David Alexander Ramsay

Imperial College London

Biography

Research Project: Shining a light on marine archaeological iron: understanding the kinetics and mechanisms of degradation to inform future conservation strategies
Supervisor:
Mary Ryan (Imperial)

Alex completed his undergraduate studies in 2014, obtaining a BSc (hons) in Chemistry from the University of Glasgow. His undergraduate research project involved developing chiral plasmonic gold nanoparticles for use in biosensing. He went on to study at the University of York, completing an MSc in Green Chemistry & Sustainable Industrial Technology in 2015. During his time at the University of York, his research project explored the potential use of plant synthesised palladium nanoparticles for use in C-C coupling reactions. Alex left the academic world in 2016, starting a role at LGC Ltd., initially as an inorganic analysis scientist and then a researcher as part of the UK National Measurement Laboratory (NML). At the NML he worked on a variety of metrology-based research projects predominantly focused on high accuracy elemental analysis and nanomaterial characterisation.Alex’s PhD project is a collaboration between ICL, Diamond Light Source and The Mary Rose Trust. Fulfilling a lifelong goal to unite his scientific background with that of cultural heritage and conservation, X-ray based synchrotron techniques will be used to characterise 16th century cast iron cannonballs, giving a better understanding of the corrosion mechanisms involved and determining the efficacy of conservation techniques.