Professor Mark Child is a highly esteemed and widely published chemist whose research has provided valuable contributions to the theory and interpretation of molecular collisions and molecular spectroscopy by emphasising the subtle connections between classical and quantum mechanical behaviour.

After Pocklington School, Mark proceeded to Clare College, Cambridge to study chemistry. He graduated with first class honours and went on to study for a PhD in theoretical chemistry. Following his PhD, Mark went to the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory, Berkley, California as a Research Fellow before being appointed as a Lecturer in Theoretical Chemistry at the University of Glasgow. In 1966, he moved to the University of Oxford where he rose up the academic ranks culminating in his appointment as Coulson Professor of Theoretical Chemistry in 1994, a post he held until 2004.  Mark is currently Emeritus Fellow of St Edmund’s Hall and Emeritus Professor of Theoretical Chemistry at the University. He has published several influential books, including Molecular Collision Theory (1974) and Semiclassical Mechanics with Molecular Applications (first edition 1991; second edition 2014) – the former remaining in press after 40 years. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry in 1989.