People

Dr Tharin Blumenschein - Head of Natural Sciences, Year in Industry and Year Abroad co-ordinator

Tharin has a BSc in Molecular Sciences, a course that has many similarities with Natural Sciences, and that’s one of the reasons why she enjoys being involved with Natural Sciences. She has a PhD in Biochemistry and teaches in modules that are part of the Natural Sciences Degree Programme. Tharin has also supervised final year Natural Sciences projects.

See Tharin's full profile on the School of Chemistry website.

Dr Nigel Clayden - Director of Learning & Teaching 

Nigel is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Chemistry. His research involves the study of materials with muon techniques and solid state NMR. Nigel lectures on a range of topics including materials and energy related themes as well as fundamental aspects of transition metal chemistry. He supervises final year research projects in the area of computational chemistry which is used to support the experimental characterisation of materials.

See Nigel's full profile on the School of Chemistry website.

Dr Mark Cooker - Natural Sciences Teaching Executive

Mark is a senior lecturer in the School of Mathematics. His research is in fluid dynamics, especially the mathematics of water wave impact and splashes. Mark lectures mathematicians and scientists in applied mathematics modules at all levels. He has also supervised project work in areas such as the diffusion of heat, acoustics, water-wave motion, liquid sloshing in containers, and impact.

See Mark's full profile on the School of Mathematics website.

Dr Chris Greenman - Project co-ordinator

Chris has a mathematics degree from Durham University, and a mathematics PhD from the University of Edinburgh, utilizing number theory to study the spacing distributions of quantized harmonic oscillators.

See Chris's full profile on the School of Mathematics website.

Dr Robert Hall - Admissions Director

Rob is a senior lecturer in the School of Environmental Sciences and has both an undergraduate degree and PhD in Oceanography. He is interested in a wide variety of marine and Earth system science subjects and teaches oceanography to students at all levels.

See Rob's full profile on the School of Environmental Science website.

Dr Michael Wormstone - Coursework Director

Michael is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Biological Sciences. His research utilises human cells and tissue to study human eye disease. In particular, he is interested in wound-healing events that follow cataract surgery, which lead to a secondary visual loss. His laboratory aims to further our understanding of the cell and molecular mechanisms underpinning wound healing in the eye and identify novel targets for future therapeutic development.

See Michael's full profile on the School of Biological Sciences website.

Dr Garth Jones - Senior advisor & SSLC

Garth is a physical chemist who uses computational and theoretical techniques and is principally interested in excited state dynamics of molecules and light-molecule interactions. He develops mixed quantum-classical approaches to perform simulations of important processes in physical chemistry such as electron transfer, electronic energy transfer and photodissociation.

See Garth's full profile on the School of Chemistry website.

Dr Alex Baker - Year in Europe co-ordinator

Alex's research interests have developed into the fields of marine and atmospheric iodine biogeochemistry and the atmospheric transport of nutrients and trace metals and their impact on the marine carbon cycle. 

See Alex's full profile on the School of Environmental Science website.

Dr Susan Matthews - Pharmacy Research Projects Coordinator

Susan's research interests are at the interface of chemistry and biology focusing on the development of smart drug delivery systems.

See Sue's full profile on the School of Pharmacy website.

Dr Tom Clarke - Chair of Exam Board

Tom teaches on modules in BIO and CHE as part of the Biochemistry program and his research on mineral respiring bacteria covers multiple natural sciences disciplines including microbiology, chemistry and geology.

See Tom's full profile on the School of Biological Sciences website.