Research

Research Interests

I am a physical chemist. My research is centred around magnetic resonance phenomena and spectroscopy – both experiment and theory. I have taught undergraduate chemistry students in Oxford since 2003.

Principal areas of interest

• ³¹P in vivo magnetic resonance spectroscopy
• Magnetic “compass” sense of birds
• Magnetic field effects on chemical reactions (“Spin Chemistry”)
• Applications of lasers in chemistry

Publications

• “Effects of disorder and motion in a radical pair magnetoreceptor”. J. R. Soc. Interface 2010
• “Derivatives of spin dynamics simulations”. Accepted for publication by J. Chem. Phys., 2009. [ArXiv]
• “Receive array magnetic resonance spectroscopy: Whitened Singular Valued Decomposition (WSVD) gives optimal Bayesian solution”. Accepted for publication by Mag. Resn. Med., 2009.
• “Radiofrequency polarization effects in low-field electron paramagnetic resonance”. Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2009.
• “Radiofrequency polarization effects in zero-field electron paramagnetic resonance”. Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2009. (Featured on journal cover.)
• “Magnetic Compass of Birds Is Based on a Molecule with Optimal Directional Sensitivity”. BioPhys J., 96(8), 3451-3457, 2009. (“Featured Article”)
• “Magnetic field effects in chemical systems”. Pure. Appl. Chem., 2009. [Publisher’s site] [DOI link]
• “Chemical magnetoreception in birds: The radical pair mechanism”. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. (USA), 2009.
• “Chemical compass model of avian magnetoreception”. Nature, 2008.
• “Distance Measurements in the Borderline Region of Applicability of CW EPR and DEER: A Model Study on a Homologous Series of Spin-Labelled Peptides”. J. E. Banham, C. M. Baker, S. Ceola, I. J. Day, G. H. Grant, E. J. J. Groenen, C. T. Rodgers, G. Jeschke and C. R. Timmel. J Mag Res 191 (2008) 202-218.
• “Determination of radical re-encounter probability distributions from magnetic field effects on reaction yields”. J. Am. Chem. Soc, 2007.
• “The Spin Chemistry of Bird Navigation”. In proceedings of the ISMS2005 conference, Yokohama, Japan.
• “Low-field optically detected EPR spectroscopy of transient photoinduced radical pairs” J. Phys. Chem. A, 109, 5035–41, 2005.
• “The avian geomagnetic sense: theoretical studies on a proposed origin through the Radical Pair Mechanism” In proceedings of the Royal Institute of Navigation conference 2005, Reading, UK.
• “Radio Frequency Magnetic Field Effects on a Radical Recombination Reaction: A Diagnostic Test for the Radical Pair Mechanism” J. Am. Chem. Soc., 126(26), 8102, 2004.

Presentations and posters

Oct 2009	Spoke at ESMRMB 2009, Turkey: “Spectroscopy with receive arrays: how to combine the signals”.
Sep 2009	Poster at the Oxford Imaging Festival.
Aug 2009	Flash oral presentation and poster at IUPAC 2009 congress, where I received the IUPAC Prize for Young Chemists 2008.
Apr 2009	E-poster at “ISMRM 2009”, USA: “Magnetic resonance spectroscopy with receive arrays: How to combine the signals”.
Mar 2009	Invited public lecture for National Science Week at Kingston Grammar School, UK.
Mar 2009	Invited speaker giving a departmental seminar at the University of Sussex, UK.
Jan 2009	Invited speaker at the first workshop on Quantum Technology in Biological Systems, Singapore.
Sep 2008	Poster at the Oxford Imaging Festival.
Dec 2007	I presented a poster “The road to state-selected ultracold chemistry of CH3F” at the annual meeting of the RSC’s Spectroscopy and Dynamics Group (SDG2007), Norwich, UK.
Oct 2007	Invited lecture at the Bracknell Natural History Society (2 x 45min with break for questions).
Mar 2007	I gave one of three JEOL prize lectures at the ESR2007 conference.
Dec 2006	I was invited to speak about my work in a workshop at the Physics Department of the University of Southern Denmark in Odense.
Dec 2006	I won joint first prize for a presentation of my work at the Mathematical, Physical and Life Sciences division graduate prize symposium competition.
Nov 2005	I spoke at a “Japan-UK Student Mini-Symposium on Magneto-Science” in Hiroshima University. I also gave a talk to the group of Prof Hisao Murai in Shizuoka University.
Nov 2005	I presented a poster “The Spin Chemistry of Bird Navigation” at the International Symposium on Magnetoscience 2005, Japan.
Sep 2005	I spoke in full session at the Spin Chemistry Meeting 2005 here in Oxford. I was one of only two graduate students to speak at the conference.
Apr 2005	I spoke at the Royal Institute of Navigation conference in Reading about “The Radical Pair Mechanism in avian magnetoreception”. This was a fifteen minute talk in full session, followed by questions. Two of the delegates described this talk as “very illuminating” and a “very clear explanation of the free radical mechanism” in e-mails sent to me later.
	I have spoken about my work to sixth form students at my former school. I speak annually at my research group seminars.