About the School of Chemistry

The origins of the school can be traced to ca. 1875 when Chemistry at Birmingham was established as part of the Mason Science College, later it became one of the founding departments at the University of Birmingham.

Our history contains many examples of our important contributions to the advancement of chemistry. The most notable being the award of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry to one of our staff, the highest accolade for any researcher in chemistry.

Sir Norman Haworth was Head of School between 1925-1937 and became a Nobel Laureate in 1937 for his work on carbohydrates and vitamin C. The prestige of this award is evident as we are one of only seven UK universities to have had a Chemistry Nobel Laureate!

Today, we remain one of the leading centres of research and teaching in chemistry in the UK. Supported by state-of-the-art facilities, with enthusiastic and dedicated staff and students, the school is looking forward to continuing our proud tradition of excellence long into the future.

Student and teaching related enquiries
Email: chem-eso@contacts.bham.ac.uk

General (non-student and teaching related) enquiries
Email: chemistry-admin@contacts.bham.ac.uk

Address
School of Chemistry
The University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
United Kingdom

If you would like to visit us, please use the University Maps and Directions.

Admissions

If you require further information please complete our enquirer form

If you would like to visit us, please use the University Maps and Directions.

The Molecular Sciences building is in the red zone, close to the University railway station.

Equality and diversity is of huge value to broadening horizons and providing a source of strength that underpins the exchange of ideas, creativity and innovation.

Our core scientific mission should ignore any potential discriminatory factor (e.g. age, disability, gender, pregnancy, marital status, race, religion or belief, sexual orientation or gender identity) and behaviour that leads to isolation or discrimination will not be tolerated within our school. 

Learn more about our EDI.

The School of Chemistry in Birmingham has always been at the forefront of research. Four of our alumni and staff have been recognised with Nobel Prizes in Chemistry and Medicine. Most recently, in 2016 Professor Sir J. Fraser Stoddart was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the fundamental discoveries of mechanical bonds being wielded to make molecular machines.

Please follow the links below to find out more.

Nobel Prize laureates

• Professor Sir J. Fraser Stoddart-- Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2016 (read an interview and watch a lecture Professor Stoddart delivered at the University of Birmingham in 2016)
• Sir John Vane -- Nobel Prize for Medicine 1982
• Sir Norman Haworth -- Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1937
• Francis Aston -- Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1922

Prizes and awards

Atassi Prizes 2024

The School of Chemistry is incredibly grateful to Professor Zouhair Atassi for creating the Atassi Prizes which are celebrated with a prize symposium at the start of each academic year. The M. Zouhair Atassi Lecture helps bring bright minds in Biochemistry from across the globe to Birmingham to share their research and inspire and enthuse future generations of researchers. The M. Zouhair Atassi Award and the M. Zouhair Atassi Student Awards respectively, recognise outstanding, original, innovative contributions in biochemistry, chemical biology or molecular sciences. This years awards featured:

• 2024 Atassi Prize Lecturer - Professor Anna Mapp of the University of Michigan – Lessons from Nature: a general strategy for drugging transcription factor complexes
• 2024 Atassi Research Paper Prize Winner - Tianlai Xia of the O’Reilly Group – Tuning the Functionality of Self-Assembled 2D Platelets in the Third Dimension
• 2024 Atassi Thesis Prize Winner - Dr Giulia Molinaro of the Peacock/Britton Groups – Artificial metallopeptides as MRI contrast agents

Professor Peter Slater

• 2024 - Faraday Institution Community Award for Collaboration

Dr Maria Chiara Arno

• 2023 - Felix Franks Biotechnology Medal
• 2022 - ACS Rising Star Award
• 2019 – MacroGroup UK Medal

Dr Thomas Auvray

• 2024 - Green Chemistry Student Award (the Nina McClelland Memorial Award) from the American Chemical Society.

