Neil Cameron undertook his B.Sc. (1987-1991) and Ph.D. (1991-1994) at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow. Following two post-doctoral periods, first in Eindhoven then at Heriot Watt University, he was appointed as a Lecturer in the Department of Chemistry at Durham University in October 1997. In 2005 he was promoted to Reader and in October 2008 to Professor. His research is focused on the preparation of bioactive and bio-inspired macromolecules. His research to date has led to the publication of >80 articles, reviews and book chapters and he has given >75 invited lectures at conferences and colloquiua. Currently, he is co-editing a major book on Porous Polymers. He was awarded the 2003 Young Researchers’ Medal from the Macro Group U.K. (a joint subject group of the Royal Society of Chemistry and the Society of Chemical Industry) and he was a Durham University Christopherson/Knott Fellow for 2008-09. He is currently a member of the EPSRC college, an Honorary Reader in the Faculty of Medical Sciences at the University of Newcastle and is a Committee Member of the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Biomaterials Interest Group. He was Durham University’s representative for the 2008 EPSRC International Review of Materials.
Please follow the links for further information on Neil’s research group and his recent paper in Polymer Chemistry.
What was your inspiration in becoming a chemist?
I had always enjoyed science and maths, but I had a very good chemistry teacher at school who introduced me to the wonders of chemistry. I guess like many boys, I was initially interested in making explosions (!), but that was soon replaced with a more general interest in synthetic chemistry. In those days, we did lots of experiments in the classroom (many of these would be illegal now!), which I found particularly inspiring. When it came time to choose a subject to study at university, chemistry was the only thing I was interested in.
What was the motivation behind the research in your recent Polymer Chemistry paper?
We have been working on glycopolymers for quite a few years now. It is widely known that they demonstrate multivalency, that is, the strength of binding to proteins (lectins) increases non-linearly with the number of sugar residues. However, there are very few detailed examinations of this effect for linear glycopolymers. We had been using RAFT to prepare glycopolymers of different chain lengths so it seemed like an ideal opportunity to probe the influence of chain length (and thus valency) on binding. With techniques such as isothermal titration calorimetry and surface plasmon resonance you can determine not just the binding constant but also the thermodynamics of binding.
Why did you choose Polymer Chemistry to publish your work?
The paper is a contribution to a special issue on Bioconjugates, but we would most likely have submitted it to Polymer Chemistry anyway. The journal is publishing really high quality articles and reviews, and we have been very impressed with how our previously published articles were dealt with.
In which upcoming conferences may our readers meet you?
The ACS National Meeting at Denver, where I will be talking about our work described in a previous article in Polymer Chemistry… I am running a symposium on Porous Polymers in the PMSE program.
How do you spend your spare time?
I travel quite a lot so I spend all my free time with my family. My son and I are training in karate, we’re both at 5th Kyu (blue belt) grade at the moment. My hope is that we will take our black belt gradings together, so long as he doesn’t get there first!
Which profession would you choose if you were not a scientist?
I can’t think of anything that I would rather be doing – at least, nothing that I could get paid for!
