Summary
Carl was appointed to the Chair of Inorganic Materials at Hull in September 2012. This followed 12 years at the University of East Anglia (UEA) as lecturer (2000), Senior Lecturer (2007), and Reader (2009).
He has published 509 research publications (H index 63, >17,200 citations), mostly in catalysis and coordination chemistry, and given over 100 invited lectures worldwide (including Keynote and Plenary talks).
Projects span topics such as structural calixarene chemistry, alpha-olefin polymerization catalysis, new catalysts for biodegradable polymers via ring opening polymerization (ROP) and metal-based imaging/anti-cancer agents. International collaborations include projects on gas storage, water splitting, sensors with universities in the USA, Germany, China, Russia, Japan, Finland and Australia. Catalysis work and hydrogen storage work has been patented and licensed (e.g. to the Mitsui Chemical Corp.).
Much work (appearing in Chemical Communications, ChemCatChem. Angew. Chemie, J. Am. Chem. Soc. and Chem. Eur. J.) is the result of Carl making new materials possessing novel structural motifs and appears as ‘hot papers’ or with ‘VIP’ status. A dozen of Carl's reviews on calixarenes and/or catalysis have been published in recent years in Chem. Rev. ; Chem. Soc. Rev.; Coord. Chem. Rev..
Carl has held Visiting Professorships at the Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing (ICCAS) and the Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry (SIOC), Sichuan Normal University (Chengdu), Northwest University (Xi’an), and at the National Institute of Technology, Akashi, Japan.
He is currently Lead PI on a £1.85M EPSRC funded multidisciplinary project to develop new tools for precision surgery. The project is a collaboration between Hull, King’s College and Imperial College, along with a number of industrial partners and clinicians, and aims to improve the ability to conduct optically guided surgery and improve surgical effectiveness.
A current EPSRC funded OTG allows Carl to fully engage with his Overseas partners. Other projects are currently funded by The Royal Society, The Whitelaw Frater Cancer Trust, and Industry.
Carl also recently led the EPSRC funded £1.1M grant on ‘Evolving a Circular Plastics Economy’.