Dr Roger Jewsbury

Roger studied Chemistry at the University of Bristol and remained there for his PhD in mechanistic Organometallic Chemistry. On graduating he worked as a Research Chemist in industry before taking up a Lectureship in Chemistry at the Science University of Malaysia in Penang. Following a period of sabbatical leave at the University of Chicago, he returned to this country to take up a Lectureship at Huddersfield.

He has had a number of roles. These included designing an MSc now a suite of MSc courses in Analytical Science. In its 15th year, the MSc has received funding from the EU or the research council throughout its life. Whilst Head of Chemical Sciences, he led the expansion of courses including Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Forensic and Analytical Science. He is now Head of Department of Chemical and Biological Sciences, which includes the Divisions of Biology and Nutrition, Chemistry and Forensic Science and Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Science.

His research at Huddersfield has mostly involved developing and studying analytical methods to determine trace levels of compounds.

He has been an External Examiner at several universities, an Open University Summer School tutor for a number of years and Visiting Professor at the Université Aix-Marseille III for ten years.

His current research interests involve the use of chemiluminescence and biosensors for analysis.

One area of application is that of trace pollutants. His group have used flow systems to detect phenolic compounds in aqueous systems and have used enzyme reactors to extend the range of analytes.

They have also looked at the very efficient bacterial luciferase system. They have prolonged the bioluminescence which could be of interest to the use of bacterial luciferase as a label and have also used this reaction in flow systems to detect metal ions.

A third area of interest is the analysis of food and drink including bitterness in beer and the determination of other components such as carbohydrates.

2000

Zeng, Z. and Jewsbury, R. (2000) ‘Fluorimetric determination of iron using 5-(4-methoxyphenylazo)-8-(4-toluenesulfonamido)quinoline’ The Analyst , 125 (9), pp. 1661-1665. ISSN 00032654

Studies of solution chemiluminescence

Solution chemiluminescence can give a signal for very low concentrations of reactant and can be easily measured. The advantage over other spectroscopic techniques is that there is no source to give a background level from scattered light and that signals are given by only a limited number of reactions. Measurement requires only simple instrumentation and it is thus a very useful technique for determination of trace and ultra-trace levels of environmental pollutants, industrial chemicals and clinical assays.

Most analytically useful chemiluminescent reactions have been discovered serendipitously or are modifications of existing reactions. The latter often make use of additional reagents described as enhancers or sensitisers. Whilst the mode of action of these is often explained in terms of a speculative chemical reaction, we have postulated a mechanism and confirmed this in a number of cases.

Trace element profiling

Trace element profiling is an emerging technique for the identification of the origin of samples such as glass, paper and pharmaceuticals in forensic and other applications. In this context, trace elements are those present at low concentrations and which would not normally be measured.

The challenges of this technique are to identify element concentrations or patterns of element concentration which are sufficiently unique to establish linkage between two samples. This project will involve a range of analytical techniques including laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy, x-ray fluorescence and scanning electron microscopy.