Niek Buurma
Senior Lecturer in Physical Organic Chemistry @Cardiff University Prifysgol Caerdydd
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WORK HISTORY
Senior Lecturer in Physical Organic Chemistry @Cardiff University Prifysgol Caerdydd
Cardiff, GB
My duties are divided between Research, Teaching and Administration. In research, I lead an independent team of researchers with varying numbers of postdoctoral associates, PhD students and undergraduate students (including Erasmus students). I develop new projects, apply for funding, supervise junior researchers, develop data analysis approaches and write publications (both original research papers and reviews). I develop and maintain collaborations with colleagues in Cardiff, in the UK and overseas. I have successfully supervised multiple PhD students as main supervisor. I have published >40 publications, of which >30 in peer reviewed journals and >10 reviews and book chapters. I have delivered invited seminars and oral presentations. I am involved in national agenda setting through my membership of the core team of the Directed Assembly Network and in my role as secretary of the Royal Society of Chemistry interest group for Physical Organic Chemistry. I am active in scientific outreach (I have spoken at Pint of Science for 3 consecutive years and my research has been reported on BBC News).My teaching activities cover all levels (undergraduate and master) and include lectures, workshops and tutorials and lab classes.In administrative duties, I have had a variety of administrative roles, as typical for staff in Higher Education. I have been involved in the organisation of national and international conferences.
EDUCATION
University of Groningen
M.Sc., Chemistry
University of Groningen
Doctor of Philosophy - PhD, Physical Organic Chemistry
C.S.G. Oostergo, Dokkum (the Netherlands)
VWO, chemistry, physics, mathematics, dutch, english, french, latin, greek
Cardiff University / Prifysgol Caerdydd
Postgraduate Certificate in University Teaching and Learning
SKILLS
ABOUT NIEK BUURMA
I grew up in the Netherlands, surrounded by water. It is therefore not surprising that much of the research in my team is aimed at understanding reactions and interactions in aqueous solutions.Research in my team is focused on three main areas.The first area is development of DNA-binders with useful optoelectronic properties for application as sensitisers in molecular diagnostics, for use in forensics, as well as for use in self-assembled nanobioelectronic systems. Our contributions to this area include the synthesis of new DNA-binding compounds and studies of their DNA-binding properties using a variety of biophysical techniques.The second area of interest involves the study of organic reactions in aqueous solutions. We focus on 1) pharmaceutically relevant racemisation processes, 2) kinetic and mechanistic studies of surfactant-assisted metal-catalysed as well as nanoparticle-catalysed reactions, 3) reactivity studies using automated physical organic chemistry and 4) micellar medium effects on chemical reactions.The third area of interest supports the two themes above. We develop data-analysis software, in particular software for the analysis of isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) data for complex coupled equilibria. In addition, we develop Python code to control custom-built automated equipment. This work also involves using on machine learning (ML) approaches.I have talked about our research several times at Pint of Science and other outreach events and you may just have seen me talk about rain on BBC Wales.
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