Group Members

Postdoctoral Research Associates
Caleb Jordan, 2023-
	Caleb joined the Oliver group as a postdoctoral research associate in spring 2023 as part of EPSRC programme grant Ultrafast Photochemical Dynamics in Complex Environments. His work will focus on the investigation of chromophore-environment interactions by multidimensional femtosecond laser spectroscopy. Previously, Caleb completed his PhD at Durham University under the supervision of Prof. Jan Verlet, using ultrafast electronic sum-frequency generation to probe excited state photodynamics at solution/air interfaces. He received his MSci in Natural Sciences from Durham University, also under the supervision of Prof. Jan Verlet, studying the hydrated electron by ultrafast transient absorption spectroscopy.
Camilla Gajo, 2025-
	Camilla completed her PhD in the Oliver group in 2025, developing ultrabroadband 2D electronic spectroscopy to investigate chromophore-environment interactions. Prior to her PhD, she was awarded degrees from the Bristol Centre for Functional Nanomaterials (MSc), and Keele University (BSc Physics with Mathematics).
Alex Stuart, 2025-
	Alex joined the group in 2025 as part of the BBSRC sLoLa Creating and Comprehending the Circuitry of Life grant. She previously worked as a postdoc at the University of Sydney with Prof. Girish Lakhwani, where she used optical spectroscopy to study the photophysics of organic semiconductors for optoelectronic applications. Prior to this Alex completed a PhD at the University of Adelaide with A/Prof. Tak Kee and A/Prof David Huang, primarily on singlet fission and the photochemistry of polyacenes.
PhD Students
Rokas Petrenas, 2021-
	Rokas graduated from the University of Edinburgh in 2021 with a degree in Biochemistry. During his final year, he worked with Dr Chris Wood on the application of deep learning for protein design. In 2021, he joined the SWBio DTP PhD programme and is working on biosensing using α-helical barrels. His project is co-supervised by Dek Woolfson and Tom Oliver.
Meiyue Liu, 2023-
	Meiyue joined the Oliver group after completing an MChem at the University of St Andrews. For her final year project, she investigated the framework lability of zeolites using solid-state NMR in the Ashbrook group. She started her PhD in 2023 and has joined the BBSRC sLoLa Creating and Comprehending the Circuitry of Life grant.
Jacob Jones, 2023-
	Jacob graduated from the University of Edinburgh with a degree in Chemical Physics in 2023. His final year project was based at the Swiss free electron laser, as part of an exchange with EPFL, where he worked on the design and implementation of a prism compressor. He joined the Oliver group in September 2023 as part of EPSRC programme grant Ultrafast Photochemical Dynamics in Complex Environments.
Sam Arrowsmith, 2024-
	Sam completed his MChem at the University of Oxford in 2024. His final year project, with Prof. Claire Vallance, investigated Coulomb explosion imaging as a probe for structural determination of small molecules using a femtosecond laser.