Rachel C. Evans

Early life and education Evans grew up in South Wales. She studied at Swansea University, earning a Master of Chemistry (MChem) degree in 2002. During her Masters, she completed an International Association for the Exchange of Students for Technical Experience (IASTE) fellowship at Lonza Group. She delivered the 2011 Royal Society of Chemistry Schools lecture on the Chemistry of Light. In 2013 she published the textbook Applied Photochemistry with Springer Publishing. They explored self-assembly of conjugated polyelectrolyte–polyoxometalate networks, with dimensions controlled by the polymer chain length and steric charge distribution. The self-assembly of these lumophores can be used to tune the optical and electronic properties. To understand the morphology of these films and inform the design of performance nanostructured devices, her group use small-angle scattering, spectroscopy and microscopy. Small-angle scattering allows her to study the microstructure of hybrid materials at the near atomic scale. Their conjugated polyelectrolyte work was featured in the ChemComm Emerging Investigators issue. She also worked on oxygen sensitive printable ink sensors.

Evans has explored polymer-hybrid materials for luminescent solar concentrators. By controlling the placement and orientation of the lumophore, she showed that it is possible to limit light lost by reabsorption. She minimises waveguiding losses by designing materials with high refractive indices. She demonstrated that perylene carboxdiimide-bridged triethoxysilane can be covalently grafted to siloxane hybrids. She also develops encapsulation techniques to improve device lifetime. She was made an associate professor in 2016. She collaborated extensively with the University of Montpellier as part of a French-Irish collaboration.

Evans was appointed a lecturer at the University of Cambridge in 2017 The soft materials respond to light, using photoresponsive surfactants that include an azobenzene group. She was appointed chair of the Royal Society of Chemistry Photophysics and Photochemistry Group in 2017.

She founded Senoptica Technologies in 2018 and is the chief scientific officer (CSO) working on optical sensors developed in Evans' lab. Senoptica Technologies detect defective modified atmosphere packaging, changing colour to alert the consumer to the amount of oxygen in the pack.

Awards and honours 2023 Elected a Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales (FLSW)

2018 Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC)

2018 Nominated a Fellow of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (FIMMM)

2017 Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) and Society of Chemical Industry UK Young Researchers Medal

2017 Learned Society of Wales Dillwyn Medal

2015 Trinity College Dublin Fellowship

2014 Irish Lab Awards Young Leader of the Year

2008 RSC Harry Hallam prize

2007 RSC Ronald Belcher Memorial Lectureship