Dr Elizabeth Driscoll

• 2024 - IOM3 2024 Robert Perrin award for Outstanding and Sustained committment to Outreach
• 2021 – RSC, Winner of the 2021 Inspirational Member Award

Dr Stephen Fielden

• 2025 - The Thieme Chemistry Journals Award

ReLib Team

• 2024 - Horizon Prize from the RSC. The team is a multidisciplinary collaboration between universities of Edinburgh, Leicester, Newcastle, Oxford and Imperial College and led by the University of Birmingham.

Dr Ruchi Gupta

• 2022 - Selected member of Global Young Academy (GYA)
• 2021 – RSC - Winner of the 2021 Analytical Division early career award : Joseph Black Award

Dr Andy Jupp

• 2024 - Sir Edward Frankland Prize by the Royal Society.
• 2023 - Young Investigator Award by the Inorganic Reaction Group of the RSC.

Dr Laura Hancock

• 2022 - Advance HE Collaborative Award for Teaching Excellence

Professor Rachel O'Reilly

• 2023 - Elected as an Honorary Fellow of Downing College, Cambridge
• 2022 - Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS)
• 2022 - ACS Global Mentor Award
• 2020 – Royal Society of Chemistry Corday-Morgan Prize
• 2020 – Royal Society of Chemistry Polymer Chemistry lectureship award
• 2019 – UK Finalist (Chemistry) in the Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists
• 2018 – Industry-Academia Collaboration of the Year (with BP) from the Royal Society of Chemistry
• 2018 – Journal of Polymer Science Innovation award2018 – Covestro Distinguished Lectureship from Texas A&M University

Dr Sarah Pike

• 2023 - The Hildegard-Hamm-Brucher Prize from the German Chemical Society

Professor Andrew Dove

• 2022 - RSC Corday-Morgan Prize
• 2022 - Elected as a Fellow of American Chemical Society Division of Polymeric Materials: Science and Engineering
• 2019 – MacroGroup UK Medal
• 2018 – RSC Emerging Technologies Award
• 2018 – RSC Norman Heatley Award

Dr Lucy Clark

• 2022 - RSC Materials Chemistry Division Early Career prize
• 2022 - Awarded the Florence Price Award for Outstanding Early Career Academic.
• 2020 - Lucy Clark has been awarded the 2020 Physical Crystallography Prize from the British Crystallographic Association/ IOP. It is awarded for the “best recently published work by a person in the early stages of their career, working in the field of Physical Crystallography, whose research is expected to make a significant impact in the field”.

Dr Dylan Williams, Dr Laura Hancock, Dr Natalie Rowley and Dr John Wilkie

• 2023 – Outstanding Education Support Team - HEFi Teaching and Learning Awards

Dr Phil Craven and the CTL Team

• 2022 – LearningSci Teaching Innovation Award

Dr Laura Hancock

• 2022 - Advance HE Collaborative Award for Teaching Excellence

Dr Nic Pearce

• 2022 - Atassi Research Prize

Dr Connor Stubbs

• 2022 – Atassi PhD Thesis Prize

Dr John Wilkie and DoYs

• 2022 – Support for Student Education, HEFi Awards

Dr Hamish Yeung

• 2022 – CCDC Chemical Crystallography Prize for Young Scientists

Fellowships

• Dr Javier Castells-Gill - Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship (2023)
• Dr Adam Michalchuk - Wilhelm-Ostwald Fellowship by the BAM (2023)
• Dr Georgia Orton - Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship (2023)
• Prof Tim Albrecht - Turing Fellow at the Alan Turing Institute (2022)
• Prof Andrew Dove - PMSE (ACS) Fellowship (2022)
• Dr Otto Mustonen and Dr Stephen Fielden - EC Leverhulme Fellow (2022)
• Dr Andrew Jupp - Royal Society University Research Fellowship (URF) 2020
• Dr Joshua Makepeace - UKRI Future Leaders Fellowships (FLF) 2019
• Dr Sarah Pike - UKRI Future Leaders Fellowships (FLF) 2019