Alison Nairn is a Daphne Jackson Fellow in the Department of Chemistry at the University of York.

Alison has a BSc in chemistry and a DPhil in inorganic chemistry from the University of York. Her PhD involved novel redox chemistry, which enabled her to secure a postdoctoral position at the University of Oxford, where she worked on generating phosphoamides as catalysts.

Alison went on to teach chemistry and whilst doing a part-time MA in music performance at the University of York, she realised how much she missed working in research. After successfully applying for one  of the University of York’s Daphne Jackson Fellowships, she is now returning to research after a sixteen year career break.

Due to finish in 2024 Alison’s Fellowship is sponsored by the University of York and the Royal Society of Chemistry and her project is entitled: Modelling the structure and reactivity of copper oxidase enzymes (LPMOs); utilising abundant biomass in the production of biofuels