Technische Universität München

Polly L. Arnold obtained a BA from Oxford in 1994 and D.Phil in 1997 from Sussex. She was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship for postdoctoral research at MIT, and returned to the UK to a lectureship at the University of Nottingham in 1999. She moved to the University of Edinburgh 2007, and was promoted to Chair in 2009. She is also currently an EPSRC Leadership Fellow. Other recent research awards include the Bessel Prize from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, the Chancellor's prize of the University of Edinburgh, and the Sir Edward Frankland Prize Lectureship from the UK Royal Society of Chemistry.

2011 Visiting Professorship, University of Lille

2009-2014 EPSRC Leadership Fellowship

2008 The Chancellor's Prize, 'Rising Star' 2008; University of Edinburgh. Awarded annually by HRH the Duke of Edinburgh to a member of the University with the most potential for future international research excellence

2008 Sir Edward Frankland Prize Lectureship, RSC. Prize of £2000 and an award lecture

2007 Humboldt Foundation, Friederich Wilhelm Bessel award. This award is made annually to ten promising scientists under the age of 45. Prize of €45,000, and a research sabbatical at the RWTH Aachen, whose Chemistry department is ranked 2nd in Germany.

2000-2005 EPSRC Advanced Fellowship

1999 Novartis Prize for Public Appreciation of Science

1997-1998 Fulbright Scholarship

Carbon-silicon and carbon-carbon bond formation by elimination reactions at metal N-heterocyclic carbene complexes P. L. Arnold, Z. R. Turner, R. M. Bellabarba, R. P. Tooze, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2011, 133, in press.DOI: 10.1021/ja204209t. Unusual and fundamental reaction chemistry to form carbon-carbon and carbon-silicon bonds by combining the N-heterocyclic carbene with a Lewis acidic rare earth cation.

Uranium-mediated activation of small molecules (Highlight article) P. L. Arnold, Chem. Commun, 2011, in press. doi:C1CC10834D. A review of the state-of-the-art in modern uranium coordination chemistry.

Small Molecule Activation by Uranium Tris(aryloxides): Experimental and Computational Studies of Binding of N2, Coupling of CO and Deoxygenation Insertion of CO2 under Ambient Conditions S. M. Mansell, N. Kaltsoyannis, P. L. Arnold, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2011, 133, 9036. Unexpected and potentially catalytic small molecule activation from a series of well-known, simple UIII salts.

Single-electron uranyl reduction by a lanthanide cation P. L. Arnold, E. H. Hollis, F. J. White, N. Magnani, R. Caciuffo, J. B. Love, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2011, 50, 887. Controlled reduction of the uranyl dication by lanthanide complexes; the first controlled formation of strongly coupled 4f-5f metal cations.

Uranyl oxo activation and functionalisation by metal cation coordination P. L. Arnold, A.-F. Pecharman, E. H. Hollis, A. Yahia, L. Maron, S. J. Parsons, J. B. Love, Nature Chem., 2010, 2, 1056. The first non-photochemical C-H activation by a uranyl complex, mediated by controlled oxo-group activation.

Addition - elimination reactions across the M-C bond of metal N-heterocyclic carbenes Z. R. Turner, R. Bellabarba, R. P. Tooze, P. L. Arnold, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2010, 132, 4050. Combined reactivity of Ln and NHC to form new element bonds of importance to catalytic hydrocarbon chemistry.

Reduction and selective oxo-group silylation of the uranyl dication P. L. Arnold, D. Patel, C. Wilson, J. B. Love, Nature, 2008, 451, 315. First covalent bond formation to uranyl oxo groups and isolation of the rare pentavalent uranyl cation.

C3-symmetric lanthanide tris(alkoxide) complexes formed by preferential complexation and their stereoselective polymerization of rac-lactide P. L. Arnold, J.-C. Buffet, R. Blaudeck, S. Sujecki, A. J. Blake, C. Wilson, Angew. Chem., Int. Ed., 2008, 47, 6033. Unprecedented spontaneous resolution of chiral ligands at a single lanthanide centre, and its use in catalysis.

Bifunctional yttrium(III) and titanium(IV) N-heterocyclic carbene - ligated lactide polymerization catalysts D. Patel, S. T. Liddle, S. A. Mungur, M. Rodden, A. J. Blake, P. L. Arnold, Chem. Commun., 2006, 1124. The use of the N-hetercyclic carbene ligand to enhance and control the formation of biodegradable polymers.

Chelating alkoxy-N-heterocyclic carbene complexes of silver and copper P. L. Arnold, A. C. Scarisbrick, A. J. Blake, C. Wilson, Chem. Commun., 2001, 2340. The first metal complexes of tethered carbenes that initiated this field.

Her research is focused on exploratory synthetic chemistry that challenges preconceived ideas of structure, reactivity, and bonding particularly in electropositive d- and f-block metal systems. Her group is recognized particularly for f-block chemistry and innovative catalytic transformations and in the activation of small, unreactive molecules such as carbon monoxide, silanes and hydrocarbons. The studies made in her group on fundamental structure and bonding have ramifications across synthetic chemistry as a whole. This research hopes to contribute to future worldwide energy solutions with new knowledge about uranium and its neighbours in nuclear fuel and wastes, and new catalytic conversions of hydrocarbons and simple carbon oxides and oxygenates into new materials.