Alex receieved an MSci in Physics from Durham University in 2005. He went on to do a PhD in the School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leeds. After one postdoctoral position within the same group, in 2012 he took up a postdoctoral position within the Nanocatalysis group at Aarhus University, Denmark.

In 2015 he took his present post of Research Fellow within the school of Chemistry, University of Manchester.

My research interests lie in using cutting-edge characterisation equipment to gain insight into understanding the surface chemistry of functional materials, with a particular emphasis on heterogeneous catalysis.

Surface chemistry is key to so many processes (catalysis, corrosion, electrochemistry) - however gaining insight into reactions occuring at surface is very challenging, so in general these processes are not well understood.

The key to the next generation of catalytic materials is relating atomic-scale surface structure and composition to function - allowing rational design of catalyst with maxmimum activity.

The main tool my group use to understand surface chemistry is the University of Manchester's Near-Ambient Pressire X-Ray Photoelectron Spectrosopy (NAP-XPS) facility (http://www.chemistry.manchester.ac.uk/our-research/facilities/nap-xps/). This is a cutting-edge instrument which allows us to follow surface chemistry in-situ during a chemical reaction.