Current Group Members
Nicole was born and raised in East Gippsland, Victoria. After completing doctoral studies at the University of Melbourne & an Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship at the TU Berlin, Nicole started her independent career, thus the Rijs group was founded in 2015 at the KIT in Karlsruhe, Germany. In 2018 Nicole took up a research focused Scientia Lectureship and the group relocated to brand new purpose built labs at UNSW Sydney, Australia. Incorporating mass spectrometry, ion mobility and all-things electrospray, Nicole is passionate about reaction mechanisms, technologies & innovation, and mentoring & leadership in the chemical sciences. She maintains links to Germany and was appointed a DAAD Research Ambassador for 2020-21 and 2022-23. Nicole is also a daughter to 2, a sister to 1, a wife to 1, a mum to 2, and an aunty to 6.
Oscar is a PhD Candidate in the Rijs group (since February 2020). Oscar a Master in Chemistry from the University of York and since then has gained extensive analytical experience from industry in the pharma sector. He is using the complimentary techniques of ion mobility spectrometry MS and high resolution mass spectrometry to investigate the structure of critical intermediates of molecular self-assembly.
Olivia is a PhD Candidate in the Rijs group (since September 2021). Olivia has a Bachelors of Environmental Management and Science (Honours) from UNSW Sydney. Olivia is using ion mobility spectrometry MS, mass spectrometry and computational calculation techniques to investigate the structures and molecular interaction of widely used pesticides and herbicides.
Holly (they/she) is an honours student with the Rijs Group in affiliation with ANSTO (ss of February 2024). Holly has a dual degree in Science and Music majoring in Chemistry and Music Inquiry respectively. Throughout her honour’s year, Holly will be examining toxicokinetic and accumulation dynamics of Mercury, NORM’s, & Selenium in tropical marine fish on the Northwest shelf of WA. Holly will be approaching this research using samples collected by AIMS and analysed using atomic fluorescence spectroscopy.
Group Alumni since 2018
Dr Peter Hyun Eui Lee, Post-doctoral research assistant 2022-2023, (now Field Service Engineer, Thermo Fisher Scientific)
Tracy To, Second year research project, T1 2023 (now completing UG studies at UNSW Sydney)
Olivia Rusli, Research Assistant 2020, (now, PhD candidate in the Rijs Group)
Kristy Meng Yuan Zhang, M.Phil. 2020-2022, (now Scientist in a commercial analytical lab)
Dr Niklas Geue, DAAD RISE Intern 2019 (now Post Doctoral Scientist, Barran Research Group, University of Manchester)
Daniel Loo, Research Assistant 2019 (now PhD Candidate, Wang Research Group, UNSW Sydney)
Tracy To, Second year research project, T1 2023 (now completing UG studies at UNSW Sydney)
Olivia Rusli, Research Assistant 2020, (now, PhD candidate in the Rijs Group)
Kristy Meng Yuan Zhang, M.Phil. 2020-2022, (now Scientist in a commercial analytical lab)
Dr Niklas Geue, DAAD RISE Intern 2019 (now Post Doctoral Scientist, Barran Research Group, University of Manchester)
Daniel Loo, Research Assistant 2019 (now PhD Candidate, Wang Research Group, UNSW Sydney)
Kristy successfully used mass spectrometry to better understand how cyclotricatechylene ligands form supramolecular assemblies that selectively coordinate heavy metal cations.