ABOUT BEN

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Ben was born in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire. Ben studied for his undergraduate/masters (MChem) in Chemistry at St John's College, University of Oxford. He graduated with the top First in the Honour School, winning the Gibbs Prize for examinations and the Brian Bannister Prize for his MChem thesis on oxidative cyclisation reactions. Ben remained at Oxford for his postgraduate work, with Prof. Timothy Donohoe. Ben's DPhil thesis, entitled 'Novel Palladium Catalysed Routes to Aromatic Heterocycles was passed with No Corrections and awarded a Commendation by the Division of Physical Sciences. Ben then moved to the University of Cambridge to undertake a Herchel Smith Research Fellowship with Prof. Jonathan Nitschke on the 'Post-assembly Modification of Metallosupramolecular Architectures'. Ben was subsequently awarded a Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 Research Fellowship in order to study 'Stimuli-responsive Molecular Containers'. In October 2019, Ben moved to the University of Nottingham to start his own research group as part of the Green Chemicals Beacon of Excellence. In October 2022, Ben took up a Royal Society University Research Fellowship and was appointed to a proleptic Assistant Prof. position. In summer 2023, Ben was promoted to a proleptic Associate Prof. position. Ben's research interests span supramolecular chemistry, self-assembly, metal-organic cages, interlocked molecules and catalysis.   

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Ben is also a leading advocate for public engagement and outreach in chemistry. Ben is a key member of the UK Chemistry Olympiad Working Group of the RSC, helping to run the national rounds of the Chemistry Olympiad competition. Ben has been Head Mentor of the UK team at the International Final since 2011. Ben was a key founding member of the Cambridge Chemistry Challenge (C₃L₆) for lower sixth students, which he worked on until 2019. Ben also helped develop the Isaac Chemistry website and has made appearances on BBC radio's The Naked Scientist.