Molecular Photophysics and Spectroscopy

Following PhD studies in Chemistry at University College London, David Andrews spent two years as a Research Associate in the Department of Mathematics. He then joined the University of East Anglia as Lecturer, gaining a Chair in Chemical Physics in 1996; he has also held Visiting Fellowships at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, and twice at the University of Western Ontario in Canada. Prof. Andrews was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry in 1988, a Fellow of the Institute of Physics in 1999, and a Fellow of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering, in 2006. The interests of his research group broadly concern developing the theory of molecular interactions - with each other, and with light - in terms of quantum electrodynamics (QED). Quantum electrodynamics is essentially the study of how matter interacts with light, treating both matter and light quantum mechanically. The QED group at UEA has been at the forefront in applications ranging from spectroscopy and nonlinear optics to the intermolecular transport of energy. Prof. Andrews has more than 300 research papers and 10 books to his name, including the widely adopted textbook, Lasers in Chemistry; he is also on the Editorial Boards of four international journals. The current focus of his research is on novel mechanisms for optical nanomanipulation and switching, and light harvesting in nanostructured molecular systems. His group enjoys strong international links, particularly with groups in Canada, Lithuania, New Zealand and the US. Prof. Andrews was recently Chair of the SPIE Nanotechnology Technical Group and he is currently Chair of the Royal Society of Chemistry Molecular Spectroscopy Group.