My name is Steve and I’m an NMR Spectroscopist…

Post date: Jul 28, 2016 8:39:11 AM

In my previous blog entry (see here) I briefly described the role of the Molecular Spectroscopy Group (MSG) and indicated we would follow up with a series of entries from the committee members introducing ourselves – so here we are. I’m Steve, the chairman of the MSG and I’m an NMR Spectroscopist working in the Pharmaceutical industry. My particular interests in NMR are mainly focussed around the elucidation and identification of small molecules and the use of NMR for reaction monitoring. I never thought I’d become an NMR spectroscopist, and really didn’t even know you could earn a living as one (think that page must have been missing in the careers book I looked in as a teenager!). I’ve always loved science and built my interest in Chemistry during my A-levels and subsequent degree, but it wasn’t until doing my PhD in natural product chemistry that I became intimately familiar with the power of NMR and how it can help you out as a chemist. Obviously, as with most natural product chemistry(!) it didn’t go as planned, and rather than spending most of my time doing reactions and modifying potential anti-cancer agents, I spent a lot of time down in the basement, running NMR’s and learning about acronyms like COSY, FLOCK and DEPT. To be honest, the names meant absolutely nothing to me at the time, but I knew that by learning how to “read” the results I was able to figure out what had actually happened in my reaction, rather than what I’d hoped to have happened. As a youngster, I’d always loved doing logic problems and puzzles, and interpreting NMR data just seemed to be another logic problem, where all the answers were there somewhere, you just needed to find out how to figure it out. And that’s pretty much what I’ve been doing for the last 15+ years ever since. I think I’m incredibly lucky to have found a job doing something I love, which is both mentally stimulating and challenging, and ultimately plays a key part in the development of drugs which help to save and improve patient’s lives.

Come back to our MSG blog next month to find out more about my fellow committee members and their areas of expertise and interests

Steve