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Dr Martin Smalley
Senior Lecturer

Biography

I took a starred First in Chemistry at the University of Oxford in 1978, and was awarded a D.Phil. by Oxford University in 1981 for a thesis on Neutron Scattering Studies of Adsorption, after studying for a doctorate in the Physical Chemistry Laboratory. I worked as a professional research scientist from 1980 to 2000, with the exception of two years when I trained and worked as a school physics teacher. After that, I took a long break from academia, and founded my own company, translating scientific and medical Japanese into English. I returned to academia as a Senior Research Associate at University College London in 2007, and got a permanent position in the Department of Physics at the University of York in 2009. Although I am now mainly involved in teaching (especially electromagnetism), I have recently got back into research, on the “origins of life”. I can read all the G7 languages.

Career

I worked as a professional research scientist from 1980 to 2000, with the exception of two years when I trained and worked as a school physics teacher. In the late 1980s, after spells in theoretical physics at the Universities of Erlangen-Nürnberg and Oxford, I started investigating clays at the Physical Chemistry Laboratory, Oxford University, and the Department of Polymer Chemistry, Kyoto University. I became interested in polymers on an ERATO (Exploratory Research for Advanced Technology) project in Japan in the 1990s, and pursued my studies of colloids and polymers as a lecturer in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, University College London. In the 2000s, I worked as a Japanese translator and in the 2010s, I have been working as a physics lecturer at the University of York.

Departmental roles

  • Physics & Philosophy Programme Leader
  • Year 4 Tutor (this role includes being a standing member of the Board of Studies and Departmental Teaching Committee, a member of the Staff-Student Committee and Exceptional Circumstances Committee, and Chair of the Year 4 Exam Panel)
  • Member of Departmental Equality Committee
  • Departmental UCU Representative

Department of Physics
University of York
Heslington
York
YO10 5DD
U.K.

martin.smalley@york.ac.uk
Tel: +44 (0)1904 322211
Room: P/C005