Dr Jon Tandy

Dr Jon Tandy was awarded his MChem (Hons) in Chemistry from the University of York in 2006, with an industrial placement year spent working for the analytical service group at Intertek in Manchester. He completed his PhD with Prof. Peter Bernath at the University of York in 2011 using high-resolution laser spectroscopy and ab initio calculations to examine low-lying, interacting electronic states of BaOH.

Jon subsequently undertook several postdoctoral research positions at the California Institute of Technology, The University of Leicester and Imperial College London developing expertise in hypervelocity impact imaging and spectroscopy, ultracold chemistry in helium droplets and cryogenic buffer gas cooling spectroscopy. In 2016 he was appointed a Lecturer in Chemistry at London Metropolitan University, where he was awarded a University Teaching Fellowship recognising excellence in teaching and began his ongoing collaboration with the CAPS research group at Kent. Jon joined Natural Sciences at the University of Kent as a Lecturer in Analytical Chemistry in 2021 and teaches across the Chemistry and Forensic Sciences programmes. 

Dr Jon Tandy’s research utilises a broad range of analytical techniques to examine chemical taggants and the chemical modification of materials relevant to planetary bodies and interstellar dust grains due to hypervelocity impacts and high energy irradiation. Within his planetary science research, he has particular interests in high-speed imaging and spectroscopy of light flashes from hypervelocity impact plumes; shock synthesis of complex organic molecules; chemical modification of planetary analogues and capture of high impact ejecta for subsequent chemical analyses.

Jon primarily teaches theoretical and practical courses on analytical chemistry and explosives within the Chemistry and Forensic Sciences programmes at Kent. He also supervises a broad range of analytically focused final year projects for the Forensic Science undergraduate and postgraduate degrees.

Dr Tandy currently supervises multiple PhD and MSc research projects examining physical and chemical alterations of planetary analogue materials during energetic processing events. These experiments include small-scale hypervelocity impacts using the Kent light gas gun and planetary surface weathering using mechanochemistry techniques. These analogue materials are characterised using several a broad set of analytical techniques including FTIR and Raman spectroscopy, optical and scanning electron microscopy, atomic emission spectroscopy, x-ray diffraction and thermogravimetric analysis.

Dr Tandy is a current member of the science team for the European Space Agency mission LUMIO that will monitor meteoroidal impact flashes on the lunar far side for science & exploration hazard assessment. He has delivered several invited talks at national and international conferences and university seminars, and reviews for the journals ACS Earth and Space Science, International Journal of Impact Engineering and Chemical Physics Letters, in addition to the EPSRC New Investigator Awards.
Jon was the Kent lead for a JISC pilot examining the use of the AI assisted marking tool Graide in Higher Education and was an academic consultant for an OfQual research study examining grading severity in A-level subjects. He has also designed and delivered STEM outreach activities to over 300 students aged 9 to 18 centred around ‘Impacts in Space’.