Max completed his BSc in Chemistry at the University of Liverpool in 2018. As an undergraduate, he was awarded the Liverpool International College Excellence Scholarship, and volunteered as a demonstrator as part of an outreach programme for disadvantaged high school students. After graduating, Max returned home to the Isle of Man, where he received a job offer to work in Japan as a teacher in 2020. However, after the COVID-19 pandemic, he decided to return to academia and was invited into the Alberto Roldan Group at Cardiff University in 2021, under the joint supervision of Dr Roldan and Prof Marc Pera-Titus. While Max originally joined the Roldan group as an MPhil student, he was promoted to a full PhD student within nine months of study on the joint recommendation of his postgraduate review panel and his supervisors. Currently, Max is working towards completing his doctoral thesis on the uses of DFT modelling in green catalysis. His computational research interests include biomass-based synthesis and d-block heterogeneous catalysis.