Peter Philip Edwards - Biography#
Peter P. Edwards gained his Chemistry B.Sc. (1970) and Ph.D (1974) from Salford University, remaining there to work with Ron Catterall and Sir Nevill Mott (Cambridge University) on the metal-insulator transition in vitreous solids
In 1975 he was awarded a British Fulbright Scholarship, and a National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship to work with Michell Sienko, Cornell University, on the electronic properties of metal-ammonia solutions and transition metal oxides.
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In 1977 he moved to Oxford University as NATO Fellow and Ramsay Memorial Fellow, to work with John B. Goodenough on superconductivity in transition metal oxides.
In 1979 he was appointed Demonstrator, then Lecturer, in Inorganic Chemistry at Cambridge University and Director of Studies in Chemistry, Jesus College. In the following decade he studied the structural and electronic properties of alkali metals in non-aqueous solvents; colloidal metal particles ;alkali metals ‘dissolved’ in zeolite hosts and the chemical control of high-temperature superconductivity, with a unifying theme being the transition between the metallic, non-metallic, and superconducting states of matter.
Edwards was Visiting Professor at Cornell from 1984-86, supervising the Solid State and Materials Research group, following the death of Professor Sienko.
In 1991 he moved to the University of Birmingham to the Chair of Inorganic Chemistry and in 1996 became Head of Chemistry. In 1999 he become the first-ever holder of the Chair of Chemistry, and of Materials at Birmingham. In 2002 Edwards was Co-Founder of the UK Sustainable Hydrogen Energy Consortium.
In late 2003 he moved to Oxford to become Professor and Head of Inorganic Chemistry. In 2008 he was elected UK Representative of the International Partnership for the Hydrogen Economy and in that same year elected for a further five year position as Head of Inorganic Chemistry at Oxford. In 2010 he established the King Abdulaziz City of Science and Technology-Oxford Centre for Petrochemical Research.
