About the Faraday Community for Physical Chemistry

Dwayne Heard was born in Barnstaple, North Devon, and grew up on a farm. He attended Magdalen College, Oxford (BA Chemistry 1986) and completed his D.Phil. (1990) with Gus Hancock in the Physical Chemistry Laboratory, building a time-resolved step-scan FTIR spectrometer to study chemical kinetics and dynamics.

Following a postdoc with David Crosley at SRI International (USA), working in laser-based combustion diagnostics and atmospheric spectroscopy, he moved in 1992 to Macquarie University (Australia) as a Lecturer in Chemistry. He came to the School of Chemistry at the University of Leeds in 1994, where he held a Royal Society University Research Fellowship until 2002. He was a Visiting Fellow at JILA, University of Colorado in 2000, became Professor of Atmospheric Chemistry in 2004, and was Head of the School of Chemistry at Leeds from 2009-2013.

His research interests include atmospheric chemistry, in particular field measurements of the hydroxyl radical and other intermediates using laser-induced fluorescence spectroscopy, and modelling of atmospheric processes using detailed chemical mechanisms. He studies the kinetics and photochemistry of atmospheric gas-phase and aerosol processes, and uses a pulsed Laval nozzle apparatus to study the kinetics of reactions at very low temperatures relevant to the interstellar medium and planetary atmospheres.

He is an Editor with the journals Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, and Atmospheric Measurement Techniques, and Chairs the NERC Peer Review College Funding Panel B. He has supervised 35 PhD students, has over 195 publications (h=48), and gives talks in Schools about the importance of chemistry in Earth’s atmosphere.

She is the current chair of the RSC Spectroscopy and Dynamics Group.  Her research group (@DessentLab) works on laser spectroscopy and photochemistry, using interfaced mass spectrometry methods. The techniques are applied across a range of interdisciplinary areas including photobiology, organic sunscreens, environmental pollutants and photopharmaceuticals. 

Caroline has strong experience of working to promote Diversity & Inclusion in the Chemical Sciences, having led York Chemistry’s Equality & Diversity work since 2017.   She is also committed to efforts to support academic mental health and wellbeing.

He holds a Diploma in Chemistry from the University of Graz (Austria) and a Ph.D. degree from the Technical University Munich (Germany). Reinhard completed a postdoctoral appointment at Yale University before his appointment at the University of Warwick where he currently holds a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship.

He is a computational chemist studying chemical reactions at surfaces and interfaces. His interest lies in applying electronic structure and machine learning methods to study nonadiabatic dynamics and energy transfer at surfaces during photo- and electrocatalytic reactions.

Dr Sivasambu Bohm received his first degree in Chemical Engineering, followed by an M.Sc. at Hahn Meitner Institute (Max Planck Inst.) in Berlin. After gaining his PhD at the University of Bath in Chemistry, he worked at different academic institutions, University of Swansea, TU Delft, The University of Birmingham & India Institute of Technology, Bombay. Siva has 25 years of industrial experience (MPI/HMI, TATA, CAMI, Talga, & AM) in various research fields; metallurgy, protective coatings, energy storage in the automotive industry, smart coatings and nanotechnology, synthesis and applications of graphene. Dr Bohm published 30 patents and 95 scientific publications. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and a Fellow of Technical Surface Coatings. Dr Bohm has been awarded the Royal Society Industry Fellowship initial at University of Cambridge, Cambridge Graphene Centre. Since 2020, Dr Bohm completing his final year of fellowship at Imperial College London and holding position as a Graphene research scientist for ArcelorMittal Europe Global R&D.

Terry Dillon received his PhD from the University of Leeds (2001, supervised by Profs. D.E. Heard & M.J. Pilling), and then held post-doctoral positions at the Max-Planck-Institut für Chemie before joining the University of York as a Lecturer in physical chemistry in 2013. Terry’s research is directed towards a detailed understanding of atmospheric free-radical chemistry. Radicals initiate the oxidative removal of atmospheric organics, a vast quantity and variety of which is emitted by vegetation and human activity. Understanding radical chemistry is crucial to assess the impact of emissions on air quality, chemistry and climate, and to confidently predict future trends.

He obtained his PhD at Princeton University (USA) in 1994, after which he held postdoctoral positions at Harvard University (USA) and the Brookhaven National Laboratory (USA). His work is at the frontiers of interdisciplinary research involving theoretical and experimental developments investigating the fundamental aspects of femtosecond laser-matter interactions.

