Rachel O'Reilly
Alma materImperial College London
University of Cambridge
Scientific career
InstitutionsUniversity of Birmingham
University of Warwick
University of Cambridge
Washington University in St. Louis
ThesisNovel catalyst design for utilisation in controlled radical polymerisations
Doctoral advisorVernon C. Gibson

Rachel O'Reilly FRS FRSC is a British chemist and Professor at the University of Birmingham. She works at the interface of biology and materials, creating polymers that can mimic natural nanomaterials such as viruses and cells. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and of the Royal Society.

Education

O'Reilly was born in Holywood and educated in a grammar school.[1][2] She has dyslexia.[3] She studied Natural Sciences at the University of Cambridge, working with Brian F. G. Johnson on her Master's project, and graduated in 1999.[1] She moved to Imperial College London to work with Vernon C. Gibson on catalyst design, earning a PhD in 2003.[1]

Career

O'Reilly joined Craig Hawker and Karen L. Wooley at Washington University in St. Louis.[4] Here she demonstrated the fabrication of cross-linked polymer nanoparticles that were Click-ready.[5][4] O'Reilly was awarded a 2004 Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 fellowship, and took up a research fellowship at Downing College, Cambridge, in 2005.[6][7] At the University of Cambridge she was awarded a Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin fellowship.[8] She developed hollow polymeric nanocages that could selectively recognise substrates.[9]

She joined the University of Warwick in 2009 as an Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council career-acceleration fellow.[6][8][10] Her fellowship explored water-soluble responsive polymer scaffolds that contained domains for catalysis as well as responsive polymers that could trigger the release of catalysts into the media surrounding them.[10] She was appointed Professor in 2012 at the age of 34.[11][12] That year she was the first ever UK winner of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry Samsung Young Polymer Scientist prize.[12][13] She appeared on Start the Week with Andrew Marr in 2012, where he described her as a "a chemist who does strange things with plastics".[2] In 2013 she was awarded the American Chemical Society Hermann Mark Young Scholar award.[14][15] She was appointed Professor of Chemistry at the University of Birmingham in 2017.[1][16]

Alongside her research, O'Reilly is a keen geologist and enjoys travelling to volcanoes.[2] She became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry in 2013 and was named as one of the Royal Society of Chemistry's 175's Faces of Chemistry.[3][1] In 2023 she was elected an Honorary Fellow of Downing College, Cambridge.[7]

Honours and awards

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Professor Rachel O'Reilly staff profile, School of Chemistry – University of Birmingham". www.birmingham.ac.uk. Retrieved 19 May 2018.
  2. 1 2 3 "In profile: Professor Rachel O'Reilly". EPSRC. 2013. Archived from the original on 20 May 2018.
  3. 1 2 "Professor Rachel O'Reilly FRSC | 175 Faces of Chemistry". www.rsc.org. Archived from the original on 23 September 2020.
  4. 1 2 O'Reilly, Rachel K.; Joralemon, Maisie J.; Hawker, Craig J.; Wooley, Karen L. (2007). "Preparation of orthogonally-functionalized core Click cross-linked nanoparticles". New J. Chem. 31 (5): 718–724. doi:10.1039/B616103K. ISSN 1144-0546.
  5. ↑ O'Reilly, Rachel K.; Joralemon, Maisie J.; Hawker, Craig J.; Wooley, Karen L. (2006). "Facile syntheses of surface-functionalized micelles and shell cross-linked nanoparticles". Journal of Polymer Science Part A: Polymer Chemistry. 44 (17): 5203–5217. Bibcode:2006JPoSA..44.5203O. doi:10.1002/pola.21602. ISSN 0887-624X.
  6. 1 2 Gibson, Matthew I.; O'Reilly, Rachel K. (9 April 2013). "To aggregate, or not to aggregate? considerations in the design and application of polymeric thermally-responsive nanoparticles". Chem. Soc. Rev. 42 (17): 7204–7213. doi:10.1039/C3CS60035A. ISSN 0306-0012. PMID 23571466.
  7. 1 2 "Four new Honorary Fellows elected". Downing College, Cambridge. 19 May 2023. Retrieved 9 October 2023.
  8. 1 2 Sanderson, Katharine (6 June 2012). "Turning point: Rachel O'Reilly". Nature. 486 (7401): 149. doi:10.1038/nj7401-149a. ISSN 0028-0836.
  9. ↑ Ievins, Alexander D.; Moughton, Adam O.; O'Reilly, Rachel K. (2008). "Synthesis of Hollow Responsive Functional Nanocages Using a Metal–Ligand Complexation Strategy". Macromolecules. 41 (10): 3571–3578. Bibcode:2008MaMol..41.3571I. doi:10.1021/ma800047r. ISSN 0024-9297.
  10. 1 2 author, EPSRC. "Grants on the web". Retrieved 19 May 2018. {{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  11. ↑ "Rachel O'Reilly – EPSRC website". epsrc.ukri.org. Retrieved 19 May 2018.
  12. 1 2 "Chemistry International – Newsmagazine for IUPAC". www.iupac.org. Retrieved 19 May 2018.
  13. 1 2 "POLY – Division Awards". www.polyacs.org. Archived from the original on 20 May 2018. Retrieved 19 May 2018.
  14. ↑ Polymer.
  15. 1 2 "ROR wins an ACS award". www.birmingham.ac.uk. Retrieved 19 May 2018.
  16. ↑ "Professor Andrew Dove and Professor Rachel O'Reilly to join School of Chemistry in early 2018". www.birmingham.ac.uk. Retrieved 19 May 2018.
  17. ↑ "Outstanding scientists elected as Fellows and Foreign Members of the Royal Society". Royal Society. 10 May 2022. Retrieved 11 May 2022.
  18. ↑ "Our 2020 prize and award winners". Royal Society of Chemistry. Retrieved 24 June 2020.
  19. ↑ "2018 Journal of Polymer Science Innovation Award Winner: Dr. Rachel O'Reilly – PMSE". pmsedivision.org. 13 May 2018. Retrieved 19 May 2018.
  20. ↑ "RSC Gibson-Fawcett Award 2016 Winner". www.rsc.org. Retrieved 19 May 2018.
  21. ↑ Darton, Nicholas. "Colloid & Surface Science Group – Past Meetings". www.colloidsgroup.org.uk. Retrieved 19 May 2018.
  22. ↑ "Hickinbottom Award 2012 Winner". www.rsc.org. Retrieved 19 May 2018.
  23. ↑ "2007 winner of the RSC Harrison-Meldola Prize". www.rsc.org. Retrieved 19 May 2018.
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