Professor Ian Bruce

Professor Ian Bruce started his academic life as a geneticist, studying at University College London (UCL) where he also gained his PhD (working with David Wilkie). His first postdoc was also at UCL, followed by the Prince Philip’s Research Laboratory (Paediatric Research Unit), Guy’s Hospital, London (with Francesco Giannelli) and then at PROIMI, Tucuman, Argentina by way of a travelling fellowship from the Royal Society. 

Ian was then appointed a lecturer and rapidly afterwards professor at the University of Greenwich, London. There, he was responsible for Biosciences and the Biosciences Research Centre. After that, he moved as a professor to the Universita` degli Studi di Urbino, Urbino, Italy, subsequently returning to the UK in 2004 as Professor of Nanobiotechnology at the University of Kent. He was Faculty Director for Research and Graduate Studies from 2005 to 2009. 

Ian was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology in 1995, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry in 2013 and awarded a DSc from the Universita` degli Studi di Urbino in 2007 in recognition of his work and that of his group in the field of nanomaterial applications in biomedicine. 

Ian retired in December 2011. 

Ian's research interests were always pretty diverse and multidisciplinary, including molecular biology, surface science and chemistry, materials science and synthetic organic chemistry. 

His research group carried out work related to ‘bottom-up’ synthesis of complex nanocomposites, nanoparticle surface activation chemistry, especially involving the use of organosilanes in biomolecule/nanoparticle surface conjugation and gene expression and organisation in bacteria. The group gained over £16m of research income over its lifetime, collaborating with many major industries and academic institutes from Europe, Russia, China and Israel, and its work has been used as an indicator of success in European science all over the world