Professor James Tucker BSc, PhD

• PhD in Chemistry 1993, King’s College London
• BSc in Chemistry 1989, King’s College London
• Member of the Royal Society of Chemistry (MRSC)

After completing his PhD at King’s College London in 1993, Jim undertook two postdoctoral fellowships, firstly in Prof Eiichi Kimura’s group in Hiroshima University, Japan (1993-4) and then in Nobel Prize winner Prof. Jean-Marie Lehn’s group at the Université Louis Pasteur in Strasbourg, France (1994-5).

In 1995, he returned to the UK to take up a Lectureship in Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Exeter. In 2005, Jim moved to the University of Birmingham and from 2009 to 2014 held an EPSRC Leadership Fellowship on Functional DNA Assemblies.

Teaching Programmes

• Supramolecular Devices (MSci Chemistry 4th year course)

Jim has an active research group. For a full list of available Doctoral Research opportunities, please visit our Doctoral Research programme listings.

Research Themes 

• DNA synthesis and DNA sensing
• Modified nucleosides and nucleic acids
• Supramolecular chemistry including functional receptor design, photochromic systems and interlocked structures
• Ferrocene and anthracene chemistry
• Molecular motion
• Chiral sensing
• Bioorganometallic chemistry and medicinal chemistry

Research Activity

Research in the Tucker group is focused primarily on the design and study of functional supramolecular and DNA-based systems, which often contain redox-active or photo-active sub-units. Students and postdocs receive training in a variety of techniques, including molecular synthesis, DNA synthesis, fluorescence spectroscopy and electrochemistry.

For more information on current projects, many of which involve collaborations with research groups in the UK and abroad, please visit the group website.

• EPSRC Peer Review College member (since 1998) 
• Member of the Royal Society of Chemistry 
• Member of the Editorial Advisory Board of Chem. Soc. Rev. 
• Member of the Editorial Board of the journal Supramolecular Chemistry.