Jonathan W. Steed

Jonathan Steed is a Chemistry professor living in Durham amid the castles of the chilly North of England. He spends most of his time writing scientific books about exotic supermolecules and nanothings, all of which are highly recommended to other scientists. He is also the author of the colourful novel 'The Demon’s Tale', his first, and probably last work of fiction. Writing it kept him sane while trying to begin an academic career in the sciences. Forever famous for having a very similar name to the main protagonist from the 1960’s TV show ‘The Avengers’, Jon has otherwise lived in humble obscurity since his birth in London in 1969. When not writing he teaches Chemistry, makes powders that explode with puffs of purple smoke and grows exotic crystals of pharmaceuticals. He lives on a hill in Durham surrounded by sheep and windmills with his wife, two energetic sons, two murderous cats and seven bicycles.

Jon's chemistry background (for those interested) started at University College London, doing research on organometallic chemistry. He graduated in 1993 and from then until 1995 he was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Alabama and University of Missouri. In 1995 he was appointed as a Lecturer at Kings College London and then joined Durham University in 2004 where he is currently Professor of Inorganic Chemistry. As well as books, Steed is co-author of 300 fairly arcane research papers and, along with Phil Gale (Southampton), edits the Monographs in Supramolecular Chemistry series. He has won a number of awards including the RSC Meldola Medal (1998), Durham's Award for Excellence in Postgraduate Teaching (2006), the Bob Hay Lectureship (2008), the RSC Corday-Morgan Prize (2010) and the RSC Tilden Prize (2021). His research interests are in crystallization and crystal growth, anion binding and sensing, supramolecular gels and crystal engineering... and of course teaching anyone who will listen all about Chemistry.