Gareth Nelmes

Gareth completed his BSc(Hons) at ANU in the Hicks group, continuing on for a PhD in 2021. Starting his work in low-valent group 2, 14, and 15 chemistry with a monodentate very bulky acridine ligand, he now turns his attention to the theoretical nature of bonding and reactivity in main-group chemistry and consequently spends most of his time concerned with computational work.

Liam Pascoe

Liam completed his BSc(Hons) degree in the Hicks group, and subsequently commenced his PhD studies in 2022. He is investigating the use of photochemistry to enhance the reactivity of low oxidation state main group compounds.

Emily Nahon

Emily completed her BSc(Hons) in the Hicks group in 2021. She then continued on for a PhD in late 2022, where she is investigating the synthesis, isolation and reactivity of low-valent boron species.

Becca Majchrzak

Becca completed her PhB(Hons) degree at the ANU in 2024, where she undertook her honours research in the Hicks group. She returned to the group in 2025 to commence her PhD. Becca’s current research focuses on green main group chemistry, with particular interests in solvent-free mechanochemical methods and the sustainable conversion of abundant waste materials, such as carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide, into value added products.

Max Les

Max joined the Hicks Group in 2025 for his Honours year, where he was working on the synthesis of heavy main-group radicals. Now in PhD, he is co-supervised by Prof. Nick Chilton. His research interests involve the synthesis of f-block complexes for applications in quantum information science.

Harrison Allwood

Having completed his BSc(Adv) at the University of Newcastle in 2024, Harrison joined the Hicks group in 2025 for his Honours year. He is now a PhD student co-supervised by Prof. Mick Sherburn. His research focuses on using reactive main group complexes in organic synthesis.

Lachlan Hoffman

Lachlan joined ANU in 2025 for his Honours year. Now in his PhD, his research focuses on molecular metal-metal bonded complexes for small molecule activation.

Lucas Foglia

Lucas started his Honours project in 2026, after previously completing an undergraduate research project in the group. His current research involves exploring a novel redox- and photo-active ligand in low valent main group chemistry.

Imogen Bailey

Imogen first joined the group in 2025 as an undergraduate project student. In 2026, she started her Honours project in the group investigating unsymmetrical molecular calcium hydrides for small molecule activation and catalysis.

Darshan Rajinikanth

Darshan joined the Hicks Group in 2026 to begin his Honours year, where he is focused on the mechanochemical synthesis of lanthanide coordination complexes. He is particularly interested in their use as single-molecule magnets and studies these compounds with EPR, SQUID and various computational techniques.