Dr Mathew Anker

Associate Investigator

Towards Zero Carbon - Catalytic Architectures

Address:
AM 203
Alan MacDiarmid Building
Gate 7, Kelburn Parade
Wellington, New Zealand

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• Mathew.anker@vuw.ac.nz
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Biography

Mathew completed his PhD in 2017 on alkaline earth mediated carbon monoxide reduction at the University of Bath (UK) under the supervision of Prof. Mike Hill. During his PhD he undertook a brief secondment to The Ohio State University (USA) to work under the late Prof. Malcolm Chisholm, to work on catalytic lactide polymerisation. He then moved to Victoria University of Wellington to work as a postdoctoral researcher for Prof. Martyn Coles on the synthesis and reactivity of low valent main group complexes, he is now a Senior Lecturer at Victoria University of Wellington, where he arrived in 2019. 

Research interests

Mat’s main research interests are in developing the synthesis of novel organometallic complexes, investigation of their underlying electronic structure and delineation of fundamental patterns of reactivity. Mat’s research involves the synthesis of air and moisture sensitive complexes using Schlenk line and glove box techniques, which are analysed by multinuclear NMR spectroscopy and single crystal X-ray and neutron diffraction. Recent research has focused on the design of low valent lanthanide complexes for small molecule (CO2, CO, H2, N2) activation and catalytic reduction.