Alan Townshend

Alan Townshend holds B.Sc., Ph.D.and D.Sc degrees from the University of Birmingham, where he lectured in analytical chemistry from 1964 to 1980. He moved to the University of Hull in 1980, where he introduced both analytical chemistry and toxicology as degree subjects. He became Professor of Analytical Chemistry in 1984 and later held the G. F. Grant Chair of Chemistry and served as Dean. He became Director of the institute for Chemistry in Industry in c.2000 and retired from the University in...See more

Alan Townshend holds B.Sc., Ph.D.and D.Sc degrees from the University of Birmingham, where he lectured in analytical chemistry from 1964 to 1980. He moved to the University of Hull in 1980, where he introduced both analytical chemistry and toxicology as degree subjects. He became Professor of Analytical Chemistry in 1984 and later held the G. F. Grant Chair of Chemistry and served as Dean. He became Director of the institute for Chemistry in Industry in c.2000 and retired from the University in 2004. He has published five books and edited numerous others. He has also published more than 300 scientific papers, his main interests initially being flame spectroscopy and, from about 1978 onwards, analytical applications of chemiluminescence and of immobilised reagents (especially enzymes), and flow injection analysis. Professor Townshend was a senior editor of Analytica Chimica Acta (Elsevier) until 2006 and of the Dictionary of Analytical Reagents (Chapman and Hall, 1993). He has been an Editor of all three editions of the Encyclopedia of Analytical Science. He was President of the Analytical Division of the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) in 1996-98 and has served on several of its committees. He was an active member of the Analytical Chemistry Division of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry for many years. He also was a member of the Council of the Analytical Chemistry Division of the Federation of European Chemical Societies for four years. His interests in forensic science and toxicology led to appointments to bodies governing the competence of forensic scientists and the verification of anti-doping tests in horse racing. He also served on the Chemistry panels of the Higher Education Council's Research Assessment and Teaching Quality exercises. After retirement, Emeritus Professor Townshend successfully completed a part-time BA course in Archaeology (2006 - 13) at the University of Hull. He is now involved in genealogy with help from the University of the Third Age (U3A) and also organises wine appreciation meetings for the local U3A branch. See less