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Biography

Dr Conrad Goodwin MRSC is a Royal Society University Research Fellow and senior lecturer at the University of Manchester, where his research focuses on fundamental chemistry with rare-earth and actinide elements. Generous support from the EPSRC and the European Research Council has enabled his group to address questions spanning metal鈥搇igand bonding, redox chemistry, and molecular magnetism in these elements.

Conrad completed his PhD in inorganic chemistry at Manchester in 2017, before undertaking an EPSRC Doctoral Prize Fellowship (2017鈥�18) focused on the development of high-temperature single-molecule magnets. In 2018, he began a J. Robert Oppenheimer Postdoctoral Fellowship at Los Alamos National Laboratory, where he investigated the organometallic chemistry of transuranium elements from neptunium to californium. This work required the development of new synthetic methods and sample-handling techniques, and contributed to efforts at LANL to apply routine characterisation methods, including NMR and UV鈥揤is鈥揘IR spectroscopies, to unresolved questions concerning these highly radioactive elements.

In 2021, Conrad returned to Manchester as a Royal Society University Research Fellow. His independent research programme focuses on applying redox chemistry in molecular systems to unlock new and unexpected chemistry involving rare-earth and actinide elements. Extensive collaborations with EPR spectroscopists, theoreticians, and specialists in X-ray spectroscopy enable his group to understand the properties of these elements in unusual coordination environments.

It makes me very proud to see that the research my team is doing has been recognised at this level by members of our community, and I鈥檓 really honoured to be part of it.

Conrad Goodwin

Q&A

Can you tell us more about your work?

The modern world depends on controlling the movement of electrons. Batteries work by moving charge between materials, while many technologies rely on metals whose properties change when electrons are added or removed. Rare-earth elements are especially important: they are essential components of the compact, powerful magnets used in electric motors, wind turbines, speakers, and many other technologies. Yet the chemistry of rare-earth elements in unusual 鈥榗harged鈥� states, where they hold more or fewer electrons than usual, remains difficult to study. My work develops molecules that allow us to stabilise and understand these unusual states. Some of these molecules also show properties relevant to future quantum technologies, where individual molecules could be used to store or process information.
 
Radioactive actinide elements, such as uranium, share many chemical similarities with the rare-earth elements. Later actinides, including plutonium and americium, can behave even more like rare-earths than earlier actinides such as uranium. Understanding exactly how these similarities and differences change when electrons are added or removed is important because it may ultimately help us design better ways to separate closely related elements from complex mixtures, including ores, recycling streams, and nuclear-waste-related materials.
 
We use synthetic chemistry to make molecules with precisely defined structures. We then study them using a combination of experimental techniques, including measurements of how they absorb X-rays and how they interact with magnetic fields. These measurements reveal, at the molecular level, how changing the number of electrons on a metal changes its bonding, magnetism, and response to its surroundings. By establishing these fundamental principles, we provide the chemical understanding needed for future application-led molecular design. In the long term, this knowledge could contribute to improved rare-earth technologies, new quantum materials, and more efficient methods for separating strategically important elements.

What has been the most rewarding or memorable highlight of your career so far? 

During my work at Los Alamos National Laboratory, we isolated and determined the molecular structure of an organometallic californium complex. This was the culmination of more than a year of preparation, practice runs, and the development of contingency plans. We had a single opportunity to succeed or fail, there wouldn鈥檛 be another chance to try again, and it worked! It was an enormous collaborative effort covering administrative hurdles in bringing the material into the laboratory, down to coordinating analysis and sample transport once the compound had been isolated and we had just a couple of days to do everything once we got started. 

What does good research culture mean to you, and why does it matter? 

To me, good research culture is not simply a pleasant working environment. It is the set of behaviours, expectations, incentives and norms that determine how research is done, how people are treated, and what kinds of contributions are valued. It is where the individual needs and abilities of team members are considered to make a whole greater than the sum of its parts. 

In practice, this means fostering an environment where the status quo is not fixed, where things are not done a certain way 鈥渂ecause they always have been鈥�, and where individuals are empowered to question assumptions. This makes for stronger research. However, this only happens in a culture where people feel safe to do this, where the pressures of their research don鈥檛 override these standards.

In my group, we work to recognise diverse contributions to research: careful experimental work, mentorship, data stewardship, technical expertise, collaboration, peer review, leadership, teaching, public engagement and collegial service across our department.

How can scientists try to improve the environmental sustainability of research? Can you give us any examples from your own experience or context? 

This is a fundamental issue surrounding synthetic chemistry. It is very difficult to avoid some of the biggest drivers of energy use, such as ventilation and chemical use. I am excited by much of the work on mechanochemistry to minimise or eliminate the use of solvents in many areas, though it is equally exciting to see divergent reactivity being discovered instead.

In my group, we use a lot of rare earth and actinide materials, both of which have environmental costs associated with their extraction and refinement. One way we have worked to significantly reduce the use of these materials, as well as our use of organic solvents, is to leverage small-scale explorative reactions performed in gloveboxes, rather than the larger scales required in normal fume cupboard operations. The up-front financial cost of a glovebox is overcome over several years of significantly reduced material use, and by selecting low-energy processes and equipment, we save even more energy. 

The group has recently received a Silver award under the Laboratory Efficiency Assessment Framework, and our Gold submission is pending. 

How important would you say collaboration is for producing high quality science? How has collaboration influenced your work? 

The days of the Renaissance person are long gone. It is impossible for one person to command expertise in all scientific endeavours now, or even just all of 鈥榗hemistry鈥�. Therefore, if we really want to perform high quality science, to understand how the world around us really works, no one can do it alone.

This is directly relevant to my group鈥檚 work. Synthetic chemistry is a full-time job, particularly when working with compounds that have no right to exist and do everything in their power to be something else. From drying solvents, to preparing starting materials, it takes years of learning and hands-on practice to master the art. When we then want to deeply understand our compounds, we turn to collaborators working in EPR spectroscopy, X-ray spectroscopy, and theoretical methods 鈥� each of which in turn requires additional years to master.

The influences on our work are more subtle than the benefits we draw from collaboration. For example, if we want to take a project in a specific direction, we talk to our collaborators to learn whether their techniques are compatible with our proposed materials. Often, I鈥檝e been lucky enough that the collaborators have instead proposed developing new methods to answer the question, making new science possible.

What is your favourite element and why? 

Neptunium. Uranium is often noted as unique in the actinide series due to quirks of its electronic structure that make its bonding and molecular chemistry extraordinarily flexible and tunable. This can help make it a fan favourite.

However, neptunium is more technically demanding to work with, and I enjoy a technical challenge. This also means that we simply know far less about the chemistry of neptunium than we do about uranium; a lot of chemical space remains unexplored. Lastly, when I look at periodic trends across the actinide elements, I often see that neptunium is an outlier. Straight-line trends extending from uranium and beyond will have neptunium off the line. I want to know why that is.