Neil Withers
I joined Chemistry World in June 2012 after spending four years as an associate editor on Nature Chemistry.
This is my second stint at the Royal Society of Chemistry, having started work here in July 2004 just a week after my PhD viva! I worked in a variety of roles in my first four years at the RSC, from a technical editor on Journals of Materials Chemistry and Soft Matter to editor of Chemical Technology.
I commission and edit the features in Chemistry World, and contribute to the other areas of the magazine as need arises. I have a PhD in solid-state inorganic chemistry from the University of Durham, where I also did a four-year chemistry degree.
OpinionSpringing up from the soil
Can we fix nitrogen for plants – and the problem of nitrogen pollution?
- Opinion
Business as usual?
The pandemic has shown that we can react quickly to complex problems – can we do it to avert a climate crisis?
- Review
Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood
20 years after it was first published, Oliver Sacks’ memoir remains a popular chemistry classic – and for good reason
- Podcast
Book club – Uncle Tungsten by Oliver Sacks
We celebrate 20 years of a popular chemistry classic – written by neurologist
- Review
TV series: The Salisbury Poisonings
A gripping, fact-based drama about the poisoning of a former Russian spy, showing eerie parallels to the current coronavirus pandemic
- Opinion
Water funny liquid
Raise a glass to the essential ingredient to life, of endless fascination to chemists
- Opinion
A dedicated follower of slow fashion
Our features editor has some clothes that are nearly old enough to vote
- Opinion
Good enough at last
Neil Withers reflects on the 2019 Nobel prize in chemistry, awarded for developing lithium-ion batteries
- Article
The data behind the Nobel prizes
We’ve looked at over 100 years of data behind who and what wins the Nobel prize
- Opinion
Don’t be sniffy about sewage – or concrete
Do you flush and forget? Time to make a stink about concrete’s emissions
- Opinion
(When) will we go to the moon again?
Will people follow in the footsteps of the Apollo astronauts any time soon?
- News
The Cambridge Structural Database hits one million structures
Warning! Contains extreme crystallography
- Opinion
Have you had enough of the periodic table yet?
There are enough ways to organise the elements to suit everyone’s taste
- Article
Celebrating the periodic table
Peter Wothers tells us about the first published version of Dmitri Mendeleev’s periodic table, currently on show in Cambridge
