Professor Rachel O'Reilly MBE FRS FRSC

Professor Rachel O'Reilly

School of Chemistry
Pro-Vice Chancellor (Research)
Professor of Polymer Chemistry

Contact details

Email
r.oreilly@bham.ac.uk
Twitter
@rorgroup
View my research portal
Address
School of Chemistry
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT

Rachel holds a Chair in Chemistry within the College of Engineering and Physical Sciences at the University of Birmingham. She was the Head of School from 2018-2023 when she took on the position of Pro-Vice Chancellor for Research. She graduated from the University of Cambridge in 1998 with a BA in Natural Sciences, and in 1999 with an MSc in Chemistry and completed her PhD in 2003 from Imperial College London. She has held a number of prestigious fellowships from the EPSRC, Royal Society and Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851.

She has published almost 300 research papers in scientific journals as well as reviews and book chapters in the fields of polymer synthesis, self-assembly, catalysis and DNA nanotechnology. She has given over 250 invited lectures and was recognised as one of the Royal Society of Chemistry's 175 faces of Chemistry. She has received major grants and research support from the ERC, BP and EPSRC. She leads an interdisciplinary team working at the interface of chemistry, materials and biology. Since 2006 she has graduated over 50 PhD students and mentored over 30 postdoctoral researchers.

Rachel was appointed on the EPSRC strategic advisory network (SAN) in 2009 and served for almost 7 years. During this time she most significantly contributed to white papers on developing more flexible support for early career researchers, managing diversity and delivering impact. She held a position as a review editor for Science from 2016-2022 and is an associate editor of the leading journal in Chemistry, the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

Rachel leads the Rachel O'Reilly Group. Her group’s work has received numerous national and international awards for her polymer and material efforts, including, uniquely, four from the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), and, young researcher medals from the American Chemical Society (ACS) and the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), the world authority on chemical nomenclature and terminology. She was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2022 and in 2025 was awarded an MBE for services to Chemistry.

Rachel is also part of the Birmingham Plastics Network, an interdisciplinary team of more than 40 academics working together to shape the fate and sustainable future of plastics.  This unique team brings together chemists, environmental scientists, philosophers, linguists, economists, and experts in many other fields, to holistically address the global plastics problem.

Qualifications

2003

Ph.D. in Chemistry, Supervisor: Professor Vernon C. Gibson, FRS
Title : Novel catalyst design for utilisation in controlled radical polymerisations
Imperial College, Exhibition Road, South Kensington, London, SW7 2AY, UK

1999

M.Sci. hons, 1st class in Chemistry
B.A. hons, 1st class in Natural Sciences
University of Cambridge, Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, CB3 0DG, UK

Other activities

Selected Professional Societies, Activities and Service

  • Member of the RSC Inclusion and Diversity Committee, 2024-
  • Member of the Royal Society Wolfson and Faraday fellowship committees, 2023-
  • Member of REF 2021 sub-panel UOA 8, Chemistry
  • Fellow of the European Academy of Sciences, 2021
  • Member of the Novo Nordisk Committee on Interdisciplinary Research, 2021-
  • Member of the Science and Engineering Fellowship Committee for the 1851 Commission, 2019
  • Panel Member of the ERC Advanced Grant program, 2019-
  • Council member of the High Polymer Research Group, 2018-
  • Associate Editor for the ACS journal, Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2021-
  • Editorial advisory board member for the ACS journal, Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2019-2021
  • Associate Editor for the ACS journal, Macromolecules, 2018-2021

Honours and Awards

  • Award an MBE for Services in Chemistry, Kings Birthday Honours, 2025
  • Awarded the Royal Society of Chemistry, Tilden Prize, 2025
  • Awarded the Netherlands Scholar Award for Supramolecular Chemistry, 2023
  • Elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society, 2022
  • Awarded the ACS Global Outstanding Mentor Award in Polymer Science and Engineering, 2022
  • Awarded the Macro Macro Group UK Medal, 2021
  • Awarded the Royal Society of Chemistry, Corday-Morgan Prize, 2020
  • Awarded the Royal Society of Chemistry, Polymer Chemistry lectureship, 2020
  • Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists, UK Finalist Chemistry, 2019

Publications

Recent publications

Article

Wu, Y, Jia, W, Xia, T, Liao, J, He, W, Wang, H, Yang, W, Dai, X, Feng, W, O'Reilly, R, Tong, Z, Yu, M, Xie, Y & Chen, Y 2026, 'NIR-Actuated Morphodynamic 2D Nanopatches for Interface-Programmed Immunoactivation and Tumor Regression', Journal of the American Chemical Society, vol. 148, no. 3, pp. 2902−2919. https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.5c11219

Xiao, L, Xia, T, Zhang, J, Parkinson, SJ, Rho, JY, Dove, AP & O’ Reilly, RK 2025, 'Direct preparation of two-dimensional platelets from polymers enabled by accelerated seed formation', Nature Synthesis, vol. 4, no. 7, pp. 808-815. https://doi.org/10.1038/s44160-025-00767-x

