Stipendiary Lecturer, Department of Chemistry, University of Oxford

Dr Robert Jacobs is a Stipendiary Lecturer in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Oxford. His research interests are focused around applying state of the art instrumentation in surface science to novel problems.

This has lead him into a wide range of fields including, amongst others, nanotechnology, electrochemistry and biotechnology. Many of the projects in which he has become involved arise through collaborations with groups across the Department. His role in the Chemistry Department is as the Instrument Scientist and Manager responsible for the Surface Analysis Facility (SAF). This is a suite of equipment housed in several purpose built laboratories in the basement of the Chemistry Research Laboratory.

The SAF contains a wide variety of state of the art scientific equipment capable of many experimental methods including: atomic force microscopy, scanning tunnelling microscopy, Fourier transform infra-red spectroscopy (including IRRAS, PMIRRAS and ATR spectroscopy), ellipsometry, X-ray reflectometry, surface characterisation by gas adsorption (surface area, pore size distribution etc.) and dynamic surface tension and contact angle measurements.