Prof Alan Heaton, Principal
On leaving school, Alan worked in the chemical industry before gaining a PhD entitled The Synthesis of Highly Fluorinated Pyridines from Durham University in 1967.
He joined the forerunner of Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU) in 1969; he became Professor of Chemical Education and Head of Chemistry in 2002, and took early retirement in 2006. Alan is the author of five undergraduate textbooks on industrial chemistry plus Problem Solving in Analytical Chemistry. He has also written chapters in books, and course material on industrial chemistry for the Open University, with whom he was a tutor for over 30 years.
In 1988-9 he carried out research on CFC Replacements at ICI Chemicals and Polymers as a Royal Society/SERC Industrial Fellow.
In 2007, 2008 and 2011, as a visiting consultant at Sultan Qaboos University in Oman, he gave advice and helped to write a new BSc in Industrial Chemistry.
Currently, he is also a trustee of Catalyst Science Discovery Centre in Widnes, Cheshire.
Within SCI, Alan chaired the then Liverpool Section three times and was the first Chairman of the Liverpool and North West Regional Interest Group. He was awarded the Society’s Lampitt Medal in 2004. Alan is an elected member of the SCI Membership Advisory Committee, the Board of Trustees and is Chair of the new Early Career Support Sub-Committtee
Dave Allen
Dave Allen leads the Centre of Excellence for Drug Discovery (CEDD) focussed on the identification and progression to proof of concept of novel differentiated treatments for respiratory diseases. The CEDD exploits those innovations in science which are likely to address the major unmet needs in diseases such as Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPS), severe asthma, cystic fibrosis and non-allergic rhinitis. Prior to this position, he led the CEDD’s chemistry group and managed the lead optimisation portfolio (2001-2005) from which over 30 molecules transitioned into development, with the majority of these successfully entering clinical evaluation.
Dave joined the company as a research chemist in 1981 after completing his MA and BA at Oriel College, Oxford. During his career, he has also worked on discovering antibiotics and cardiovascular medicines and has on several occasions been the project leader.
Andy Merritt
Dr Andy Merritt is Associate Director of Chemistry at the MRCT Centre for Therapeutics Discovery, which looks to develop innovative drug screens emerging out of ground-breaking MRC research and subsequently pursue drug discovery programmes.
Previously Andy was a Director of Discovery Medicinal Chemistry at GlaxoSmithKline, with global responsibility for development of the corporate screening collection and providing molecular tools for target validation. He has been at the forefront of the application of combinatorial technologies to drug discovery since the 1990s. Andy joined Glaxo in 1987, working on oncology and pain drug discovery programmes.
Andy sits on the RSC Chemical Biology interface Forum Executive and the Chemistry World editorial board. He sat on the Royal Society higher education working group which published 2 reports on STEM subject provision in 2006 and 2008. He has been a regular lecturer in pharmaceutical medicine at Imperial College, Warwick and Sussex universities.
Prof A Jennifer Mordue
Prof Jenny Mordue is Emeritus Professor of Zoology at the University of Aberdeen. Her research in chemical ecology is at the cutting edge of innovative approaches to integrated pest management strategies. It involves the identification and use of semiochemicals (allelochemicals from plants, pheromones, kairomones) in the control of phytophagous insect pests, biting flies (mosquitoes and midges) and sealice of farmed salmon. Jenny has published more than 100 research papers and chapters, holds two patents and is involved with commercialisation towards product formation. She is also a Trustee of the Royal Entomological Society.
Jenny has taught extensively at undergraduate and PhD level, seeing all her students developing excellent careers in science and industry both in the UK and abroad. Jenny was instrumental in setting up and running the College of Life Sciences and Medicine Graduate School for more than 300 postgraduate students at Aberdeen University. She has been a member of SCI for more than 30 years, serving on the Crop Protection Group (now the BioResources Group) and local Regional Group and initiated the setting up the SCI Scotland Group. She was awarded the SCI Lampitt Medal in 2002. Jenny has strong interests in supporting the careers of young scientists and in promoting women in SET and is currently a member of the Board of Trustees.
Thimo Valentin Schmitt-Lord
Thimo Valentin Schmitt-Lord provides strategic leadership to the foundation and donations work in the Bayer Group. In this position he serves the Bayer Foundations as the executive director. He holds a Masters degree in Business and Engineering (MBE) from Steinbeis University (Berlin), and an Engineering degree in Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering from the University of Greenwich (London) and the University of Applied Sciences Giessen.
Thimo has been an active member of SCI since joining in 1998. He was a member of the Awards Committee in the past, and is currently a member of the Board of Trustees.