About the lecture

In this mini-lecture we learn where the journey of learning about the structure of the atom begins: way back with the Ancient Greeks. It was said by them that the atom was the smallest indivisible unit of matter, and for centuries this was thought to be the case. It wasn’t until scientists in the 1800s began to develop equipment that could analyse the structure of atoms more closely. What were they made of? We look at the work carried out by famous scientists of the time: J.J. Thomson, Ernest Rutherford and Niels Bohr, and their contributions to atomic science. We learn about the models they proposed, including the plum pudding model and the planetary model, and the experiments they carried out to develop the science further.

About the lecturer

James McCullagh is Professor of Biological Chemistry and Director of the Mass Spectrometry Research Facility based in the Department of Chemistry. His research focusses on understanding the function of small molecules in biological, biomedical and environmental systems, with particular focus on metabolism and metabolomics. He has 20 years experience in the development of (bio)analytical chemistry techniques, in particular using mass spectrometry, with applications in chemical, biological and medical research. He is highly collaborative and works with academia and industry partners. He has authored/co-authored over 100 journal publications, book chapters and articles including a Mass Spectrometry textbook. He lectures on undergraduate and graduate analytical chemistry courses and runs workshops for post-graduate researchers in mass spectrometry methods, metabolomics, chemometrics and bioinformatics. He is a graduate (D.Phil.) and undergraduate (M.Chem.) supervisor. He has served on various national administrative and conference committees and provides consultancy in the field of mass spectrometry and bioanalytical science to a variety of commercial enterprises. He is currently Cell Metabolism section editor for the journal Metabolites and an editorial board member for the journal Scientific Reports. James McCullagh is also Director of the Mass Spectrometry Research Facility SRF, based in the Chemistry Research Laboratory, Department of Chemistry. This houses over £10 million in analytical instrumentation with 20 mass spectrometer systems supporting academic research. He manages a team of permanent mass spectrometry staff who provide analytical service provision for the Department, wider University and external organisations including industry.