Research

Current Research

Our current interests include visuospatial skills in chemistry and links with aphantasia, 2) English language and cultural inclusion in with international student cohorts and 3) laboratory teaching. See Research for further details.

Spatial Skills and Aphantasia

Aphantasia (the inability to visualise objects within your mind’s eye) has leapt into the general public’s awareness after being only official named in 2015. Our interests focus on investigating how this diagnosis impacts the ability of students to carry out spatial related chemistry tasks and if this changes the way in which problems are approached. 

Cultural and educational backgrounds on equality of chemical education

UK Universities are large organisation hosting students from a wide variety of cultural and educational backgrounds. Assessing how we adapt our teaching methods to provide an inclusive learning environment for all students is a key part of our work. This includes the identification of skill gaps within incoming students as well as assessing the impact of English language skills and modern translation software on student outcomes.

Laboratory Training

Laboratory training remains fundamental to any chemistry courses. As part of my role as Academic Lead for our new state of the art Analytical Chemistry Instrumentation Suite (ACIS), we are involved in the development and assessment of new hands-on training methods for chemistry students.

Previous Research

My background is in the design and synthesis of complex supramolecular structures including cages, knots, links and molecular fabrics for a variety of applications. Highlights of this work are shown below.

Cage Catalysis and Sensing

Molecular Knots

Molecular Fabrics