Profile

As a senior teaching fellow, my primary responsibility is in delivering high quality teaching to our undergraduate students through lectures, lab classes and tutorials.  I am a chemist, and my interest in chemistry involves so-called “electronic” spectroscopy. This is spectroscopy concerned with movement of electrons, and is measured by a “UV/Vis” spectrometer – which measures light in the ultraviolet and visible regions. This means that whatever I am looking at is – you guessed it – coloured! This technique is often known as ‘colourimetry’, but there is so much more you can do beyond simply determining concentrations of solutions.  I also use fluorescence spectroscopy – where “UV/Vis” is when light is absorbed by a molecule, fluorescence is the opposite – when light is ‘shone out’ by a molecule.

My teaching activities center around spectroscopy as it is a vital technique for analytical work, and I am keen to help our students realise what is behind the ‘black box’ of the spectrometer.

When I get in, typically I have around 10-15 emails to deal with which have arrived overnight – both from colleagues and from my students.  Once they’re done, I then do a couple of tutorials to my first and second year students (in Physical Chemistry – the branch concerned with studying properties of molecules).  It’s then back to my desk to process any email that arrived in the morning.

I am the Senior Tutor in our department, which means that I am responsible for student welfare and ensuring our students have the support they need in order to be successful in their studies – this means I have to talk to a lot of people to help students find the support they may need.

Lunchtime! Typically held over a meeting, whether faculty, research or a teaching meeting. If I don’t have a meeting, I’ll eat in the common room, typically alongside – and among – our students.

Teaching labs in the afternoon – I love teaching labs – it is practical chemistry, stuff happening, proper problem based learning and students really getting their teeth into the activities we worked so hard to develop. This is when we really see our hard work pay off!

Finally, back to the office around 5pm for a well deserved cup of tea.  And – you guessed it, more emails!