bath, carrying out her placement at GSK. She completed her final year project with Dr James Taylor, focusing on indolizine synthesis through boronic acid-catalysed dehydrative Nazarov cyclisations. Her PhD project centres around enantioselective cycloadditions using isothiourea catalysis. When Ffion is not in the lab, you can usually find her on the basketball court, where she is part of the University’s performance squad.
Ihssane El Fdali
Ihssane grew up in Northern Italy and she obtained her BSc from the University of Padua. She then did a joint master’s degree between the University of Padua and the University of Giessen in Germany, where she completed her final year project in the group of Prof. Peter Schreiner working on the enantioselective House-Meinwald rearrangement. She has joined the ADS group via the EaSI-CAT CDT and her PhD project focuses on enantioselective rearrangements. Outside of chemistry, she enjoys reading, cooking, and spending time outdoors.
Martha Prindl
Martha Prindl grew up in Cornwall. She completed her BSC in Medicinal chemistry at St Andrews in 2023, which included a year abroad at Queen's university in Canada with a summer project in the Capicciotti Lab. She has now started her PhD work in the ADS group working under 'Boron: beyond the reagent' grant.
3rd Year PhD Students
Sonia Kharb
Sonia Kharb comes from Haryana in India. She graduated with Honours in Chemistry from Guru Jambheshar University of Science and Technology (Hissar) and then pursued her Master's degree in Chemistry at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT, Ropar). Currently, she is enrolled as a PhD student at the University of St Andrews under the supervision of Professor Andrew D. Smith. Her research focuses on the enantioselective syntheses through the study of isochalcogenourea-catalysed chemistry.
2nd year PhD Student
Josh Walker
Josh grew up in Hertfordshire and completed his MChem at the University of York in 2024. This included an industrial placement in his final year, working in process research at Bayer agrochemicals in Germany. He has now started work in the ADS group where he will be focusing on the enantioselective synthesis of biaryl ethers.
1st Year PhD Students
Kenna White
Kenna grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and completed her bachelor’s at Juniata College in 2024, where she researched carboxylate carbenes under Dr. John Unger. After graduation, she worked as a visiting researcher at the University of Massachusetts Amherst under Dr. Todd Emrick on zwitterionic polymers. Outside of the lab, Kenna enjoys rock climbing and baking.
