Mark Richards speaks about his life as a scientist. This series of video interviews by the Royal Society celebrates the diversity of British science in partnership with National Life Stories at the British Library.
Mark Richards is a scientist and a DJ (DJ Kemist). He was born in Nottingham in 1970 to parents who had emigrated from Jamaica and remembers successfully ‘battling with the boffins’ at his comprehensive school, often coming top in chemistry.
Following a degree in chemistry, he has worked (getting a PhD along the way) on the development of instruments to detect very small amounts of particular chemicals in the air. He now splits his time between teaching physics to university students at Imperial College London, DJing and remixing music released under his own label — Xtremix Records, and developing air pollution monitoring instruments sold by a high-tech company that he co-founded.
This is Mark’s story.