Dr Doulcet is a synthetic organic chemist with particular interest in the development of innovative and sustainable synthetic organic chemistry methodologies for small molecule synthesis. He focuses on the use of Earth abundant metals or organocatalysts as means to increase the sustainability of chemical transformations.
His current reasearch involves the development of novel Fe & photoredox dual-catalysed reactions, the use Ni catalysis for cross-coupling reactions, as well as the use of borane catalysts (Frustrated Lewis Pair catalysis) for hydrogenation reactions.
Julien obtained a Masters degree in Chemistry from Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Ingénieurs en Art Chimiques Et Technologiques (ENSIACET), Toulouse, France, 2009.
In 2010, Julien joined the University of East Anglia (UK), and carried out a PhD under the supervision of Prof G. Richard Stephenson on the "Synthesis and multiple kinetic resolution of tetrathia[7]helicenes". After graduating in 2014, Julien remained at UEA as a Post-Doctoral Research Associate position in Prof. Stephenson's group working on the "asymmetric synthesis of helicenyl push-pull molecules to study their Non-Linear-Optical (NLO) properties".
In 2015, Dr Doulcet joined the the University of Huddersfield (UK) as a Research assistant under the supervision of Prof Joseph B. Sweeney (2015-2017) working on the "Mizoroki-Heck reaction of cyclic allyl amines" and "Aryne-mediated rearrangement reactions" and then under the supervision of Dr Duncan Gill (2018) working on the "synthesis of natural product aconitine C-D rings".
In 2018, Dr Doulcet joined Lancaster University (UK) initially as a Research Associate, under the supervision of Prof Joseph B. Sweeney working on "asymmetric aryne multicomponent reactions" and then on a project funded by Infineum on the "post-polymerisation functionalisation of polyolefins". In 2020, Julien became an Innovation fellow in the GISMO (Greater Innovation for Smarter Materials Optimisation) program designed to assist local businesses with the valorisation of hydrogen waste streams, and funded by ERDF.
Dr Doulcet was then appointed as a Lecturer in Chemistry at Lancaster University, in July 2021.