Current Group Members
Staff Members
Dr Gokhan Yilmaz
Assistant Professor (2022 - Present)
He obtained his PhD in Chemistry in 2016 under the guidance of Prof. Remzi Becer at the University of Warwick. Following several years of postdoctoral experience, including positions at Queen Mary University of London in the School of Engineering and Materials Science and at the University of Nottingham in the School of Pharmacy, he returned to Warwick Chemistry to join the ITN BIOMOLMACS Project under the coordination of Remzi Becer.
His research project is primarily focused on the synthesis of precision glycopolymers and their subsequent evaluation for binding affinity with various types of human lectins, with the aim of applying these findings in diverse biological applications. Furthermore, he has a keen interest in developing glyco-based nanoparticles through various synthesis techniques to enhance their applicability in biomedicine.
Dr Melahat Göktaş
Visiting Associate Professor (2024 - Present)
Independent Academic, Van Yüzüncü Yıl University, Türkiye
Dr Bhagyashree Kulkarni
Post-Doctoral Fellow (2024 - Present)
Bhagyashree completed her PhD in 2019 under the guidance of Prof. M. Jayakannan at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Pune, India. She then pursued postdoctoral research with Prof. Nikos Hadjichristidis at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Saudi Arabia. Currently, she is a Marie Sklodowska-Curie EUTOPIA-SIF Cofund Postdoctoral Fellow with Prof. Remzi Becer. Her project is focusing on synthesizing 2-oxazoline-based polymers for biomedical applications.
Dr İdil Karaca Açari
Visiting Associate Professor (2024 - Present)
Idil completed her master's degree in analytical chemistry at the Faculty of Pharmacy in Turkey and her doctorate in biochemistry. After her doctorate, she worked as a postdoctoral researcher at Izmir Biomedicine and Genome Center for one year. She is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences at Malatya Turgut Ozal University. She has ~30 publications in influential journals such as Nature Communications, Advances in Colloid and Interface Science, Colloid and Surfaces B: Biointerfaces, Ceramics. There are one international and two national patent applications in the field of biomaterials in 2022. Filed. Her areas of interest are biomaterials, drug delivery systems and biosensor systems. Currently, under the supervision of Prof. Remzi Becer, she is developing drug carrier systems using glycopolymer structures for biomedical applications within the scope of 2219 TUBITAK project.
PhD Students
James Lefley
PhD Student - Year 4
James completed his Bachelors degree at Newcastle University in 2018. After that he enrolled at the University of Warwick and completed his Masters degree in Polymer Chemistry in 2020. During his Masters, James studied and published a review on the macromolecular design and preparation of polymersomes with Prof Remzi Becer. He eventually stayed on with the Becer Group to start an industrially funded PhD with Infineum. James’ research focuses on Poly(oxazoline)-based smart materials, amphiphilic block copolymers, and self-assembly.
Dan MacKinnon
PhD Student - Year 4
Dan completed an integrated Masters degree in Chemistry at the University of York from 2016-2020. In his final year, he completed a research project based on bio-based step-growth polyesters while working for Innospec in Ellesmere Port. In 2020, he started his PhD in the Becer group at the University of Warwick working on sustainable polymers and published a journal article utilizing multicomponent reactions for polyamide synthesis. In his second year, Dan received industrial funding from CreateMe to work on reversible adhesives. Since then, his work has largely focused on designing polymers to meet specific property criteria and utilising reversible chemistries to develop CANs (Covalent Adaptable Networks).
Zivani Varanaraja
PhD Student - Year 4
Zivani completed her BSc in Chemistry with Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Warwick in 2019. She stayed on to achieve her MSc in Chemistry with Scientific Writing, during which she published a review titled “Poly(2-oxazine)s: A comprehensive overview of the polymer structures, physical properties and applications”. In October 2020, Zivani started her PhD in the Becer Group, sponsored by Infineum. Her project is focusing on synthesising 2-oxaoline/2-oxazine based polymers with specific functionality.
Jonas Becker
PhD Student - Year 4
Jonas graduated from Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany with an MSc degree in 2018. His master thesis was focussed on the synthesis and characterisation of molecular photoswitches. After an industrial internship in Munich, he was employed at SCHOTT Technical Glass Solutions (Jena, Germany), working on silane coatings of glass surfaces by Chemical Vapour Deposition (CVD). In 2020, he joined the group of Prof. Remzi Becer as a PhD candidate and part of the BIOMOLMACS network (MSCA Horizon 2020). His research interests are the effect of chirality on glycopolymer-lectin interactions (by SPR), step-growth polymerisation based on CuAAC, functionalization of poly-(2-oxazoline) scaffolds via click chemistry and the biological recognition of glycopolymers and cells.
Roberto Terracciano
PhD Student - Year 4
Roberto achieved his Master of Science degree in Pharmaceutical Chemistry from the University Federico II of Napoli, Italy. During his master's thesis, he participated in the Erasmus+ program from 2018 to 2019 and was hosted at the University of Nottingham (UK) as a member of Prof. Cameron Alexander’s group. In collaboration with Prof. Robin Shattock at Imperial College London, he focused on the design of charge-reversible polymeric gene delivery vectors and their interaction with saRNA. In September 2020, Roberto embarked on his PhD journey under the guidance of Prof. Remzi Becer. This doctoral research, part of the BIOMOLMACS ITN (MSCA Horizon2020), centers around artificial cell membranes and their innovative applications.
Caity Nutting
PhD Student - Year 2
Caity completed her bachelors degree at the University of Warwick in 2022. She commenced her masters degree in the Becer group investigating cholesterol-conjugated glycans, before transitioning to a PhD position at the start of 2023. Caity's research focuses on glycopolymers with the aim to make novel pharmaceuticals and biomaterials.
Abeer Aljubailah
PhD Student - Year 2
Abeer obtained her BSc and MSc degrees in Chemistry from King Saud University in Saudi Arabia. In Summer 2023, she started her PhD in the Becer group. Abeer is conducting her PhD research project in the field of sustainable polymers.
Master Students
Angie Cheung
MRes Student
Angie completed her BA at the University of Cambridge in Natural Sciences with her final year specialising in Materials Science in 2024. She is currently a Master’s student in Polymer Science and working on Poly(2-Oxazoline)s.
Nomagugu Moyo
MRes Student
Gugu completed her BSc in Chemistry at the University of Southampton. She is focusing on synthesizing baroplastic materials for sustainable closed-loop polymer recycling.
Silvana Miele
MChem Student
Silvana started her MChem at the University of Warwick in 2021 and completed a Year in Industry at Lubrizol. She is working on Poly(2-Oxazoline)s.
Undergraduate Students
Magda Godzina
Undergraduate Researcher - Year 3 Undergraduate (2023)
Magda is completing her undergraduate degree at the University of Warwick. She conducted a URSS project over the summer focusing on copolymerising poly(2-oxazolines) with polylactides as tools to control their phase separation in artificial cells. Her current research focuses on synthesising novel baroplastic materials for sustainable closed-loop polymer recycling.