Professional summary
Alex is a Research Chemist working in the Analytical Chemistry group at UKCEH Lancaster. He is interested in the occurrence and fate of contaminants in the environment. His work focuses on the analysis of a wide range of organic contaminants, such as PBDEs, PCBs, pesticides, and plastic additives, in abiotic matrices (e.g. soils, sediments) and biota (e.g. birds of prey).
He has experience in developing targeted methods to measure the concentrations of a range of organic contaminants in the environment. Recent work includes the development and application of protocols to determine the concentration of fluorinated pyrethroid pesticides, novel brominated flame retardants, and phthalate and emerging non-phthalate plasticisers in a number of environmental matrices. Alex has also worked on the routine analysis of a number of persistent organic pollutants, such as PBDEs, PCBs, organochlorine pesticides, and PAHs. He is competent in the operation, maintenance and troubleshooting of analytical instrumentation including liquid chromatography-high resolution mass spectrometry (LC-HRMS; QTOF-based), gas spectrometry-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), GC-MS/MS, and size-exclusion liquid chromatography. During his PhD he used a range of analytical techniques, including µ-FTIR and ATR-FTIR spectroscopies, and GC-MS, to investigate the sources, occurrence and environmental fate of “old” (legacy) and “new” (emerging) plasticisers, and plastic contamination, with a particular focus on their levels in UK soils and sediments.