Dr Nathan Davison MChem, PhD

Dr Nathan Davison

School of Chemistry
Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellow

Contact details

Email
n.davison@bham.ac.uk
View my research portal
Address
Molecular Science Building
School of Chemistry
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Nathan is a Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellow in the School of Chemistry. His research interests span main-group and organometallic chemistry, polymer chemistry, and mechanochemistry.

Qualifications

  • PhD in Chemistry, Newcastle University, 2024
  • MChem in Chemistry, Newcastle University, 2019

Biography

Nathan completed his MChem degree at Newcastle University in 2019. He stayed at Newcastle University to complete his PhD under the supervision of Dr Erli Lu, researching solution and solid-state alkali metal chemistry. In 2024, Nathan received the Newcastle University School of Natural and Environmental Sciences Postgraduate Research Award for producing the best PhD thesis in Chemistry. He remained in the Lu group as a postdoctoral research fellow and moved to the University of Birmingham in 2024.

In 2025, Nathan was awarded a Parliamentary and Scientific Committee STEM for Britain Chemistry Silver Award, and the Royal Society of Chemistry Dalton Emerging Researcher Prize. The latter was awarded for significant advances in organolithium and organosodium chemistry, including the first solvent-free Birch reduction, and the isolation of monomeric methyllithium.

In 2026, Nathan began a Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowship at the University of Birmingham. His current research focuses on unlocking new polymer reactivity with main-group metals and mechanical force.

Publications

Recent publications

Article

Lowe, ME, Davison, N, Waddell, PG, Hemingway, JM, Wills, C, Dawson, JA, Armstrong, RJ & Lu, E 2026, 'Ligand- and alkali metal identity-effects in ligand-induced ortho-selective C(sp2)–H metalation of neophyl-sodium and lithium complexes', Chemical Science. https://doi.org/10.1039/d6sc06427b

Kondo, K, Lowe, M, Davison, N, Waddell, PG, Armstrong, RJ, Lu, E, Kubota, K & Ito, H 2026, 'Mechanochemical synthesis of organosodium compounds through direct sodiation of organic halides', Nature Synthesis, vol. 5, no. 5, pp. 669-679. https://doi.org/10.1038/s44160-025-00949-7

Yang, X, Hemingway, JM, Kanna, W, Davison, N, Hayashi, H, Male, L, Waddell, PG, Dawson, JA & Lu, E 2026, 'Tandem Reactivity of Metal−Carbon and Carbon−Silicon Bonds in Mononuclear α‐Silyl Organolithium or Organosodium Complexes Towards CO, CO2 and Heteroallenes', Angewandte Chemie, vol. 138, no. 21, e8906317. https://doi.org/10.1002/ange.8906317

Yang, X, Hemingway, JM, Kanna, W, Davison, N, Hayashi, H, Male, L, Waddell, PG, Dawson, JA & Lu, E 2026, 'Tandem Reactivity of Metal−Carbon and Carbon−Silicon Bonds in Mononuclear α‐Silyl Organolithium or Organosodium Complexes Towards CO, CO2 and Heteroallenes', Angewandte Chemie (International Edition) , vol. 65, no. 21, e8906317. https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.8906317

Lowe, M, Gallant, BM, Davison, N, Hopkinson, MN, Kubicki, DJ, Lu, E & Armstrong, RJ 2025, 'A reductive mechanochemical approach enabling direct upcycling of fluoride from polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) into fine chemicals', Journal of the American Chemical Society, vol. 147, no. 44, pp. 40895-40899. https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.5c14052

Yang, X, Davison, N, Lowe, ME, Waddell, PG, Armstrong, RJ, McMullin, CL, Hopkinson, MN & Lu, E 2025, 'C=O methylenation mediated by organo-alkali metal reagents: metal identity and ligand effects', Chemical Science, vol. 16, no. 24, pp. 11151-11160. https://doi.org/10.1039/D5SC02313K

Zhang, H, Davison, N, Hemingway, JM, Male, L, Waddell, PG, Deakin, J, Tuna, F, Dawson, JA & Lu, E 2025, 'Reactivity of a Sodium Anion with Alkenes: 1‑Electron vs 2‑Electron Reductions', Inorganic Chemistry, vol. 64, no. 51, pp. 25195-25204. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.inorgchem.5c04279

Davison, N, Hemingway, JM, Waddell, PG & Lu, E 2024, 'Lithium, sodium and potassium enolate aggregates and monomers: syntheses and structures', Dalton Transactions, vol. 53, pp. 4719-4728. https://doi.org/10.1039/D4DT00211C

Davison, N, Hemingway, JM, Wills, C, Stolar, T, Waddell, PG, Dixon, CM, Barron, L, Dawson, JA & Lu, E 2024, 'Mechanochemical Synthesis of a Sodium Anion Complex [Na + (2,2,2-cryptand)Na – ] and Studies of Its Reactivity: Two-Electron and One-Electron Reductions', Inorganic Chemistry, vol. 63, no. 32, pp. 15247-15258. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.inorgchem.4c02914

Davison, N, Quirk, JA, Tuna, F, Collison, D, McMullin, CL, Michaels, H, Morritt, GH, Waddell, PG, Gould, JA, Freitag, M, Dawson, JA & Lu, E 2023, 'A room-temperature-stable electride and its reactivity: Reductive benzene/pyridine couplings and solvent-free Birch reductions', Chem, vol. 9, no. 3, pp. 576-591. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chempr.2022.11.006

Davison, N, Khatun, T, Arce-Garcia, I, Gould, JA, Dawson, JA & Lu, E 2023, 'Facile Mechanochemical Reduction and Lithium-Ion Doping of Transition-Metal Oxides', European Journal of Inorganic Chemistry, vol. 26, no. 35, e202300344. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejic.202300344

Davison, N, McMullin, C, Zhang, L, Hu, S-X, Waddell, P, Wills, C, Casey, D & Lu, E 2023, 'Li vs Na: Divergent Reaction Patterns between Organolithium and Organosodium Complexes and Ligand-Catalyzed Ketone/Aldehyde Methylenation', Journal of the American Chemical Society, vol. 145, no. 11, pp. 6562-6576. https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.3c01033

Davison, N, Waddell, PG & Lu, E 2023, 'Reduction of K+ or Li+ in the Heterobimetallic Electride K+[LiN(SiMe3)2]e–', Journal of the American Chemical Society, vol. 145, no. 31, pp. 17007-17012. https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.3c06066

Davison, N & Lu, E 2023, 'The quest for organo-alkali metal monomers: unscrambling the structure–reactivity relationship', Dalton Transactions, vol. 52, no. 24, pp. 8172-8192. https://doi.org/10.1039/D3DT00980G

Letter

Barker, J, Davison, N, Waddell, PG & Lu, E 2023, 'Monomeric lithium and sodium silylbenzyl complexes: syntheses, structures, and C=O bond olefination', Chemical Communications , vol. 59, no. 52, pp. 8083-8086. https://doi.org/10.1039/D3CC01376F, https://doi.org/10.1039/D3CC01376F

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