Matthew Hesse
I was born in Tufnell Park, north London and attended the local comprehensive, Acland
Burghley secondary school, and the associated 6th form LASWAP college. I was always
interested in science and coming to Bristol allowed me to pursue my undergraduate
chemistry degree at one of the best departments in the UK, set in arguably one of the best
cities to live in the country. I enjoyed it here so much in fact, that I decided to stay and
study my PhD here through the chemical synthesis CDT. I chose to work with Professors
Chris Willis and Varinder Aggarwal who were amazing supervisors and afforded me the
opportunity to be involved in cutting edge, high-impact science. The department at Bristol
really is a hot house of scientific talent and being able to work with such amazingly driven
and talented people has been an incredible experience
I am currently planning to undertake postdoctoral research with Sarah Reisman at Caltech in
the US with an eye to maybe becoming an academic myself one day.