Rate My Professor R.S. Minns

Professor Russell Minns is a Professor of Chemical Physics in the School of Chemistry at the University of Southampton. He earned a first-class honours degree in Chemistry from King's College London in 2001. Subsequently, he completed his PhD in 2005 at University College London under the supervision of Professor Helen Fielding, where his research focused on Rydberg molecules. After his doctoral studies, Minns undertook postdoctoral research positions at the University of Virginia and University College London. In 2009, he received the Ramsay Memorial Fellowship, recognizing his early career promise in chemical physics. That same year marked a significant step in his career. In 2011, he relocated to the University of Southampton to commence a Royal Society University Research Fellowship, which was successfully renewed in 2016. He became permanent academic staff in 2016, advanced to Associate Professor in 2019, and was promoted to Professor in 2023. Additionally, he achieved Fellow of the Higher Education Academy status through the Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice.

Minns' primary research interests encompass photochemistry, photoelectron spectroscopy, femtosecond laser spectroscopy, and chemical structure and dynamics. His laboratory develops cutting-edge experimental methods employing femtosecond lasers and X-ray free-electron lasers to probe ultrafast photochemical dynamics in molecules. Key contributions from his group include publications such as 'Direct Observation of a Roaming Intermediate and Its Dynamics' (2024, Journal of the American Chemical Society), 'Shake-Down Spectroscopy as State- and Site-Specific Probe of Ultrafast Chemical Dynamics' (2025, Journal of the American Chemical Society), 'Ultrafast x-ray scattering of photodissociation dynamics in 2-iodothiophene' (2026, The Journal of Chemical Physics), 'Fragmentation dynamics of CS2 dications and trications following S 2p ionization' (2026, The Journal of Chemical Physics), 'Time-resolved momentum imaging of UV photodynamics in structural isomers of iodopropane probed by site-selective XUV ionization' (2025, Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics), 'The kick inside: time-resolved mechanistic insights into the DUV-driven interconversion of pyrazole to imidazole' (2025, Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics), 'Is there anybody out there? Ultrafast Rydberg–valence interactions in the photodissociation of trimethylamine' (2025, The Journal of Chemical Physics), and 'Quantitative analysis of aligned molecule photoelectron angular distributions' (2025, Physical Review A). As principal investigator, he directs major grants from EPSRC, the Royal Society, Leverhulme Trust, and STFC, including 'Next Generation Experiment And Theory For Photoelectron Spectroscopy' and 'Site-Selective Probes of Chemical Dynamics'. He is currently accepting applications from PhD students and is affiliated with the Computational Systems Chemistry research group.