Peter David Wothers, , is a British

chemist A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a graduated scientist trained in the study of chemistry, or an officially enrolled student in the field. Chemists study the composition of ...

and author of several popular textbooks aimed at university students. He is a teaching fellow in the Department of Chemistry at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

and is a

fellow A fellow is a title and form of address for distinguished, learned, or skilled individuals in academia, medicine, research, and industry. The exact meaning of the term differs in each field. In learned society, learned or professional society, p ...

St Catharine's College, Cambridge St Catharine's College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. Founded in 1473 as Katharine Hall, it adopted its current name in 1860. The college is nicknamed "Catz". The colle ...

Education

Wothers was educated at

Bedford Modern School Bedford Modern School (often called BMS or simply Modern) is a Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference independent school in Bedford, England. The school has its origins in Bedford Charity, The Harpur Trust, born from the financial endowme ...

and represented the UK at the International Chemistry Olympiad in 1987, winning a silver medal. He read natural sciences at

, where he received his PhD in 1996 for investigations into the

anomeric effect In organic chemistry, the anomeric effect or Edward-Lemieux effect (after J. T. Edward and Raymond Lemieux) is a stereoelectronic effect that describes the tendency of heteroatomic substituents adjacent to the heteroatom in the ring in, e.g., t ...

Research

Wothers has co-authored the first edition of the well-known and best-selling ''Organic Chemistry'' textbook together with Jonathan Clayden, Nick Greeves and his fellow Cambridge lecturer Stuart Warren. His two other popular works ''Why Chemical Reactions Happen'' and ''Chemical Structure and Reactivity'', written with James Keeler, aim to combine the different branches of chemistry into an integrated whole. Wothers is also very active in promoting

chemistry Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a physical science within the natural sciences that studies the chemical elements that make up matter and chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules a ...

to the wider public, and has won prizes such as the

Royal Society of Chemistry The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) is a learned society and professional association in the United Kingdom with the goal of "advancing the chemistry, chemical sciences". It was formed in 1980 from the amalgamation of the Chemical Society, the ...

President's Award in 2011 for his outstanding contribution to public outreach, handed to him by the RSC President David Phillips. He has also been responsible for organising the International Chemistry Olympiads for several years and has been chair of the 41st edition.

Television and radio appearances

Peter Wothers has made numerous television appearances as a chemistry specialist, notably as one of the presenters in the

Discovery Channel Discovery Channel, known as The Discovery Channel from 1985 to 1995, and often referred to as simply Discovery, is an American cable channel that is best known for its ongoing reality television shows and promotion of pseudoscience. It init ...

series "The Big Experiment". In December 2012 he presented the series of three televised

Royal Institution The Royal Institution of Great Britain (often the Royal Institution, Ri or RI) is an organisation for scientific education and research, based in the City of Westminster. It was founded in 1799 by the leading British scientists of the age, inc ...

Christmas Lectures, entitled 'The Modern Alchemist'. He was a guest on

Andrew Marr Andrew William Stevenson Marr (born 31 July 1959) is a British journalist, author, broadcaster and presenter. Beginning his career as a political commentator at ''The Scotsman,'' he subsequently edited ''The Independent'' newspaper from 1996 to ...

's Start the Week on

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...

: the episode was a Science Special broadcast on 17 December 2012. Wothers talked about modern day chemistry and science along with Ewan Birney, Sanjeev Gupta and Helen Bynum who were also guests on the show.

Awards and honours

Wothers was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the

2014 Birthday Honours The 2014 Birthday Honours were appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms of Elizabeth II, Queen Elizabeth II to Orders and decorations of the Commonwealth realms, various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens ...

for services to chemistry through the International Chemistry Olympiad. During the same year he was nominated as one of the 100 leading UK practising scientists by the

Science Council The Science Council is a UK organisation that was established by Royal Charter in 2003. The principal activity of The Science Council is the promotion of the advancement and dissemination of knowledge of and education in science pure and applie ...

. He was awarded the

's Nyholm Prize for Education in 2013. Wothers is featured as one of the

's ''175 Faces of Chemistry''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wothers, Peter British chemists Fellows of St Catharine's College, Cambridge People educated at Bedford Modern School Living people Members of the University of Cambridge Department of Chemistry Year of birth missing (living people) Members of the Order of the British Empire