Lawrence Harris

Lawrence Harris

Lawrence is proud to be Welsh, though he shyly admits to being born in England. His family is from the valleys in South Wales and he became fluent at a Welsh-speaking school. “My parents don’t speak the language, but my grandparents do—it’s quite common to have skipped a generation,” he says.

“My PhD (DPhil) was from Oxford University. I was undecided whether to follow it with an academic post-doc or move into industry, but I also had a dream to live in New Zealand since a visit with friends in 2005. I found out about the job at IRL through a friend who was already working here, so I applied, was lucky enough to get it, and started in June 2009.

“Chemistry is really a hobby as well as a job for me. I like the challenge of making a compound that has never been made before and thinking mechanistically about all the details of a reaction scheme and rationalising everything. I really enjoy what I do.

 “The team at IRL is a leading carbohydrate research group on the world stage and has an excellent reputation. This is my first job out of university, and I’m still learning a lot, so it’s great to learn from experts in various areas of organic chemistry."

Lawrence’s recent projects have included the development of new methodology for an amino hydroxylation reaction that was a problematic step in the synthesis of allosamidin—a complex molecule made up of three sugars.

This work was recently published as a feature article in the Journal of Organic Chemistry and is the basis of two provisional patent applications.

He is also working on the synthesis of an ORPTase (orotate phosphoribosyl transferase) enzyme inhibitor target that is part of the group’s ongoing collaboration with Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. “It’s been a big collaborative effort to get this far, and several others have spent time on it. The synthesis is 22 steps long, but I’ve focussed on the last 12.

“I like working here—it’s a relaxed atmosphere and everyone is keen to help. It’s easy to get your work done and the labs have everything you need. There is a very good social network here too, which has been really important to me, coming from overseas. I love living in New Zealand—the lifestyle is brilliant and there are so many beautiful places, all in one country.

“I enjoy the skiing and hiking here. I do like my rugby too, but there have been a few inevitable clashes with All Black supporters. I went up to Hamilton in June 2010 to watch Wales play them, but unfortunately we lost. It would have been the first win in 57 years, so I guess we’re still waiting for that day.”