Andrew Worrall joined the Department of Chemistry in April 2017, initially in the role of Laboratory Course Developer, a new position designed to help plan and implement a new, integrated practical course at Oxford. Prior to this, he had a career teaching Chemistry in secondary schools and, prior to that, he was a Lecturer in Biochemistry at The University of Southampton.
Andrew is a graduate of The University of Cambridge (Christ’s College) where he studied Natural Sciences, specialising in Chemistry. He studied under Prof. G. Michael Blackburn at The University of Sheffield for his Ph.D., looking at the synthesis of radiolabelled oestrogen metabolites and their binding to DNA. He then undertook post-doctoral research for the (then) Cancer Research Campaign at The Christie Hospital in Manchester, followed by work undertaken with Prof. Bernard Connolly at The University of Southampton, looking at protein-DNA interactions. He retains a strong interest in biological organic chemistry and enzymology.
After taking a PGCE, he taught in schools in Worcester, Kent and NW London over a period of 24 years. During that time, he served for almost 10 years as a committee member, running the International Chemistry Olympiad for the Royal Society of Chemistry. He is a founding member of the committee that runs the Cambridge Chemistry Challenge Lower Sixth (C3L6), a competition for Year 12 students that attracts over 9000 entries from over 500 UK schools. He serves as a Governor of a secondary school in Reading and is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
