DrJosef Boronski

Josef T. Boronski is an Assistant Professor and Royal Society University Research Fellow in the Department of Chemistry at Imperial College London.

Joe graduated with an MChem from the University of York in 2017. Subsequently, he undertook a PhD in organo-actinide chemistry with Prof. Steve Liddle at the University of Manchester, which he completed in 2021. In the same year, Joe was awarded a Junior Research Fellowship at St John’s College, Oxford, hosted in the laboratories of Prof. Simon Aldridge FRS. Here, Joe initiated a programme of research into the organometallic chemistry of beryllium. In 2025, he was appointed as an Assistant Professor at Imperial and was awarded a Royal Society University Research Fellowship.

Joe is interested in the synthesis and reactivity of organometallic complexes of elements from across the whole Periodic Table. Research themes include metal-metal bonding, low-oxidation state complexes, and small molecule activation.

Head to the group website for more information: https://www.imperial.ac.uk/boronski-group/

Representative Publications:

• Diberyllocene, a stable compound of Be(I) with a Be–Be bond. Science, 2023, 380, 1147

• A Nucleophilic Beryllyl Complex via Metathesis at [Be–Be]²⁺. Nature Chemistry, 2024, 16, 1295

• A Crystalline NiX₆ Complex. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2024, 146, 35208

• Methane Beryllation Catalyzed by a Base Metal Complex. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2025, 147, 10073

• A Crystalline Tri-Thorium Cluster with σ-Aromatic Metal–Metal Bonding. Nature, 2021, 598, 72

Awards and Honors:

• Dalton Emerging Researcher Award - Royal Society of Chemistry (2023)

• Voice of the Future - Royal Society of Biology (2024)

• McCamley Lecturer - University of York (2025)