Prof. Caroline E. H. Dessent
Principle Investigator
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Caroline Dessent is a Professor of Physical and Analytical Chemistry, in the Department of Chemistry at the University of York. She is the current Head of Department.
Caroline studied Chemistry at the University of Oxford before undertaking her PhD in Prof. Mark Johnson's group at Yale University. She was awarded the Richard Wolfson prize for her dissertation. Following her PhD, she came to York as a post-dcotoral fellow in Prof. Klaus Muller-Dethlefs' research group, where she worked on photoionization spectroscopy of molecules and clusters. Caroline was a Royal Society University Research Fellow from 1999-2008, and was then a Senior Lecturer and Reader, prior to being promoted to Professor. She held a European Research Council Starting Independent Research Award from 2008-2015 for the project BIOIONS, which involved developing new laser spectroscopic techniques for studying isolated biological molecules. Caroline is the current chair of the RSC's Spectroscopy & Dynamics Group, and is an elected member of the Faraday Council.
Her current scientific interests are focused on developing new instrumental techniques for improving structural determination in mass spectrometry, and applying laser interfaced mass spectrometry to solve environmental chemistry problems.
Caroline was previously the Chair of the Chemistry Department's Equality & Diversity Group, and led the Chemistry Department's most recent Gold Athena Swan Submission. She also served as the Science Faculty's Athena Swan lead. She remains committed to working to improve diversity and inclusion in STEM, and has particular current interests in improving the culture within academia for ethnic minoritized students and staff.