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Jeremy Hopwood is a Senior Lecturer in chemistry and has worked at the University of Huddersfield since 2005. Jeremy’s first degree was from The University of Salford in 1989 where he studied applied chemistry. It was whilst undertaking placements at The Freshwater Biological Association, Bowness and at Unilever Research, Port Sunlight that he became interested in environmental chemistry and mineralogy. After graduating he worked as a physical scientist at the Flour Milling and Baking Research Association, Chorleywood. He then undertook a PhD in crystal growth at The University of Bath. The subject of his research was the crystallisation of barium sulphate in different environments including water, mixtures of water and additives, microemulsions and in deep-sea xenophyophore protozoa. After completing his doctorate he moved to The University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST) to study the formation of inorganic coatings on lead water pipes. The work was funded by United Utilities at the time when the limit for lead in tap water was reduced from 50ppm to 25ppm. Further work on lead in tap water was undertaken whilst working for Pipeline Developments, Salford.

Jeremy then undertook a career change and freelanced in education for a number of organisations including Stockport County Football Club and Concept Cartoons before undertaking a PGCE in secondary science at The Manchester Metropolitan University. After teaching A-level Chemistry for 3 years, he returned to academia to take up the position of science communicator at The University of Huddersfield. Since then, Jeremy has designed and facilitated numerous science workshops for schools and colleges. He has worked closely with the Royal Society of Chemistry and was involved in the prestigious RSC “Chemistry: The Next Generation” project. He has also organised large RSC Chemistry@Work events and regularly runs qualifying heats for the RSC Top of the Bench Competition and Schools’ Analyst Competition. In 2008, he helped the University obtain the Guinness World Record© for the longest model of DNA, which was built in 57 minutes with staff, university students, students from local sixthforms and teachers. Jeremy runs secondary and sixthform workshops with the National Coal Mining Museum of England called ‘What’s in Our Water’, which looks at the science behind acid mine drainage. He has also worked with Kirklees Neighbourhood Housing, providing STEM workshops for primary schools and two summer science camps. The later was funded in 2016 by The RSC Outreach Fund. In October 2016, he was awarded 2nd place in recognition of valuable contributions to the community by "Communities Who Can".

As well as his science communicator role Jeremy has continued to work on lead in tap water. He obtained two small grants from Yorkshire Water in 2010 - 2011 and a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) grant with Yorkshire Water in 2012 – 2014. During this time the limit for lead in tap water was reduced from 25ppm to 10ppm. He is very interested in the minerals that grow on the pipe, their solubilities and how they control the concentration of lead in tap water.

• Lead in tapwater