John Langley's Biography

John Langley, Head of Characterisation and Analytics, University of Southampton

John Langley has nearly 30 years experience in mass spectrometry; starting with an undergraduate project at University College Swansea, followed by a mass spectrometry PhD in the University of London Intercollegiate Research Service for mass spectrometry at the London School of Pharmacy, under the supervision of Professor Mike Baldwin.

John is a Chartered Chemist, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (1999) and a Chartered Scientist (2004); he heads the Characterisation and Analytics section in Chemistry at Southampton, leads SCAS (Southampton Chemistry Analytical Solutions, is Chair of the Separation Science Group of the Royal Society of Chemistry, is Secretary of the International Mass Spectrometry Foundation. Formerly Chair, Vice-Chair, General Secretary and Meetings Secretary of the British Mass Spectrometry Society, and was a member of the Organisation Committee for the International Mass Spectrometry Conference for Edinburgh 2003 and BMSS Annual Conferences 1999, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2005 and 2007, is the European Member of IUPAC Task Group for Standard Definitions of Terms Relating to Mass Spectrometry. He is a referee for research proposals and leading mass spectrometry and chemistry journals; has also been called as an expert witness; MS consultant; is a freelance Team Development trainer and involved in the organisation and implementation of the School of Chemistry key skills programmes.

During his time at Southampton, he has developed his own research group (http://www.soton.ac.uk/~gjl/) and worked on MS problems that span the spectrum of chemical sciences, with other research groups both within and outside Southampton. Over the years John has been involved in the analysis of organometallics, oligonucleotides, bio-organic chemistry, natural product synthesis, supramolecular chemistry, target synthesis and combinatorial chemistry. External academic collaborations include early studies of fullerene MS with the Sussex group and successful projects with the Pharmaceutical and Petrochemical industries. This range of chemistries has led to 77 publications in over 30 different journals (‘h-factor’ of 25)