25 Aug 2011
James Frost was born and brought up in Rayleigh, Essex, where he attended the local comprehensive school FitzWimarc. During his GCSEs he began to develop a strong interest in chemistry, and after completion of A-Levels at SEEVIC College (South East Essex Sixth-Form College) in Chemistry, Mathematics, Further Mathematics and History, he decided to pursue a four-year MSc degree in Chemistry at Imperial College London.
Having always enjoyed the prospect of problem-solving he was drawn to the rich diversity of transformations present in organic and organometallic chemistry. As such, his sustained interest in this area of chemistry led him to complete his final year MSc project under the supervision of Professor Donald Craig investigating the cyclopropanation of enantiomerically pure tetrahydropyridines. During his time at Imperial College he won one of three AstraZeneca chemistry bursaries that are awarded to the highest-achieving students, and completed a 10 week summer placement at GlaxoSmithKline, before graduating with first class honours.
In October 2009 he moved to the University of Cambridge to pursue PhD research under the supervision of Professor Steven V Ley concerning the total synthesis of anti-cancer natural products callipeltoside A, B and C. In addition to his studies James also contributes monthly articles to the Thieme Verlag journal SYNFACTS.
In his spare time James enjoys playing football and squash and avidly supports Tottenham Hotspur. He also likes rock music and attend concerts whenever possible.
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