Dr Andrew Tarzia PhD

Dr Andrew Tarzia

School of Chemistry
Assistant Professor of Computational Chemistry for Synthesis & Materials

Contact details

Email
a.tarzia@bham.ac.uk
View my research portal
Address
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Andrew Tarzia is an Assistant Professor of Computational Chemistry for Synthesis & Materials within the School of Chemistry.

Andrew uses high-throughput computation to study new supramolecular materials. Andrew’s focus is on developing robust, open-source software to bridge the gap between experimental and computational workflows and speed up materials design.

Further details can be found on his personal website.

Qualifications

  • PhD in Chemistry (2019), The University of Adelaide, Australia
  • Bsc in Chemistry and Theoretical Physics with an Honours degree in Chemistry, 1st class (2014), The University of Adelaide, Australia

Biography

Andrew completed his PhD (2015-2019) at the University of Adelaide in Australia under the supervision of David Huang and Christian Doonan, with support from the CSIRO and supervision from Aaron Thornton. Here he developed high-throughput screening methods for metal-organic frameworks.

Andrew then moved to London for a postdoc in Kim Jelfs’ Materials Group at Imperial College London (2019-2022), where he worked on the development of software and methods for the efficient screening of coordination cages and other molecular materials.

In May 2022, Andrew started a postdoc position in the Pavan lab at Politecnico di Torino in Turin, Italy. In December 2022, he was awarded a Fixed-term assistant professor (RTD-a) position funded by the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) and the EU working on the rational design of (supra)molecular materials and was hosted in the Pavan Lab.

In August 2025, Andrew moved to the University of Birmingham as an Assistant Professor.

Research

Andrew uses computational chemistry and physics-based models to tackle the challenge of predicting the structure of self-assembled cages and their supramolecular properties. 

Find more information about the group's research here: https://tarziaresearchgroup.github.io

The research interests of the group in this space are: 

i) Develop algorithms that explore the many possible structural outcomes of self-assembly in an efficient way starting from only experimental inputs 

ii) Implement high-throughput supramolecular property prediction methodology, towards designing catalysts and sensors 

iii) Traverse multiple model scales using automated workflows that best use computational resources to improve decision-making 

By bringing all of this together in user-friendly software, integrated into experimental processes, Andrew’s research will help minimise the cost of materials discovery and improve software accessibility, bringing state-of-the-art computational methods to a broader audience. 

Publications

Highlight publications

Tarzia, A, Wolpert, EH, Jelfs, KE & Pavan, GM 2023, 'Systematic exploration of accessible topologies of cage molecules via minimalistic models', Chemical Science, vol. 14, no. 44, 12506. https://doi.org/10.1039/d3sc03991a

Tarzia, A, Shan, W, Posligua, V, Cox, CJT, Male, L, Egleston, BD, Greenaway, RL, Jelfs, KE & Lewis, JEM 2025, 'A Combined Experimental and Computational Exploration of Heteroleptic cis-Pd2L2L’2 Coordination Cages through Geometric Complementarity', Chemistry: A European Journal, vol. 31, no. 1, e202403336. https://doi.org/10.1002/chem.202403336, https://doi.org/10.1002/chem.202403336

Tarzia, A & Jelfs, KE 2022, 'Unlocking the computational design of metal-organic cages', Chemical Communications, vol. 58, no. 23, pp. 3717-3730. https://doi.org/10.1039/d2cc00532h

Tarzia, A, Lewis, J & Jelfs, KE 2021, 'High-throughput computational evaluation of low symmetry Pd2L4 cages to aid in system design', Angewandte Chemie (International Edition) , vol. 60, no. 38, pp. 20879-20887. https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.202106721

Davies, JA, Tarzia, A, Ronson, TK, Auras, F, Jelfs, KE & Nitschke, JR 2023, 'Tetramine Aspect Ratio and Flexibility Determine Framework Symmetry for Zn8L6 Self-Assembled Structures', Angewandte Chemie - International Edition, vol. 62, no. 10, e202217987. https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.202217987

Recent publications

Article

Kearsey, RJ, Tarzia, A, Little, MA, Brand, MC, Clowes, R, Jelfs, KE, Cooper, AI & Greenaway, RL 2023, 'Competitive aminal formation during the synthesis of a highly soluble, isopropyl-decorated imine porous organic cage', Chemical Communications, vol. 59, no. 25, pp. 3731-3734. https://doi.org/10.1039/d3cc00072a

Molinska, P, Tarzia, A, Male, L, Jelfs, KE & Lewis, JEM 2023, 'Diastereoselective Self‐Assembly of Low‐Symmetry PdnL2n Nanocages through Coordination‐Sphere Engineering', Angewandte Chemie (International Edition) , vol. 62, no. 51, e202315451. https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.202315451

