Adam Matthew Cowden (PhD)
I'm a continuing PhD student of the MAS (Molecular Analytical Science) Centre for Doctoral Training at Warwick, on a 4-year integrated MSc and PhD programme. In the MSc year I completed two projects that involved the isolation of natural products: firstly the characterisation of a range of highly oxygenated carbohydrates from wood and plant material, and secondly a family of molecules called mycosporines that were extracted from marine algae and appear to play the role of Nature's own sunscreens. I chose to continue the latter project into a PhD with the Stavros Group. Inspired by mycosporine-like amino acids from seaweeds with interesting properties, we aim to unravel their photodynamics with ultrafast laser spectroscopy and to synthesise molecules with similar properties.