Dr Jessica Sayers

The Mander Best PhD Thesis in Organic Chemistry Award recognizes the best PhD thesis in the field of organic chemistry.

Jessica obtaining an MChem degree from the University of York, and in 2015 commenced a PhD at the University of Sydney as a Northcote Postgraduate Scholar of the Britain-Australia Society, under the mentorship of Professor Richard Payne. Jessica’s PhD research involved the design and synthesis of amino acids bearing thiol and selenol auxiliaries for applications in protein synthesis via peptide ligation chemistry, as well as sensing. Jessica recently moved to a postdoctoral position at MIT where she is working on the development of semi-synthetic, cell-permeable ribonucleases for targeted RNA degradation. The committee were struck by both the quality of the science and its communication, which was commented upon by the thesis examiners.