Stephen J. Butler

Stephen J. Butler studied undergraduate Chemistry at Warwick University in 2004. After a brief spell in the polymer industry, he migrated to Sydney and studied a PhD with Prof. Kate Jolliffe, funded by a Sydney University International Scholarship. This work focused on the synthesis of cyclic peptides for applications in anion recognition. Following the award of his PhD in 2010, he undertook postdoctoral work with Prof. Richard Payne, studying chemokine interactions using peptide-based probes. He then returned to the UK to work with Prof. David Parker FRS, creating highly emissive lanthanide complexes for use as stains in live cell imaging. In 2013 he was awarded a Ramsay Fellowship (Durham University), to develop fluorescent probes for the detection of biologically important phosphate species. Stephen was appointed as Lecturer at Loughborough University in July 2015. His research is focussed on the design, synthesis, characterisation and photophysical study of luminescent host molecules, and examining their ability to bind to biological anions, monitor enzymatic processes and visualise target species in living cells.