Daniel Whelligan gained his first degree (1st class) in Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge (Churchill College) in 2000. After graduation, he spent the summer at Université Bordeaux I, France carrying out organic synthesis in the group of Professor Stephane Quideau. He then moved to the University of Durham for his PhD with Dr Patrick Steel on the use of silenes (Si=C) in novel organic synthetic methods. In 2004, he secured an Alexander von Humboldt Postdoctoral Research Fellowship to work on the use of paracyclophanes in asymmetric catalysis with Professor Carsten Bolm at RWTH Aachen University, Germany. From 2006-7, he took time to travel around the world including a 3 month postdoctoral

The Whelligan group uses organic synthesis to answer questions and solve problems in biology and alkaline fuel cell research. For biology, this includes drug discovery and the design of inhibitors and probes, using medicinal chemistry expertise, for use as investigational tools. During this research, opportunities to develop novel synthetic methods are also exploited. Major projects are described below:

Design and Discovery of Inhibitors of the DNA Repair Enzyme Aag

Wang L, Magliocca E, Cunningham EL, Mustain WE, Poynton SD, Escudero-Cid R, Nasef MN, Ponce-Gonzalez J, Bance-Souahli R, Slade RCT, Whelligan DK, Varcoe J. (2016) 'An optimised synthesis of high performance radiation-grafted anion-exchange membranes'. Green Chemistry, doi: 10.1039/C6GC02526A JOURNAL ARTICLE Ponce-González J, Whelligan DK, Wang L, Bance-Soualhi R, Wang Y, Peng Y, Peng H, Apperley DC, Sarode HN, Pandey TP, Divekar AG, Seifert S, Herring AM, Zhuang L, Varcoe J. (2016) 'High performance aliphatic-heterocyclic benzyl-quaternary ammonium radiation-grafted anion-exchange membranes'. Energy and Environmental Science, 9 (12), pp. 3724-3735. doi: 10.1039/C6EE01958G Repository URL: http://epubs.surrey.ac.uk/812362/ Ong AL, Inglis KK, Whelligan DK, Murphy S, Varcoe JR. (2015) 'Effect of cationic molecules on the oxygen reduction reaction on fuel cell grade Pt/C (20 wt%) catalyst in potassium hydroxide (aq, 1 mol dm(-3)).'. Phys Chem Chem Phys, England: 17 (18), pp. 12135-12145. doi: 10.1039/c4cp04973j