Email: anthony.davis@bristol.ac.uk
Website: https://davis.chm.bris.ac.uk/
Biographical sketch
Tony Davis gained a B.A. in Chemistry from Oxford University in 1977, then stayed on for a D.Phil. under Dr. G. H. Whitham and two years’ postdoctoral work with Prof. J. E. Baldwin. In 1981 he moved to the ETH Zürich as a Royal Society European Exchange Fellow working with Prof. A. Eschenmoser, then in 1982 was appointed as a Lecturer in Organic Chemistry at Trinity College, Dublin. In September 2000 he moved to the University of Bristol, where he is Professor of Supramolecular Chemistry in the School of Chemistry. In 2002 he was awarded the Tilden Medal of the Royal Society of Chemistry, in 2015 the RSC Award for Physical Organic Chemistry, and in 2020 the RSC Robert Robinson Award. He is currently Chair of the Editorial Board of Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry.
Tony’s research in supramolecular chemistry has focused mainly on the design of synthetic receptors, especially for carbohydrates and anions. His work on carbohydrate recognition has led to a glucose receptor showing exceptional affinity and selectivity, with potential for real-world applications. This has led to the to the creation of two companies: Ziylo, which was sold to Novo Nordisk in 2018, and Carbometrics, which works on carbohydrate sensing in an incubator laboratory built in Bristol by Ziylo’s founders. In 2023 he was awarded an Advanced Grant by the European Research Council (ERC) for further work on carbohydrate recognition.
