Professor John Nicholson
John Nicholson BSc PhD EurChem CChemProfessor of Biomaterials Chemistry |
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John Nicholson is a materials chemist who is a Fellow both of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC) and the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (FIMMM). He graduated with a BSc in applied chemistry from Kingston University in 1977, then undertook study for his PhD in chemistry at London South Bank University, graduating in 1981.
Following a two-year post-doctoral fellowship, also at London South Bank University, he joined the Laboratory of the Government Chemist, where he worked in the materials chemistry group. He was Head of Materials Research there for five years (1989-94) before leaving to be Head of the Biomaterials Department at the King's Dental Institute, London (now GKT Dental Institute, King's College London).
He joined the University of Greenwich as Professor of Biomaterials Chemistry in 2002, where he teaches a variety of courses, including first year chemistry and final year advanced inorganic chemistry. He undertakes research on biomedical cements for hard tissue repair, and has published some 170 papers and 4 books in this field. In 2011 he was awarded the degree of DSc by the University of Greenwich in recognition of his research achievements.
Much of his research is collaborative, and he has established research partnerships with both overseas and UK universities, including Bangor and Cambridge. Long-term overseas partnerships are with the University of Medical Sciences, Poznan, Poland, and the St Cyril and St Methodius University, Skopje, Macedonia.
John has been External Examiner for PhD degrees on many occasions, most recently (in November 2010) for the University of Ulster. He has examined overseas PhD candidates at the St Cyril and St Methodius University, Skopje, Macedonia and the University of the West Indies in Trinidad, and he was also external examiner for the undergraduate degrees of MEng and BEng at the Queen Mary University of London (2003-2006).
Away from teaching and research, John is involved in a variety of outreach activities, including RSC Chemistry at Work events and Salter’s Festivals of Chemistry. He lectures widely on the subject of poisons, with a general talk entitled “Molecules and Murder”.