Emeritus Professor Charles J.M. Stirling, FRS

School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences

Emeritus Professor of Chemistry

Charles J.M Stirling
Profile picture of Charles J.M Stirling
c.stirling@sheffield.ac.uk
+44 114 222 9453
Dainton Building

Full contact details

Emeritus Professor Charles J.M. Stirling, FRS
School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences
Dainton Building
13 Brook Hill
Sheffield
S3 7HF
Profile

BSc St Andrews (1952); PhD London (1955); DSc London (1967); Hon.DSc St Andrews (1994), Hon DSc Aix-Marseille (1999); Hon. Member Societa Chimica Italiana (2003); Hon. Fellow, Universtiy of Wales, Bangor (2004); Hon. D.Sc. Sheffield (2007); Foundation Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales 2010; Research Fellowships, Porton Down (1955-57); Edinburgh (1957-59); Lecturer, Queen's University of Belfast (1959-65); Reader, Kings College London (1965-69); Professor: University of Wales, Bangor (1969-1990); Visiting Professor Hebrew University of Jerusalem (1981) and Australian National University (1999) Akademia Jan Dlugosz, Czestochowa, Poland, 2013; RSC Award for Reaction Mechanisms (1988); Royal Society/BAAS Millennium Award and Fellowship (1999). President: Perkin Division of the RSC (1989-91); President: Chemistry Section British Association for the Advancement of Science (1990). CChem; FRSC (1967); FRS (1986).

Research interests

Reactivity in its widest sense in attempts to understand and quantify molecular behaviour in ordered and disordered systems. Formation and reactivity of thin films of polyfunctional molecules is being investigated; such systems have remarkable properties of self assembly, the ability to order absorbed molecules and they show reactivity strikingly different from that of disordered systems. Application of very thin films of calixarenes in surface treatments is being investigated.

Professional activities and memberships

These have been focused in two areas:

Advice on Science Education and Research with particular reference to Chemistry.
Membership of the Royal Society Education Committee
Honorary President of the Yorks and Humberside Section of the Association for Science Education.
Foreign member of the Consiglio for the Reaction Mechanisms Group at Rome
External Assessor for the Chemistry Departments at Queen Mary College and Westfield College, London; University of Leicester; Kuwait; Bologna.

Public Appreciation of Science
1991 First Sheffield 'Town and Gown ' Lecture
1992 Christmas Lectures from the Royal Institution (163rd series) BBC TV
1995 to present: Public Orator, University of Sheffield.
1999 Member of the local organising committee for the British Association Meeting, Sheffield
2000 British Association/Millennium Commission Award and Fellowship for placing 1000 experimental activity kits in Sheffield primary schools.
2003 to present: Chair of the organising committee for Science Week in South Yorkshire.

Between 1990 and 2013 I have delivered roughly 350 popular science lectures in universities, schools, and community organisations such as U3A, PROBUS etc.

Selected publications
  • A study of the layer structure in a calix-8-arene Langmuir-Blodgett film by reflectometry
    • McCartney, C. M.; Cowlam, N.; Richardson, T.; Davis, F.; Stirling, C. J. M.; Gibaud, A.; Nabok, A. V.
    • Thin Solid Films (2013), 527, 285-290.
  • On the layer structures in acid- and amine-substituted calixarene Langmuir-Blodgett films
    • McCartney, C. M.; Cowlam, N.; Davis, F.; Richardson, T.; Desert, A.; Gibaud, A.; Stirling, C. J. M.
    • Colloids and Surfaces, A: Physicochemical and Engineering Aspects (2013), 436, 41-48.
  • Medical devices comprising a calixarene-derived coating for resistance of bacterial adhesion
    • B Barlow, Iain John; Williams, Nicholas Hendrik; Stirling, Charles James Matthew
    • PCT Int. Appl. (2013), WO 2013104916 A2 20130718.
  • Luca. Volta and Charles J.M. Stirling, "Methylenecyclopropanes in Elimination and Addition Reactions: Quantification of the Effects of Strain. Phosphorus, Sulfur and Silicon and the Related Elements", (2009), 184,1508-1522
  • Stirling, Charles J.M.; Fundin, L. Johan; Williams, Nicholas H. "Trimorphism in solid resorcinarenes. Chemical Communications (2007), 1748-1750.