Peter Hore

I have spent most of my life in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Oxford, first as a student, then as a Research Fellow (1982–83), and now as Professor of Chemistry. My only time away from Oxford was a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Groningen (1980–82). Over the years I have worked on the effects of electron and nuclear spins on chemical reactivity, an area known as Spin Chemistry. Since about 2005 I have been having fun trying to unravel the biophysical mechanism that allows migratory songbirds to detect the direction of the Earth’s magnetic field as an aid to navigation.