Professor Benjamin Buckley

BSc, PhD, MRSC, FHEA

  • Professor of Organic Chemistry
  • Impact Co-ordinator for Chemistry
Publications
ORCiD Researcher ID Google Scholar
Benjamin Buckley

Professor Buckley completed his degree in Manchester working with Dr Julia Dickinson and Professor Ian J. S. Fairlamb on the synthesis of alpha pyrone mimics and then moved to º¬Ðß²ÝÊÓƵ to carry out a PhD with Professor Philip C. B. Page in the area of organocatalytic asymmetric epoxidation sponsored by the EPSRC and Avecia (with Professor John Blacker as Industrial Supervisor). Following this Dr Buckley worked as a PDRA with Professor Philip. C. B. Page for a further year working on the synthesis of N-Heterocyclic carbene ligands with Professor Steven D. R. Christie. In 2004 he was appointed as a university research fellow, working on projects with Professor Philip. C. B. Page and DSM (Netherlands),  Prof. Harry Heaney, Prof. Graham Hutchings FRS (Cardiff University), Prof. Frank Marken (Bath University). In September 2007 he was appointed as a Research Councils UK Fellow, in September 2012 to a permanent Lectureship and in March 2014 he was promoted to Senior Lecturer in Organic Chemistry. In 2014-15 he was a Visiting Professor at the University of Utah with Professor Matthew S. Sigman's group and appointed Associate Editor of the RSC Advances Journal. In 2017 Ben joined the management board of the EPSRC Grand Challenge Network CO2Chem, in Feb 2020 was promoted to Reader in Organic Chemistry and in 2024 to Professor of Organic Chemistry.

Research areas

Ben’s current areas of interest include carbon dioxide utilisation, catalysis, green chemistry and electrosynthesis. Recently we have been working on the electrosynthetic carboxylation of various olefins (See below). We have developed a non-sacrificial electrode system that is capable of hydrocarboxylation regioselectivly. 

For further information on recent research in this area from the group see J. Am. Chem Soc. 2020, 142, 1780 and Chem. Sci. 2020, 11, 9109.

Diagram - electrosynthetic carboxylation of various olefins

BBC interview

You can also watch a BBC interview with Dr Buckley and his collaborator Prof. Jin Xuan, from the Department of Chemical Engineering on their novel carbon dioxide utilisation technologies here.

Dr Buckley is part of the newly funded £4.4M UKRI Interdiciplinary Centre for Circular Chemical Economy based at º¬Ðß²ÝÊÓƵ, which is a multi-disciplinary collaboration across academia and UK industry. The themes of the centre are shown below, if you have an interest in this area please get in touch with Ben.

the UKRI Interdisciplinary Centre for Circular Chemical Engineering diagram
The UKRI Interdisciplinary Centre for Circular Chemical Engineering

School responsibilities:

  • Member of the School Research Committee
  • Mental Health First Aider

Departmental responsibilities:

  • Impact Coordinator

Teaching responsibilities:

  • CMC001: Modern Aspects of Organic Chemistry, Module Coordinator
  • CMC026/7: Investigative Projects
  • CMD001: Research Projects
  • CMD119: New Techniques and Technologies in Chemistry
  • CMD213: Biological Organic Chemistry
  • CMD214: Synthesis in Drug Discovery
  • CMP015: Research Methods, Module Coordinator
  • CMP056: Research Training Project
  • Management Board Member, EPSRC Grand Challenge Network CO2Chem 2017-Present
  • Associate Editor, RSC Advances Journal 2015-2017
  • Visiting Professor University of Utah 2014-2015
  • Chairman of the SCI Young Chemists’ Panel 2014-2015
  • Academic Lead EPSRC Grand Challenge Network CO2Chem Fuels Cluster 2012-2014
  • Member of the SCI Young Chemists’ Panel 2008-2016