Steve is originally from Cardiff and has been a Bluebirds and Wales fan all his life. He completed his first degree in Chemistry and Biochemistry in 1986 at the University of Wales, Cardiff and remained at Cardiff until 1990 to do his Ph.D. under the supervision of Dr. D. R. Kelly.

 

He next moved to Australia, where he completed a two year Post Doctoral Research Assistant in collaboration with Dr. R. M. Carmen at the University of Queensland, Brisbane. During this time, he travelled Australia and the Pacific extensively and was Captain of the University of Queensland Football team.

 

In 1994 he began his collaborations with Professor S. G. Davies at the University of Oxford. He started his time there as a Postdoctoral Research Assistant, spent some time as Senior Research Scientist at Oxford Asymmetry, and in 1998 became the group's Chief Postdoctoral Scientist and Organic Chemistry Lecturer at St Catherine's College Oxford.

 

In 2000, he joined the University of Bath as a Lecturer in Organic Chemistry. Since then his group has grown in both numbers and success. In 2005 he became a Senior Lecturer followed by promotion to a Reader in Organic Chemistry in May 2008. He has served as Head of Organic Chemistry at the University of Bath for the last 4 years, where he currently holds a personal Research Chair in Organic Chemistry.

 

During his time at Bath, Steve has supervised >50 Ph.D students and PDRA's, 10 Masters students, as well as >50 Undergraduate Masters projects. This has resulted in the publication of  >150 papers in the areas of synthesis, catalysis, sustainability, sensing and medicinal chemistry, that currently attract a H-Index of 36 and over 400 citations a year.

 

In 2013 he was awarded the prestigious Excellence in Doctoral Supervision Award by the University of Bath in recognition of his exceptional record of supervising of PhD students. He also received the 2014 Daiwa prize for carrying out collaborative international research with Japan, has been an Industrial Royal Society Fellow and Visiting Professorship at East China University of Science and Technology Sydney and Monash.

 

He currently lives in Bradford on Avon with his partner Anne-Marie, three beautiful daughters Lowrie, Tamzin and Saffron and their dog Sunny-Rose.