John Evans CV

Prof John S.O. Evans – Mini CV

I was born in 1968 and schooled at Marling School, Stroud. I studied for my Masters degree in Chemistry at Keble College, Oxford and remained in Oxford for my D. Phil. under the supervision of Professor Dermot O’Hare in the Inorganic Chemistry Laboratory.

From 1994 to 1996 I worked as a post doctoral research associate with Professor Art Sleight at Oregon State University. From 1996 to 1998 I held a Royal Society for the Exhibition of 1851 fellowship in the Inorganic Chemistry Laboratory, Oxford and, in 1997-8, a college lectureship at Balliol College. I was awarded the Royal Society of Chemistry Meldola Medal in 1997.

I moved to Durham in September 1998 to take up a lectureship in inorganic chemistry. In 2003 I was promoted to a Readership and in 2007 to a Chair. My main area of research is in solid state chemistry and crystallography. More details on my chemistry research are here. Details on developments in powder diffraction and Rietveld refinement are on the dedicated Topas Academic website.

I was Head of Department from 2009 to 2014. I have served as section head of “Inorganic, Structure and Materials Chemistry”, as Chemistry’s “Director of Research”, as head of the “Materials, Synthesis and Structure” research grouping, have chaired the Safety Committee and served on the Teaching and Learning Committee, Research Committee, and the Staff Student Consultative Committee. I lead Durham Chemistry’s interactions with our strategic partner P&G and sit on/chair Durham-P&G board meetings.

Externally I am a member of the Diamond Light Source Scientific Advisory Committee and EPSRC Peer Review College. I have chaired the ISIS crystallography access panel and served on several international neutron and synchrotron access panels. I was a member of the working party to provide a high resolution powder diffractometer at the Diamond Synchrotron Source and was on the working group for the HRPD beam guide upgrade at ISIS. I was inorganic external examiner for Oxford Chemistry from 2015-2017 and Manchester 2018-.current. I have acted as external examiner for numerous PhD candidates at Universities in the UK and abroad.

I am co-organiser of the biennial Durham-based International School on Powder Diffraction and Rietveld refinement.

I’ve co-authored two text books: “Rietveld Refinement” with Robert Dinnebier and Andreas Leineweber (De Gruyter, 2018) and “Solid State Materials Chemistry” with Pat Woodward, Pavel Karen and Tom Vogt (CUP, 2021).

I have served as Treasurer and Honorary Secretary of the Physical Crystallography Group of the British Crystallographic Association and Structural Condensed Matter Physics Group of the Institute of Physics and have been a committee member of the Solid State Group of the Royal Society of Chemistry.