Rate My Professor Andrew Hook

Andrew Hook is an Associate Professor in the School of Pharmacy at the University of Nottingham. He joined the university in 2009 as a Research Fellow and has progressed through several appointments, including Senior Research Fellow from 2014 to 2018, Nottingham Research Fellow from 2018 to 2021, Assistant Professor from 2021 to 2024, and his current role since 2024. Prior to these positions, he held a Research Fellow role jointly at the University of Nottingham and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 2009 to 2012, a HERMES Fellowship at the University of Nottingham from 2012 to 2013, and a European Metrology Research Programme Research Fellow position at the University of Nottingham and the National Physical Laboratory from 2013 to 2014. He completed his PhD on 'Patterned and switchable surfaces for biomaterial applications' at Flinders University and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation between 2005 and 2009.

Hook’s research focuses on the development of biomaterials that positively impact the healthcare sector, with an emphasis on the biological-material interface using interdisciplinary approaches. He has pioneered high-throughput screening methodologies for discovering novel polymers resistant to bacterial attachment and has developed analytical methods, including ToF-SIMS, for the spatial assessment of glycosaminoglycans in various samples. His work has resulted in key publications such as the 2012 paper 'Combinatorial discovery of polymers resistant to bacterial attachment' in Nature Biotechnology, the 2020 paper on polymers resisting fungal colonization in Science Advances, and the 2023 paper on a polymer resistant to bacterial biofilm in Science Advances. He received the Vickerman Prize in 2018 from the UK Surface Analysis Forum and holds current grants including the 'GlycoWeb' project from 2024 to 2029. Hook contributes to editorial and committee roles through his academic appointments and collaborative research projects at the University of Nottingham.