Londoño de la Cruz, DA, Chappell, D, Rashid, B, Tookey, BR, Ferguson, CTJ & O'Reilly, RK 2025, 'pH-responsive polymer-supported pyrene-based fluorescent dyes for CO2 detection in aqueous environments', Polymer Chemistry. https://doi.org/10.1039/d4py01186d

Xiao, L, Xia, T & O'Reilly, RK 2025, 'Self-assembled poly(L-lactide)-based platelets prepared via seeded growth †', Faraday Discussions. https://doi.org/10.1039/d5fd00064e

Wrathall, NJ, Eller, J, Barker, JE, d. N. Rodrigues, N, O’Reilly, RK, Hine, NDM & Stavros, VG 2025, 'Towards elucidating the solar instability of the anti-fungal food preservative natamycin: insights from spectroscopy', Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics. https://doi.org/10.1039/d5cp03071d

Frommer, J, Oppenheimer, R, Allott, BM, Núñez‐Pertíñez, S, Wilks, TR, Cox, LR, Bath, J, O'Reilly, RK & Turberfield, AJ 2024, 'A New Architecture for DNA‐Templated Synthesis in Which Abasic Sites Protect Reactants from Degradation', Angewandte Chemie (International Edition) . https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.202317482

Frommer, J, Oppenheimer, R, Allott, BM, Núñez‐Pertíñez, S, Wilks, TR, Cox, LR, Bath, J, O'Reilly, RK & Turberfield, AJ 2024, 'A New Architecture for DNA‐Templated Synthesis in Which Abasic Sites Protect Reactants from Degradation', Angewandte Chemie. https://doi.org/10.1002/ange.202317482

Balaji, A, Prior, A, O'Reilly, R, Dove, A, Thurecht, K & Bell, CA 2024, 'Biodegradable mPEG-b-poly(MDO-co-vinyl esters) block copolymers as a viable nanocarrier platform with tuneable disassembly', Polymer Chemistry. https://doi.org/10.1039/D4PY00049H

Thomas, M, Varlas, S, Wilks, TR, Fielden, SDP & O'Reilly, RK 2024, 'Controlled node growth on the surface of polymersomes†', Chemical Science. https://doi.org/10.1039/d3sc05915d

Xia, T, Xiao, L, Sun, K, Rho, J, Xie, Y, Parkinson, S, Sangroniz, L, Zhang, J, Lin, J, Müller, AJ, Gao, L, Dove, A & O'Reilly, R 2024, 'Control over Aspect Ratio and Polymer Spatial Distribution of 2D Platelets via Living Crystallization-Driven Self-Assembly', Macromolecules, vol. 57, no. 23, pp. 11210-11220. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.macromol.4c02496

Parkinson, SJ, Fielden, SDP, Thomas, M, Miller, AJ, Topham, PD, Derry, MJ & O'Reilly, RK 2024, 'Harnessing Cytosine for Tunable Nanoparticle Self-Assembly Behavior Using Orthogonal Stimuli', Biomacromolecules, vol. 25, no. 8, pp. 4905-4912. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.biomac.4c00352

Barker, JE, Richings, GW, Xie, Y, Rho, JY, Ferguson, CTJ, O'Reilly, RK & Habershon, S 2024, 'Integrated computational and experimental design of fluorescent heteroatom-functionalised maleimide derivatives †', Chemical Science. https://doi.org/10.1039/d4sc04816d

Comment/debate

Advincula, R, Barber, S, Becker, M, Buchard, A, Butler, F, Chakraborty, D, Dadge, EO, Denton, EH, Hayes, W, Hughes, J, Irvine, G, Jacob, PL, Junkers, T, Kerton, FM, Lohmann, V, McGuire, T, Nozaki, K, O'Reilly, R, Otten, M, Platel, RH, Redfearn, A, Romain, C, Unthank, M, Wang, Y & Xiao, L 2026, 'Polymerisation processes and computational methods to control structure: general discussion', Faraday Discussions, vol. 262, pp. 541-552. https://doi.org/10.1039/D5FD90054A

Letter

Yang, K, Rho, JY, Xiao, L, Elliott, MR, Ferguson, CTJ, You, Y & O'Reilly, RK 2025, 'Temperature‐Induced Morphological Transitions for On‐Demand Detachment in Worm‐Based Polymer Hydrogels', Angewandte Chemie. https://doi.org/10.1002/ange.202519031

Review article

Xia, T, Xiao, L, Xie, Y, Dove, AP & O’Reilly, RK 2025, 'Deciphering Evolution, Function, and Observation of Crystallization-Driven Self-Assembly', Chemical Reviews, vol. 125, no. 21, pp. 10105-10178. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.chemrev.5c00298

View all publications in research portal