Over the last couple of decades, his independent research has also included the construction of novel experimental equipment. He has made important contributions to the theory of quantum computing and has uncovered new insights from the theoretical aspects of thermal lens generation and analysis.

His research has been recognized by the conferment of several academic and research accolades, including the Hoechst Advanced Technology Division Industrial Affiliates Fellowship for outstanding academic record in Princeton, the International Senior Research Fellowship award of the Wellcome Trust (UK), the Swarnajayanti Fellowship of the Department of Science and Technology (Govt of India), Thathachary Science Award (India).

He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, the Institute of Physics (IOP), the Optical Society of America, and the Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). He is a Senior Member of IEEE. His work in ultrafast optics and light-matter interactions has also been recognized by the 2019 Galileo Galilei award of the International Commission of Optics. He is also the Chair of the Instrument Science and Technology Group of IOP London.

Prof. Goswami has published over two hundred research articles, several book chapters, edited conference proceedings, and books. He is on the Editorial Board of several journals, including PeerJ and PLOS ONE, and is presently the Associate Editor of Science Advances (AAAS).

Dr Marco Sacchi was awarded a PhD in Chemistry at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, in Switzerland. During his PhD, he studied the effect of molecular vibrations and surface structure on the chemisorption of methane. At the end of his PhD, he won a Swiss National Science Foundation fellowship and joined the Surface Science Research Group (SSRG) at the University of Cambridge, led by Dr Stephen J. Jenkins and Prof. Sir David King.

In 2013 he was elected Research Fellow of Hughes Hall. In his research, he employs first-principles computational methods and parallel computing to investigate quantum effects in biological molecules (including DNA), dynamics on surfaces and catalysis on 2D materials.

In 2014 he was awarded a Royal Society University Research Fellowship and he joined the University of Surrey. His current research interests include: Quantum Biology, Surface Dynamics and 2D nanomaterials.

Anthony Meijer received his PhD from the University of Nijmegen in 1996 after completing an MSc at the University of Utrecht in 1991. After post-doctoral position at Wayne State University in Detroit and UCL in London, he joined the University of Sheffield as a lecturer in Theoretical Chemistry in 2003. He was promoted to a professorship in Theoretical Chemistry in 2018. Anthony’s current research interests include amongst others the study of reactions in the interstellar medium and the study of directed electron-transfer in transition-metal complexes. He currently serves as the secretary for the RSC Astrochemistry Group.

She completed her Ph.D. at the University of Liverpool and then held post-doctoral positions at the University of Guelph and the Fritz Haber Institut der Max Planck Gesellschaft, before being appointed as a Lecturer in Physical Chemistry at Birmingham in 2004.

Her research focuses on electrochemistry and the chemistry of interfaces, including biophysical chemistry, electrocatalysis, electrochemical sensing and the use of vibrational spectroscopy and x-ray and neutron techniques to probe the structure and dynamics of interfaces. She also has interests in education development and is currently serving as Chair to the RSC Electrochemistry Group. 

Davide received a Physics degree from the University of Padova (Italy) in 2009 (BSc) and a MSc in Theoretical Physics (110/110 cum laude) again from the University of Padova in 2011. He then moved to the University of Warwick (UK) where he first received a MSc degree in Complexity Science (2012) and then he did a PhD in Physics and Complexity Science under the supervision of Prof Matthew Turner (2012-2015). His PhD was aimed at gaining better understanding on the physics of ring polymers using computer simulations. Davide’s PhD research received the Faculty of Science PhD Thesis Prize from the University of Warwick, the Outstanding PhD Thesis Prize from Springer Publishing Group and the Ian Ward McMillan Prize from the Institute of Physics, UK. During his PhD he also invented a new shape of pasta, now known as “anelloni” (from the Italian word “anello” for ring). 

Davide then moved to Edinburgh, where he worked as PDRA with Prof D Marenduzzo and Prof N Gilbert on computational models of genome organisation and on super-resolution microscopy of chromatin structure (2016-2019). In 2019 Davide did a brief postdoc with Prof D Buck at the University of Bath, on DNA topology. In 2020, Davide was awarded first a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship and then a Royal Society University Research Fellowship. In the same year he was awarded an ERC Starting Grant to establish his group on “Topologically Active Polymers”. In 2021, Davide was awarded the Chancellor’s “Rising star” award from the University of Edinburgh and the Early Career Award in Statistical Mechanics and Thermodynamics from the RSC.

