Richard Brown received a first class honours degree in chemistry from the University of Southampton in 1990. He remained at Southampton for postgraduate studies under the guidance of Professor Kocienski F.R.S., obtaining his Ph.D. in 1994 for his thesis 'Furan Oxidation Applied to the Synthesis of Salinomycin'.  With a  move to the University of California Berkeley in 1994 to take up a NATO postdoctoral fellowship in Professor Clayton Heathcock’s research group, his synthetic efforts switched from complex polyether ionophores to alkaloids, specifically the syntheses of the alkaloids petrosin C and petrosin D. On his return to the UK in 1996, he took up a six-month sabbatical at Pfizer Central Research before being awarded a Royal Society University Research Fellowship, also in 1996, to join the faculty at the University of Southampton.  He was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2004 and to Professor in 2010.  He is currently deputy head of Chemistry for Research.

Associate Professor Helena Lundberg leads a research group at the Department of Chemistry at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, focusing on synthetic method development and mechanistic studies of catalytic and electrosynthetic transformations. Helena received her PhD degree in 2015 under the guidance of Professor Hans Adolfsson at Stockholm University, after which she carried out postdoctoral research with Professor Fahmi Himo at Stockholm University 2015-16 and with Professor Donna G. Blackmond at Scripps Research in 2017-18. Helena started her independent career at KTH in 2019 and was appointed Assistant Professor in Organic Chemistry and Docent in Sustainable Synthesis in 2021. Helena is the recipient of various grants, fellowships and distinctions, including an ERC Starting Grant (2024), a Future Research Leader grant by the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research (2022), a JSP fellowship for the Bürgenstock conference (2022) and the Sigrid Arrhenius Award (2015).

Kevin Lam began his scientific journey at the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium, where he received his PhD in medicinal and synthetic organic chemistry in 2010 under the supervision of Professor Istvan Marko. His pioneering PhD research used electrochemistry and photochemistry as sustainable methods to activate organic molecules, culminating in the innovative Lam-Marko reaction.

Seeking new horizons, Kevin joined the University of Vermont, where he studied the intricate redox behaviour of organometallic compounds using analytical/physical electrochemistry and spectroscopy. His pioneering efforts here improved the use of weakly coordinating electrolytes/solvents to characterise transient 17e- organometallic radical cations, and innovated methods for modifying electrode surfaces, which are critical for molecular electronics and materials applications.

In 2013, Kevin's journey took him to Nazarbayev University in Astana as an assistant professor, where he established a cutting-edge research programme in molecular electrochemistry. His tenure was marked by the synthesis of novel organometallic anticancer agents and the discovery of efficient, environmentally friendly electrocatalysts for carbon dioxide recycling.

Promoted to Professor of Synthetic Electrochemistry at the University of Greenwich in 2023, Kevin continues to push the boundaries of interdisciplinary research, making significant contributions to the field of chemistry and inspiring the next generation of scientist.