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After graduating with a Diploma in Physical Chemistry from the University of Dresden, I came to Oxford to study under the supervision of Professor Peter Hore in the Physical and Theoretical Chemistry laboratory, first as a Visiting student and later as a DPhil student. Before joining °ÅÀÖ¶ÌÊÓƵ in 2005, I held a Royal Society University Research Fellowship and was a Fellow and Tutor in Physical Chemistry at St Hilda’s College. In 2007, I founded the Centre for Advanced Electron Spin Resonance (CAESR) here in Oxford.

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Having had the great pleasure to learn and teach at a number of colleges here in Oxford, I still do not take the collegiate atmosphere I enjoy every day for granted: being able to talk and discuss with junior and senior members of staff from all academic disciplines topics of the most varied themes is a huge privilege. And of course, we do have the best porters anybody could wish for - every time you enter college they make sure you are feeling you have just come home!

Research Interests

I am Professor of Chemistry and Director of the Centre for Advanced ESR in Oxford. I research in the fields of spin chemistry and Electron Spin Resonance (ESR). I use ESR to study radical pair processes, spin delocalisation in short-lived paramagnetic states in supramolecular structures and the structure of proteins and protein complexes using Dipolar Spectroscopies. In the field of spin chemistry I focus on revealing the biophysical mechanism of magnetoreception concentrating on the design and application of experiments to investigate the magnetic properties of transient radical pairs both in the magnetoreceptor protein cryptochromes as well as in organic donor-acceptor system. 

Selected Major Recent Publications:

Constructive Quantum Interference in a Bis-Copper Six-Porphyrin Nanoring
S. Richert, J. Cremers, I. Kuprov, M. D. Peeks, H. L. Anderson and C. R. Timmel
Nat. Comm., 8 (14842) 2017.  

Millitesla magnetic field effects on the photocycle of an animal cryptochromes
D. M. W. Sheppard, J. Li, K.  B. Henbest,  S. R. T. Neil, K.  Maeda,  J.  Storey,  E.  Schleicher,  T. Biskup,  R.  Rodriguez,  S. Weber,   P. J. Hore,  C. R. Timmel  and S. R. Mackenzie
Sci. Rep., 7 (42228), 2017.

On the Importance of Electronic Symmetry for Triplet State Delocalization
S. Richert, G. Bullard, J. Rawson, P. J. Angiolillo, M. J. Therien and C. R. Timmel
J. Am. Chem. Soc., 139, 5301 – 5304, 2017.

Chemical amplification of magnetic field effects relevant to avian magnetoreception
D. R. Kattnig, E. W. Evans, V. Dejean, C. A. Dodson, M. I. Wallace, S. R. Mackenzie, C. R.. Timmel and P. J. Hore
Nat. Chem., 8, 384 – 391, 2016.

Triplet State Delocalization in a Conjugated Porphyrin Dimer Probed by Transient Electron Paramagnetic Resonance Techniques
C. E. Tait, P. Neuhaus, H. L. Anderson and C. R. Timmel
J. Am. Chem. Soc., 137, 6670 – 6679, 2015.