Mike completed his first degree at the University of St. Andrews in 1991 before moving to UMIST for his PhD on the development of manganese Schiff base complexes as biomimetic models. He moved to the University of Santiago de Compostela funded by a Royal Society Postdoctoral Exchange Fellowship in 1995, before returning to UMIST to work on the development of routes to conformationally restricted biaryl systems. In 1998 Mike was appointed as Lecturer at Queen Mary and Westfield College (now QMUL) and was promoted through the ranks to Professor of Synthetic Chemistry in 2010. In 2012 he became the Deputy Dean for Research for the Faculty of Sciences and Engineering with a particular responsibility for postgraduate research and established the Doctoral College, being appointed its Director in 2016. He moved to Keele in 2018 to become Head of School of Chemical and Physical Sciences, where he remained until 2024 when he was appointed to the role of Deputy Pro-Vice Chancellor for the Faculty of Science and Engineering at Manchester Metropolitan University. Mike is a synthetic chemist with interests in the design and synthesis of functional ligand systems for a range of applications, most recently in sensing. His recent research has focussed on the preparation of small molecule fluorescent probes for the detection of mobile zinc. He is passionate about the opportunities education and research in science and engineering present, as well as equality diversity and inclusion.