Rate My Professor Sandy Kilpatrick

Dr Alexander (Sandy) Kilpatrick is a Lecturer in Inorganic Chemistry in the School of Chemistry at the University of Leicester. He obtained his MChem degree in 2009 from the University of Oxford, where he carried out a master's project with Prof. Philip Mountford on chromium heteroscorpionate complexes for olefin oligomerisation. Kilpatrick was awarded his PhD in 2014 from the University of Sussex, supervised by Prof. Geoff Cloke FRS, for work on bimetallic complexes of d- and f-block metals with pentalene ligands. Following his PhD, he served as a Postdoctoral Research Associate in Prof. Dermot O’Hare’s group at the University of Oxford, developing inorganic materials and solid supports for slurry-phase ethylene polymerisation in collaboration with SCG Chemicals (Thailand). In 2015, he received the R.J.P. Williams Junior Research Fellowship at Wadham College, Oxford, supporting research into functional metal-based materials, multi-decker zirconium sandwich complexes, and surface organometallic chemistry. From 2018 to 2020, Kilpatrick held a Bayer–Humboldt Research Fellowship at Humboldt University of Berlin in the group of Prof. Dr. Christian Limberg, broadening his expertise in Earth-abundant transition metals, low-valent nickel complexes, and reactivity with small molecules relevant to environmental and industrial applications. Since 2020, he has led an independent research group at the University of Leicester, also serving as Undergraduate Admissions Tutor, Study Abroad Coordinator for Chemistry, Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, and organiser of the Chemistry Centenary Celebrations and MICRA 2024 conference.

The Kilpatrick Group's research centres on sustainable materials chemistry using Earth-abundant transition metals such as Ti, Fe, Ni, and Zn. Core themes include circularity of critical materials through metal recycling and extraction technologies, redox mediators for next-generation lithium–sulfur batteries, debondable adhesives for circular manufacturing, bio-inspired multinuclear metal architectures mimicking CO₂-fixing enzymes, and small-molecule activation (CO₂, N₂, H₂) for green chemical transformations. Kilpatrick's contributions have earned him awards including the Citizens Recognition Scheme Award (2025), nomination for Students' Union Superstar Award for Best Lecturer (2024), invitation as Young Scientist to the 71st Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting in Chemistry (2021), Winner of Students' Union Superstar Award for Best Personal Tutor (2021), Reaxys PhD Prize Finalist (2015), and Royal Society of Chemistry 1st Prizes for Early Career Energy Sector and Downland Prize for Most Promising PhD Student (both 2013). He delivers lectures on advanced inorganic chemistry and structure determination, contributes to the DLI Teaching Faculty at Dalian University of Technology, and participates in public outreach such as a talk at the Pint of Science Festival (2022). Kilpatrick is available for media commentary on sustainable chemistry, circular economy technologies, and critical materials recovery.