Dr Matthew Grayson - 2023 Organic 91AV early career Prize: Hickinbottom Prize winner

Dr Matthew Grayson MRSC

Winner: 2023 Organic 91AV early career Prize: Hickinbottom Prize

University of Bath

For enabling rational organic reactivity design through the use and development of computational methods.

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Picture: © Creative Services, University of Bath

Chemical research moves at a very fast pace. Be prepared and willing to adapt and to continuously learn new skills throughout your career.

The computational design of reactions that deliver new chemicals is regarded as one of the holy grails of computational organic chemistry and biochemistry. Computational approaches to predicting chemical behaviour would provide faster and more cost-effective alternatives to trial-and-error experimentation and, in some cases, animal testing in drug design, toxicology, and chemical synthesis.

Dr Grayson’s research group are developing new, rapid, high-throughput computational screening approaches for such purposes through the use of simulations and machine learning. These new methods will help the UK chemical and pharmaceutical industries become more competitive and help improve people’s quality of life by delivering medicines to patients faster.

Read winner biography

Dr Matt Grayson is Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) at the University of Bath.

After graduating with 1st Class Honours in Natural Sciences at the University of Cambridge, Matt obtained his PhD at Cambridge in 2014 with Professor Jonathan Goodman. In 2014, he took up an independent Girton College Research Fellowship at Cambridge. As a recipient of a Lindemann Trust Fellowship, Matt conducted postdoctoral research in the group of Professor Kendall Houk at the University of California, Los Angeles, in 2015. He then returned to Cambridge to continue his fellowship.

In July 2018, Matt joined the Faculty of Science at the University of Bath as Lecturer (Assistant Professor). Matt was awarded a University of Bath Doctoral Recognition Award in 2021 for his dedication to doctoral supervision. In January 2022, Matt was promoted to Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor).

Matt and his research group are interested in the use of molecular modelling and machine learning to address challenges in synthetic chemistry, toxicology, and drug design.

Q&A

What advice would you give to a young person considering a career in chemistry?

Chemical research moves at a very fast pace. Be prepared and willing to adapt and to continuously learn new skills throughout your career

Can you tell us about a scientific development on the horizon that you are excited about?

I’m very excited to see what role artificial intelligence will play in the future of the chemical sciences and indeed science as a whole.

Why do you think teamwork is important in science?

Different perspectives and ideas can be vital for scientific progress. My research group are a constant source of inspiration and some of our best and most exciting ideas have come from group discussions when we’ve thought about a problem together in ways that wouldn’t have been possible in isolation.