Dr Jon Tandy

Dr Jon Tandy was awarded his MChem (Hons) in Chemistry from the University of York in 2006, with an industrial placement year spent working for the analytical service group at Intertek in Manchester. He completed his PhD with Prof. Peter Bernath at the University of York in 2011, using high-resolution laser spectroscopy and ab initio calculations to examine low-lying, interacting electronic states of BaOH.

Jon subsequently undertook several postdoctoral research positions at the California Institute of Technology, The University of Leicester and Imperial College London developing expertise in hypervelocity impact imaging and spectroscopy, ultracold chemistry in helium droplets and cryogenic buffer gas cooling spectroscopy. In 2016 he was appointed a Lecturer in Chemistry at London Metropolitan, where he was awarded a University Teaching Fellowship recognising excellence in teaching and began his ongoing collaboration with the CAPS research group at Kent. Jon joined the Division of Natural Sciences at the University of Kent as a Lecturer in Analytical Chemistry in 2021 and teaches across the Chemistry and Forensic Sciences programmes. 

Dr Jon Tandy’s research utilises a broad range of analytical techniques to examine the chemical modification of materials relevant to planetary bodies and interstellar dust grains due to hypervelocity impacts and high energy irradiation. He has particular research interests in: high-speed imaging and spectroscopy of light flashes from hypervelocity impact plumes; shock synthesis of complex organic molecules; cryogenic capture of high impact ejecta for subsequent chemical analyses; photolytic and radiolytic chemical processing of prebiotic molecules under simulated planetary conditions or those relevant to interstellar dust grains; and chemical modification of planetary analogues.