
Victoria Atkinson
Following on from two generations of chemists, perhaps my choice to pursue the same path was inevitable. My childhood was full of home experiments, from the classic bicarb volcano to growing copper sulphate crystals on the window ledge!
I studied chemistry at the University of Oxford and completed my fourth-year master’s project working on catalytic methodology with Darren Dixon (which excitingly led to my first publication). Having caught the research bug, I decided to continue on to do a PhD, this time joining Jeremy Robertson to work on a total synthesis project, employing enzymatic methodology to produce agrochemical products.
Towards the end of my PhD, I found that I was enjoying talking about science much more than actually doing it and I became heavily involved in science outreach. Here I could share my enthusiasm for science with younger students through practical workshops and school visits, something which I always found very fulfilling. Later, I focused on developing new outreach material and have since made the transition to science journalism.
- Research
Boron building block assembles tetra-substituted alkenes like Lego
Powerful method offers control of stereochemistry to produce drugs and natural products
- Feature
Carbon in an ice world
Antarctica may seem pristine and almost devoid of life, but there’s plenty of chemistry going on. Victoria Atkinson explains what it can tell us about the climate and pollution across the globe
- Research
Abundant alkanes become gaseous alkylating agent with flow chemistry
Photocatalytic process can carry out late-stage optimisation of drug candidates
- Research
Nanocomplex becomes a master of shape-shifting to target tumour cells
Switching from nanofibres in the blood to virus-like particles in a tumour environment brings drugs to where they are needed
- Research
Skeletal editing provides quick access to pharmaceutical ‘matching pairs’
Late-stage functional group switching in dibenzofurans will aid drug discovery chemistry
- Research
Enzyme-inspired ligand distinguishes between simple alkyl groups
Designer ligand creates active site-like pocket for asymmetric radical reaction
- Research
Reimagining synthetic strategy with skeletal editing ticks box on chemists’ wish list
Selective heteroatom alkylation offers route to modify important drug building blocks
- Careers
Bridging the gap after submitting a PhD thesis
Finding ways to fund students as they search for jobs and complete lab work for publications
- Research
Simple trick lets pure blue quantum dots maintain their performance without cadmium
Inserting sulfur into heavy metal-free nanocrystal lattice produced pure blue quantum dot LEDs
- Research
Skeletal editing targets double bonds
Two new techniques selectively install nitrogen atoms into complex molecules
- Research
Unusual radical reaction powered by strained substrates
Single-electron strain-release produces pharmaceutical building blocks
- Research
Designer protein performs multi-step catalysis with life-like performance
Computer-designed enzyme competitive with nature for the first time
- Research
Generative AI pipeline creates promising antimicrobial peptides
AI model extrapolates beyond training data to predict diverse antimicrobial structures
- Research
Tuning polymer microstructure produces adhesive stickier than super glue
Manipulating monomer stereochemistry controls polymer properties
- Research
Quantitative mass spectrometry method streamlines high-throughput analysis
Screen of 384 chemical reactions evaluated for best of six reaction conditions in under 8 minutes
- Research
Iontronic gel droplets detect beating heart tissue
Microscale hydrogels converted into biocompatable electrical components
- Research
Large language models are better than humans at answering chemistry questions
AI models outperform human chemists in every topic area. But are they really better chemists?
- Research
Microcrystal electron diffraction promises a revolution in study of proteins, small molecules
Technique offers a way to get around problems with hard-to-crystallise proteins, already scoring impressive successes with a Parkinson’s protein
- Research
Parrots’ vibrant plumage controlled by single enzyme
Mutation in gene reveals control of red and yellow pigments specific to parrots