Meet our Team: Christoph Busche

November’s edition of our "Meet Our Team" series features Christoph Busche, CMAC’s Physico-Chemical Analysis Lead.

Originally from a small village called Albaxen in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, Christoph has always had a passion for chemistry. This led him to study chemistry at Ruprecht-Karls-Universität in Heidelberg, where he also completed his doctorate on the topic of molecular magnetism of cyano-metal complexes. Following this, Christoph moved to Scotland to become a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Glasgow, where he later became a Personal Research Fellow before starting work at CMAC.

In his role at CMAC, Christoph is part of the analysis team, where he is responsible for keeping various instruments running and training others in their use. This is a crucial role, as analysis is a key component of every project, from industry initiatives to data generation for modelling.

His day-to-day tasks involve working with the analysis team to keep the instruments running, helping researchers with measurements, analysis, and interpretation of the data, training researchers on various instruments, advising on safety, leading a team of analysts, and conducting external and internal projects (scoping, costing, measurements, updates, reports).

In the future, Christoph hopes to become more involved in teaching and to maintain the analysis capabilities on the newest and at the top level. He describes one of his biggest personal achievements as winning 'Best Sportsmanship' in the 'Edgebana' longsword tournament in Dundee, and his biggest professional achievement as discovering a new di-selenide species, which led to his first-author publication in Nature.

When talking about his favourite part of working at CMAC, Christoph said:

“What I like most is that every day something new comes up, it is never just routine. I like the people and the work environment.”

In his spare time, Christoph’s main hobby is HEMA (Historical European Martial Arts), which involves fencing with longswords and other medieval weapons. Back in Germany, Christoph was a member of the volunteer fire service but had to stop when he moved to Glasgow. At the weekend, he enjoys meeting with friends to play games or go to the cinema.