Profile

I’m an academic (OED: academic, n. ‘of little practical value’), and a professor of chemistry. I work at a university teaching and carrying out research in organic chemistry, which is the study of molecules and substances composed mainly of carbon. Most of the molecules found in people, animals and all other life-forms are ‘organic’, so the work we do has relevance to may things of importance for daily life. In particular, we are keen to make a contribution to understanding diseases, and finding new medicines  to treat them. So we make new chemicals and work with other scientists (biologists, pharmacologists, medicinal chemists) to have these new substances tested in relevant ways. One of the great strengths of chemistry is synthesis: the ability to make completely new substances using new or well-known chemical reactions. Of all the diverse scientific disciplines, only chemistry enables us to make these new things, and as researchers in synthetic chemistry, we try to invent new ways to make chemicals which have already been shown to be useful (as medicines, or other practical things, such as dyes, imaging agents for MRI and so on). We also aim to use new methods in synthetic chemistry to make totally new molecules which possess useful properties. AT the end of the day, I want to help make a difference: in my mind science is all about helping society, making life better, for as many people as possible.

My typical day starts reasonably early (I’m usually in my office by 08:00). The day could be described as a mixture of talking, listening and writing. I spend a lot of time talking to students, both undergraduate and postgraduate