Andrea Sella
Professor Andrea Sella is on a mission to get us to understand chemistry and the often hidden impact it has on our lives.
He does this by telling chemical stories illustrated with demonstrations, and by contributing to a wide range of TV and radio programmes. By birth Italian, he was educated in the US, Kenya, Canada (where he studied with Robert H Morris) and the UK where he did his PhD in organometallic chemistry with Malcolm L H Green. He is professor of inorganic chemistry at University College London, working primarily on materials synthesis and increasingly, Citizen Science. He is heavily involved in developing new teaching strategies and in reducing the environmental impact both of his own Department and UCL as a whole. He is seldom seen without a pushbike, doesn’t drive, and seldom flies.
OpinionFortin’s barometer and balance
Defining a new system of measurement required a master instrument maker
- Opinion
The story of Quickfit, part three: Scorah’s Quickfit
In the final part of our Classic Kit series, Andrea Sella delves into the life and work of Leslie Scorah, the patenter of Quickfit
- Opinion
The story of Quickfit, part two: Flaig’s joints
The second article in a Classic Kit series on Quickfit focuses on the family that introduced standardised ground glass joints to the UK
- Opinion
The story of Quickfit, part one: Friedrich's joints
In the first article in a special Classic Kit series on Quickfit, Andrea Sella tracks the origin of standardised ground glass joints to 1900s Prussia
- Opinion
Kathleen Lonsdale’s crystallography tables
No princes were needed on the quest for structure factors
- Opinion
Geissler’s glassware
How the supreme glassblower of his day shows the value of technical staff
- Opinion
The Likens-Nickerson Apparatus
Tracking down an obscure kit’s creator can make you hopping mad
