Dr Russell Minns combines the disciplines of Chemistry and Physics in his research. He has joined the University of Southampton from University College London where he also studied for his PhD. Earlier in his career, Russell worked for two years in the US at the University of Virgina at Charlottesville.
He works in time resolved spectroscopy, using powerful lasers to examine what goes on during chemical reactions at a molecular level. Laser pulses of a billionth of a billionth of a second are used in his experiments with colleagues Professor Jeremy Frey from Chemistry and Dr Bill Brocklesby from the university’s Optoelectronics Research Centre.
“Investigating how molecules react to light is vital in many fields such as vision and photosynthesis,” explains Russell. “This work brings together both chemists and physicists.”
He has been awarded a Royal Society University Research Fellowship for early career researchers, which helps fund his work for the next five years.