Molinska, P, Tarzia, A, Male, L, Jelfs, KE & Lewis, J 2023, 'Diastereoselective Self‐Assembly of Low‐Symmetry PdnL2n Nanocages through Coordination‐Sphere Engineering', Angewandte Chemie, vol. 135, no. 51, e202315451. https://doi.org/10.1002/ange.202315451

Anipa, V, Tarzia, A, Jelfs, KE, Alexandrov, EV & Addicoat, MA 2023, 'Pore topology analysis in porous molecular systems', Royal Society Open Science, vol. 10, no. 2, 220813. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.220813

Bruno, NC, Mathias, R, Lee, YJ, Zhu, G, Ahn, YH, Rangnekar, ND, Johnson, JR, Hoy, S, Bechis, I, Tarzia, A, Jelfs, KE, McCool, BA, Lively, R & Finn, MG 2023, 'Solution-processable polytriazoles from spirocyclic monomers for membrane-based hydrocarbon separations', Nature Materials, vol. 22, no. 12, pp. 1540-1547. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-023-01682-2

Wolpert, EH, Tarzia, A & Jelfs, KE 2023, 'The effect of disorder in multi-component covalent organic frameworks', Chemical communications (Cambridge, England), vol. 59, no. 45, pp. 6909-6912. https://doi.org/10.1039/d3cc01111a

Bechis, I, Sapnik, AF, Tarzia, A, Wolpert, EH, Addicoat, MA, Keen, DA, Bennett, TD & Jelfs, KE 2022, 'Modeling the Effect of Defects and Disorder in Amorphous Metal-Organic Frameworks', Chemistry of Materials, vol. 34, no. 20, pp. 9042-9054. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.chemmater.2c01528

Li, RJ, Tarzia, A, Posligua, V, Jelfs, KE, Sanchez, N, Marcus, A, Baksi, A, Clever, GH, Fadaei-Tirani, F & Severin, K 2022, 'Orientational self-sorting in cuboctahedral Pd cages', Chemical Science, vol. 13, no. 40, pp. 11912-11917. https://doi.org/10.1039/d2sc03856k

Boer, SA, Conte, L, Tarzia, A, Huxley, MT, Gardiner, MG, Appadoo, DRT, Ennis, C, Doonan, CJ, Richardson, C & White, NG 2022, 'Water Sorption Controls Extreme Single-Crystal-to-Single-Crystal Molecular Reorganization in Hydrogen Bonded Organic Frameworks', Chemistry - A European Journal, vol. 28, no. 57, e202201929. https://doi.org/10.1002/chem.202201929

Turcani, L, Tarzia, A, Szczypiński, FT & Jelfs, KE 2021, 'stk: An extendable Python framework for automated molecular and supramolecular structure assembly and discovery', Journal of Chemical Physics, vol. 154, no. 21, 214102. https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0049708

Kai, A, Egleston, BD, Tarzia, A, Clowes, R, Briggs, ME, Jelfs, KE, Cooper, AI & Greenaway, RL 2021, 'Modular Type III Porous Liquids Based on Porous Organic Cage Microparticles', Advanced Functional Materials, vol. 31, no. 51, 2106116. https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.202106116

Zou, YQ, Zhang, D, Ronson, TK, Tarzia, A, Lu, Z, Jelfs, KE & Nitschke, JR 2021, 'Sterics and Hydrogen Bonding Control Stereochemistry and Self-Sorting in BINOL-Based Assemblies', Journal of the American Chemical Society, vol. 143, no. 24, pp. 9009-9015. https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.1c05172

Chapter

Bennett, S, Tarzia, A, Zwijnenburg, MA & Jelfs, KE 2020, Chapter 12: Artificial Intelligence Applied to the Prediction of Organic Materials. in HM Cartwright (ed.), London Dispersion Forces in Molecules, Solids and Nano-structures: An Introduction to Physical Models and Computational Methods. 17 edn, RSC Theoretical and Computational Chemistry Series, no. 17, vol. 2020-January, Royal Society of Chemistry, pp. 280-310. https://doi.org/10.1039/9781839160233-00280

Comment/debate

Bennett, TD, Brammer, L, Coudert, FX, Evans, JD, Fischer, M, Goodwin, AL, Jiang, J, Kaskel, S, Kitagawa, S, Krause, S, Lee, JSM, Matsuda, R, Rogge, SMJ, Ryder, MR, Schmid, R, Tarzia, A, Van Der Veen, MA & Van Speybroeck, V 2021, 'Novel computational tools: General discussion', Faraday Discussions, vol. 225, pp. 341-357. https://doi.org/10.1039/D0FD90034F

Review article

Mroz, AM, Posligua, V, Tarzia, A, Wolpert, EH & Jelfs, KE 2022, 'Into the Unknown: How Computation Can Help Explore Uncharted Material Space', Journal of the American Chemical Society, vol. 144, no. 41, pp. 18730-18743. https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.2c06833

View all publications in research portal