The Oakley Group

The Oakley Group, 2026

Group Leader & Dame Kathleen Ollerenshaw Research Fellow

Previously an NSERC Postdoctoral Research Fellow at The University of Manchester
Postdocs at the University of Minnesota & University of Manitoba
PhD at the University of Alberta
Follow @meaganoakley on Bluesky

PhD Students

PhD student

PhD co-supervised with Michael Baker
Lana completed her MChem at Cardiff University with a placement year abroad at the University of Florida. Both projects focused on benchmarking electronic structure theory methods. Her PhD project focuses on modelling X-ray spectra of actinides.

PhD student

PhD co-supervised with David Mills
Fathima completed her Masters in Chemistry at the National Institute of Technology, Calicut, Kerala, India. Her master’s project focused on electronic structure studies of beryllium-group 13 heterobimetallic dimetallocenes. Her PhD project focuses on defining the electronic structures of (hetero)metallocene anions-He-MAn.

Postdoctoral Researcher

PDRA at UoM since 2023
Previous postdocs at The University of Manchester with Prof. Nicholas F. Chilton (2024-2025) and at Nantes University with Dr Morgane Vacher (2025-2026).
PhD in Theoretical Chemistry, at the University of Rennes with Prof. Boris Le Guennic (2020-2023).
Maxime is undertaking a second postdoc at the University of Manchester to simulate X-ray spectra of actinide complexes. His main research focuses on developing and applying novel methods to study optical properties based on multiconfigurationnal electronic structure calculations. He is also interested in magnetic properties and dynamics.

Postdoctoral Researcher

Independent PDRA at UoM since 2023
PhD in Chemistry, University of Copenhagen, 2023
While not ~technically~ part of the Oakley Group, Nicolaj is working closely with Meagan on simulating optical spectra of lanthanides and uranyl. His research interests contains all things light and f-block elements. Currently, he is working on uranyl speciation for nuclear remediation and nuclear waste management.

MChem student

Current MChem student, with a keen interest in physical and computational chemistry
Ffion’s research is focused on extended environment effects on simulating X-ray spectra of actinide dioxide compounds

MSc student

Having grown up in Lancaster, Ieuan completed his BA (Hons) in Natural Sciences at the University of Cambridge before coming to Manchester to pursue his MSc. His interests include DFT and f-block chemistry.

Post-dog

PhD (pretty happy dog)
Pippin trained with Dr. Oakley for 4 years and gained expertise in sit, speak, and playing dead.
Proficient in pip

Vedaang Parammal (Undergraduate, 2024)

Kholil Rahman (Postgraduate, 2025)

Lin Abhari (MChem, 2025)