Rate My Professor Paul Hodgkinson

Professor Paul Hodgkinson is a Professor in the Department of Chemistry at Durham University, leading the Solid-State NMR Group and overseeing the Solid-State NMR Service. His research focuses on solid-state NMR, including theory and applications, dynamics in the solid state, and NMR crystallography. He utilizes solid-state NMR to obtain detailed information on structure and dynamics in solid materials, combining the development and evaluation of new techniques with applications to chemical problems. This approach bridges method development and practical application, facilitated by dedicated facilities comprising a 500 MHz research instrument and two 400 MHz systems. Collaborations with AstraZeneca and GlaxoSmithKline include projects on improving the sensitivity of ¹⁵N NMR for characterizing drugs in formulated products and investigating hydrogen-bonding in polymorphs. Additional research encompasses NMR studies of small molecules and liquid crystals, dynamics in highly mobile condensed phases such as plastic crystals and soft solids exemplified by the urea inclusion compound, and structure and dynamics in inorganic and hybrid framework materials employing multi-nuclear NMR techniques (²H, ³¹P, ¹⁷O) alongside diffraction data and first-principles calculations, such as ¹⁷O NMR in ZrW₂O₈.

Hodgkinson earned a B.A. and D.Phil. from the University of Oxford in 1996. University records from 1999 list him in the Faculty of Science with a D.Phil. Oxon., noting a period seconded to Shell. His influential publications include 'NMR Crystallography of Molecular Organics' (Progress in Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy, 2020), 'Heteronuclear decoupling in the NMR of solids' (Progress in Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy, 2005), 'Homonuclear dipolar decoupling in solid-state NMR using continuous phase modulation' (Journal of Magnetic Resonance, 2000, cited 394 times), 'Chemical shift computations on a crystallographic basis: some reflections and comments' (Journal of Magnetic Resonance, 2007, cited 265 times), and recent contributions such as 'Unravelling Guest Dynamics in Crystalline Molecular Organics Using ²H Solid-State NMR and Molecular Dynamics Simulation' (Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2024) and 'Potential Multiaxial Molecular Ferroelectricity through Chiral Cation Replacement' (Crystal Growth & Design, 2025). With over 5,800 citations, his work has advanced solid-state NMR methodologies and their applications across chemistry.