Professor John Dean

Professor John Dean’s research interests are diverse and varied. His research involves chemical measurement of potentially harmful elements (e.g. lead and arsenic), persistent toxic organic pollutants and microfibres in the environment to assess their risk to human health. He is also actively engaged in the development of methods to determine compounds linked to malodour or detection of pathogenic bacteria in food and biological samples.

John Dean is Professor of Analytical and Environmental Sciences at Northumbria University where he has spent most of his academic career. Professor Dean obtained his BSc (Hons) in Chemistry from UMIST (now Manchester University), an MSc in Analytical Chemistry and Instrumentation from Loughborough University and a PhD, DIC at Imperial College London. Then followed two years post-doctoral research in a government food science laboratory. He was awarded a personal chair by Northumbria University in August 2004. In 1998 he was awarded a D.Sc. (London) in Analytical and Environmental Science. Professor Dean is also a Chartered Scientist, Chartered Chemist and Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry. As well as academic positions he has also been Director/Head of Northumbria University’s Graduate School for seven years. In 2015 he became a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Professor Dean has been actively engaged with the Royal Society of Chemistry at regional and national level since 1986. He is currently the national coordinator of the Schools’ Analyst Competition. He has also supported the educational development of chemical science researchers as a member (and latterly the chair) of the RSC Researcher Mobility Grant Working Group. He also indirectly supports chemical science education via his role on the RSC Committee for Accreditation and Validation as both an assessor and panel member.

In his spare time, Professor Dean is an active canoeist, holding the highest personal and coaching awards, and is a canoe educator, actively coaching at the major Canoe Symposia in the UK.

Chemistry underpins everything.

Professor John Dean

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