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Dr Alexander (Sandy) D. James

Dr Alexander (Sandy) D. James

  • Position: Research Fellow
  • Areas of expertise: heterogeneous kinetics; surface uptake; heterogeneous nucleation; meteoric material.
  • Email: A.James1@leeds.ac.uk
  • Location: 1.56 Chemistry West
  • Website: Googlescholar

Profile

Having been in the School of Chemistry at Leeds since 2012, I recieved my PhD, supervised by John Plane and Ben Murray, in 2017. Since then I have been a research fellow at Leeds working collaboratively between the schools of Chemistry, Chemical and Process Engineering and Earth and Environment. I also have several active knowledge transfer projects with industrial partners. I am an associate fellow of the Higher Education Academy and am applying for recognition with the UKCGE associate supervisor scheme.

Research interests

I am a heterogeneous kineticist. I use a variety of techniques to probe the rates of processes which involve materials of two different phases. I have applied this to investigating the impact which meteoric material has as it sediments through the atmospheres of Earth, Venus and Titan. This has included extensive work on the nucleation of nitric acid hydrates in polar stratospheric clouds, reactive uptake of gasses and investigating the chemical and radiative properties of meteoric material. I am also developing a catalyst for engine exhaust processing, this material is as a NOx reduction catalyst at lower temperatures than industry standard materials, and our current project will develop a working prototype exhaust mitigation system by the end of 2023.

<h4>Research projects</h4> <p>Some research projects I'm currently working on, or have worked on, will be listed below. Our list of all <a href="https://eps.leeds.ac.uk/dir/research-projects">research projects</a> allows you to view and search the full list of projects in the faculty.</p>

Qualifications

  • PhD atmospheric chemistry, University of Leeds
  • Master of environmental and sustainable chemistry, University of Edinburgh

Professional memberships

  • AFHEA

Student education

In 2016/17 I acted as physical chemistry teaching fellow. This involved tutoring several groups, demonstrating in physical laboratories for level 1 and 2 students and giving a foundation level lecture set. I also supervise BSc, MCHEM and PhD research projects.