Biography

Main Building, Office 1.55
School of Chemistry,
Cardiff University,
Park Place,
Cardiff
CF10 3AT

Dr J.M. Beames

Dr. Joseph Beames is a Lecturer in Physical Chemistry at Cardiff University. His expertise is in laser spectroscopy and electronic structure and dynamics calculations, with the ethos of his research group being that concomitant experimental and computational chemistry approaches yield the greatest photophysical insights into molecular systems, and maximizing research impact. In light of this he publishes both experimental and computational chemistry papers, and encourages his group members to find their perfect balance between these two disciplines.

Dr Beames was appointed as a Lecturer in 2019, before which he was a University Research Fellow, also at Cardiff University. Between 2016 and 2018 he held a position as a Marie Sklodowska Curie Individual Fellow.

Prior to his arrival in Cardiff, Dr Beames was a post-doctoral fellow in the group of Professor Marsha Lester at the University of Pennsylvania, where in latter years he became a Dreyfus post-doctoral fellow in Environmental Chemistry. During this period he investigate the spectroscopy and dynamics of small, atmospherically relevant radical species, for example carbonyl oxides of Criegee intermediates. Work in this area led to publications in internationally leading journals such as JACS, Science and of course JCP.

His B.Sc., M.Sc. by Research and Ph.D. were all obtained from the University of Bristol, where he worked closely with all members of the laser group. He undertook his Ph.D. with Dr Andrew Hudson studying the photophysics and spectroscopy of isolated porphyrins and their sub-units. During his Ph.D. he spent a period of secondment in the group of Professor John Simons at Oxford University. His M.Sc. by Research was undertaken in the group of Professor Andrew Orr-Ewing, once again studying atmospheric radicals, here using cavity enhanced spectroscopic methods. He was fortunate enough to partake in a field campaign in Roscoff towards the end of his M.Sc., assisting in the detection of IO radicals in the marine boundary layer.