Paul O'Brien (chemist)

Paul O'Brien CBE, FRS, FREng, FRSC
Paul O'Brien in 2013
Born	(1954-01-22) 22 January 1954 (age 63)
Fields	Inorganic chemistry Materials science
Institutions	University of Manchester
Alma mater	University of Liverpool University College, Cardiff
Thesis	Catalysis of the racemization of amino acids (1978)
Doctoral advisor	Robert D. Gillard
Doctoral students	Ahmed Abdelhady Khadijat Abdulwahab Javeed Akhtar Yousef Alghamdi Enteisar Al-Brasi David Cant Alexander Lockett Akhtar Masood Temidayo Oyetunde Amber Pearce Katayune Presland Karthik Ramasamy
Website www.pob.manchester.ac.uk/pobcv.html manchester.ac.uk/research/Paul.o'brien

Paul O'Brien (born 22 January 1954)CBE FREng FRS is Professor of Inorganic Materials at the University of Manchester. where he has served as head of the School of Chemistry from 2004 to 2009 and head of the School of Materials from 2011 to 2015.

O'Brien was educated at Cardinal Langley Grammar School in Middleton, Greater Manchester and the University of Liverpool where he was awarded a Bachelor of Science degree in 1975. He went on to complete a PhD at University College, Cardiff in 1978 with a thesis on the catalysis of the racemization of amino acids supervised by Robert D. Gillard.

O’Brien is an inorganic materials scientist focusing on developing new chemical processes for manufacturing thin films and nanoparticles. Amongst these are chemical vapour deposition techniques for compounds containing sulfur or selenium, and a very simple method for making quantum dots — semiconductor nanocrystals that show quantum behaviour.