Martin Freer obtained his PhD in Nuclear Physics in 1991 from the University of Birmingham.
Thereafter he worked at the Argonne National Laboratory on the heavy-ion accelerator programme (ATLAS).
In 1993 he returned to the UK as an SERC/EPSRC Advanced Fellow and then went on to become a member of the academic staff of the School of Physics and Astronomy in 1998. He is now head of Nuclear Physics and in 2010 helped establish the Birmingham Centre for Nuclear Education and Research.
In recognition for his contribution to the field of nuclear clustering (the study of clusterisation in nuclear matter) he received the Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Prize, Humboldt Foundation, Germany in 2004 and the Rutherford Medal (IoP) 2010.
He has served on a number of international advisory panels for both scientific facilities (GANIL, France – chair; iThemba, South Africa) and for the Finland Academy. He has also severed on the UK Nuclear Physics Grants Panel (STFC) and is chair of the Nuclear Physics Advisory Panel (STFC).
Freer M. (2010), Clusters in Nuclei, Scholarpedia, 5(6):9652. doi:10.4249/scholarpedia.9652
(http://www.scholarpedia.org/)
Freer, M., et al. (2009), 2+ excitation of the C-12 Hoyle state, Phys. Rev. C 80: 041303
Catford, W.N., Freer M., et al. (2010), Migration of Nuclear Shell Gaps Studied in the d(Ne-24, p gamma)Ne-25 Reaction, Phys. Rev. Letts. 104: 192501
Freer, M., et al., (2006) :2n: structure in 10Be, Phys. Rev. Letts. 96; 042501
Freer, M. (2007) The clustered nucleus—cluster structures in stable and unstable nuclei, Rep. Prog. Phys. 70 No 12; 2149
von Oertzen, W., Freer, M. and Kanada-En’yo Y. (2006), Nuclear clusters and nuclear molecules, Physics Reports 432; 43
Ashwood, N.I, Freer, M., et al. (2004) Helium clustering in neutron-rich Be isotopes, Lett. B 580; 129
Freer, M., et al., (1999) Exotic Molecular States in 12Be, Phys. Rev. Lett. 82; 1383