Dr Manyar’s research focuses on the design and development of new catalysts and chemical processes in batch and continuous flow for sustainable chemical manufacturing and renewable energy. He has received several awards including the 2021 Innovation Award by SHV Energy, 2019 American Chemical Society’s I&ECR Excellence in review award, and 2016 Queen's Teaching Award for excellence in Teaching. He has been promoting hands on learning experience for students based on Living lab concept using QUB campus infrastructure. He has received over £2 million in research grants from Royal Society, EPSRC, Leverhulme trust, Invest NI, STFC and chemical industry. He has several industrial collaborations including Almac Sciences, SHV Energy, Shell, Coryton advanced fuels, Johnson Matthey, Chevron, and Oleon. His research output includes over 130 papers/book chapters, patents/invention disclosures and conference proceedings with an h-index 24. He is the Fellow of Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC), Fellow of Indian Chemical Society (FICS), and Fellow of Higher Education Academy, UK (FHEA). He is Associate Editor of the Journal Frontiers in Chemical Engineering. He is Secretary of SURCAT, RSC’s special interest group on Surface reactivity and Catalysis, and represents UK on the International Association of Catalysis Societies. He is a member of the UK Catalysis hub steering group, QUB Sustainable energy PRP, and research themes on Sustainability and Healthcare. He is also appointed to the Leadership forum of the IChemE Energy Centre Board. He has delivered numerous invited keynote and plenary talks worldwide.

Simon has a Doctor of Philosophy in spectro-electrochemistry from the University of Southampton and a BSc (Hons) in Applied Chemistry from Portsmouth Polytechnic. Simon is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and has lead Dstl technical capability, project and programme Delivery.

During his career, Simon has worked at GE Healthcare leading a global systems design and development section, British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL) leading the sensors and advanced analysis programme and the University of Liverpool as a Postdoctoral Fellow in electrochemistry.

Simon joined Dstl in 2005 and has worked in a number of roles in Dstl at both Porton Down and Fort Halstead.

Dan completed his PhD and a postdoctoral position within Chemical and Biological Engineering at The University of Sheffield and undertook a Japan Society for the Promotion of Science short-term fellowship as the Osaka Institute of Technology in Japan. His expertise lie in developing new, often hybrid, in situ experimental techniques [based upon microscopy, scattering and reflectivity (x-ray/neutron)] that deliver new insights into the complexities of self-assembly phenomena that occur during material processing (polymeric, small-molecule, quantum dot), motivated by applications in renewable energy. 
    Daniel has endeavored to engage the public with his research through “Scale, Structure, Synthesis”, an art installation that turned random molecular motions into music and “Chaotic Chemical Waves”, which turned 80 meter university building into art installation using computer-controlled lighting to display simulations of complex chemical reactions, in collaboration with Mark Fell and Dr Jonathan Howse.  An image from his research was used as the artwork for a CD compilation for an event entitled “20130511”, at Bexhill on Sea, East Sussex, which was given to all ticket holders. 

She obtained her PhD at the University of Utrecht (Netherlands) in 1994, after which she held postdoctoral positions at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (USA) and University College London. She held a Royal Society University Research Fellowship from 2000-2008 (at University College London from 2000-2006 then   at the University of St Andrews until 2008). Her research focusses on electronic structure calculations on molecules of biological interest. She is currently the Secretary & Treasurer of the RSC Theoretical Chemistry Group and the RSC representative on the EuCheMS Division of Computational Chemistry.

Susan earned her DPhil in 2006, which was followed by a Junior Research Fellowship at Merton College, Oxford. She then set up a laboratory at UCL (London) before moving to the Physical & Theoretical Chemistry Laboratory in Oxford in 2012. She leads an experimental research group investigating the properties of liquids and soft matter in confined geometry. Current interests include electrostatics in concentrated electrolytes and ionic liquids, molecular mechanisms of friction and lubrication, and field effects on confined liquids. She has been awarded a Starting Grant from the European Research Council, the Harrison-Meldola Memorial Prize from the Royal Society of Chemistry, and a Philip Leverhulme Prize from The Leverhulme Trust.