School of Pharmacy

I was appointed as lecturer in Physical Chemistry in the School of Pharmacy in September 2006. Prior to that I was the Senior Research Fellow responsible for the ToF-SIMS instrumentation at the University of Nottingham and worked as Postdoctoral Research Associate in the groups of Prof. Mike Chesters at the University of Nottingham and Prof. Richard Lambert at the University of Cambridge. I gained my Masters degree in 1991 from Leiden University, The Netherlands, where I also obtained a PhD in surface chemistry in 1999 with Profs. Vladimir Ponec and Ben Nieuwenhuys (Leiden University) and Mike Chesters (University of Nottingham).

I am a member of the committee of the Surface Science of Biologically Important Interfaces (SSBII) group and responsible for this organisation’s webpages: www.ssbii.org.uk

The physico-chemical properties of surfaces are crucial in a wide range of processes. My various research projects revolve around the detailed chemical characterisation, including imaging, of these surfaces through advanced analytical techniques such as Time-of-Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) and the novel ambient mass spectrometry technique PADI-MS. As stand-alone techniques both are very powerful, but more often than not the application of other, complementary techniques is crucial to fully elucidate complex surface chemical issues. I therefore complement surface mass spectrometry with vibrational spectroscopy (IR and Raman) as well as X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Two of the projects I am currently involved in are highlighted below.

PADI-MS (short for plasma-assisted desorption-ionisation mass spectrometry) is an exciting new technique developed together with colleagues from Nottingham and Heriot-Watt universities. A low power ambient temperature plasma is used to very rapidly yield highly informative mass spectra from solid and gel samples under ambient conditions. The original publication of this new technique (Ratcliffe et al., 2007) was highlighted in the RSC and ACS journals Chemistry World and C&E News and has been referenced more than 40 times to date. Donation of equipment by Astra Zeneca and additional funding by the EPSRC-funded 3ME initiative means that a PADI-MS system is currently under construction.

A very exciting research project with Dr Peter Licence from the University of Nottingham has led to the selection of a paper as “Hot Topic” in Angewandte Chemie International Edition and was reported on by Nature (as a Research Highlight), Chemical and Engineering News (American Chemical Society) and Chemistry World (Royal Society of Chemistry). Research on this topic is ongoing.

MPharm Year I: Mathematics, Physical Chemistry (Thermodynamics, Kinetics)

MPharm Year II: Pharmaceutical Analytical Methods, QA/QC, Pharmaceutics

MPharm Year III & IV: Research Projects

MPharm Year IV: Option Topics (Pharmaceutical Detectives)

Chemistry Year III: CHE30032 Advanced Chemical Analysis, CHE30002 & CHE30030 Research Projects

Forensics Year III: CHE30013 Forensic Specialisms