Professor Billy Kerr, University of Strathclyde

Billy Kerr was born in Glasgow and raised in the district of Drumchapel, a quaint fishing village on the banks of the Clyde. His undergraduate studies were undertaken at the University of Strathclyde, where he gained a 1st class honours degree in Chemistry in 1983.

He then remained at Strathclyde to study towards a PhD with Professor Peter Pauson and Dr David Billington: he gained his PhD in 1986. From 1986-1988, he was engaged as a NIH Postdoctoral Research Associate in the laboratory of Professor Myron Rosenblum, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA, USA, and in 1988 he returned to the UK and joined Professor Steven Ley at Imperial College, London , as a Postdoctoral Research Assistant.

In 1989 Billy returned to Strathclyde to take up a Lectureship position in Organic Chemistry, was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 1997, and in 2002 was awarded a Professorial Chair in Organic Chemistry. His research interests cover a broad range of metal-mediated synthetic organic methods and, in particular, in the development of new preparative techniques, the creation of asymmetric processes, and the use of these in total synthesis programmes.