Stephen graduated from the University of Sheffield in 2010 with a BSc (Hons) in Chemistry. Since graduation he has been working mainly in industry, predominantly for a leading research company in the field of polymer OLED’s as a polymer chemist. He synthesized a range of highly conjugated polymers through palladium catalyzed cross-coupling polymerizations such as Suzuki and Buchwald-Hartwig and gained considerable experience in the characterization of complex polymer systems through GPC and NMR. Following this he carried out research at the University of Bolton into materials to create injectable gel scaffolds for biomedical applications. He gained experience synthesizing hyperbranched polymers, specifically hyperbranched polyglycerol, by anionic ring opening polymerization.  Employing a variety of techniques such as NMR, FTIR, SEM and DSC/TGA, the polymers were characterized and their thermal responsiveness and subsequent micelle formation were studied