Professor Brian J Howard
Position: Fellow and Tutor in Physical Chemistry
Subject(s)
Profile
Contact Details
| Email: | brian.howard@pmb.ox.ac.uk |
College Function
Tutor in Physical Chemistry
Steward of the Senior Common Room
Staff Advisor
Member of:
- Governing Body
- Chapel and Benefices Committee
Affiliations
Royal Society of Chemistry
Teaching Activities
Teach all branches of Physical and Theoretical Chemistry
Research Interests
Main interests are the investigation of intermolecular interactions. Techniques have developed to study such interactions spectroscopically using weakly bound complexes formed in supersonic nozzle expansions.
Obtained the first definitive experimental results confirming the structure of the hydrogen bond between simple molecules such as pairs of hydrogen fluoride molecules.
Detailed studies of a wide range of "Van der Waals" complexes has enabled precise determination of the strength of the interactions between many pairs of molecules.
High resolution spectroscopy of open shell complexes (those containing molecules with unpaired electrons) has enabled detailed probing of the effect of intermolecular interactions on the properties of individual molecules.
Current work centres on the interactions between "chiral" molecules, those "handed" species which are so important in biological systems. The first high resolution studies of chiral dimers has been performed by the Oxford group.
Recent Activities
Former Editor (and now Executive Committee member) of the journal Molecular Physics.
"An analysis of the magnetic hyperfine interactions in the spectrum of NO-HF: Evidence of electron transfer ", C.R. Dennis, C.J. Whitham and B.J. Howard, J. Chem. Phys. 115, 1367 (2001).
"A microwave study of the hetero-chiral dimer of butan-2-ol", A.K. King and B.J. Howard, Chem. Phys. Letts. 348, 343 (2001).